It's The Little Things: #11 - Adorable Words

Oh, I'm going to get in trouble for this one!

It's the Little Things

#11 - Adorable Words

I am a serious, serious language stickler. That's not to say that I don't appreciate a healthy amount of playing around with language. Like Shakespeare! Heck, I do it all the time in this blog.

I also have a very big ick-factor for things with an imposed cuteness. Cats upside down in trees saying "hang in there!," for instance. Or couples who insist on taking Eskimo-nose pictures together every time a camera is nearby. Can't deal.

And thusly, I have an aversion to the part of Australian slang that I have deemed "adorable words." Australians have a tendency to abbreviate a lot of words by adding an "ie" (sometimes written as "y"), or an "o" to the end of the first syllables of regular words. It is hard for me to explain just how prevalent this is in Australian language. As Jack Donaghy once said, "A lot to very."

Let me give some examples with a few photos that I took this arvo (afternoon).

These are my sunnies:

This is my lippie: 

This is my brekkie: 

If I weren't feeling well, I might take a sickie.
If I got a new car, I'd have to make sure to have a current rego.
If I wanted a vacation, I might go to Melbs or Brissie.

Here's the thing: I would have so much respect for this mode of speech if there was a legitimate linguistic origin story behind it; but I have asked around and googled away, and found no inclination that this comes from some cultural ancestor. Most people I ask say, "Australians just like to shorten words." But, that logic doesn't work out half the time. It takes just as many syllables to say "lipstick," "breakfast," "sick day," and "Brisbane."

Now, I'm alone in cringing at these cutesie words. I've never met anyone else bothered by them, so blame it on my personal crankiness and Grandmother tendencies. Truthfully, they're very hard to avoid slipping into speech, as hard as I try, which is maybe why they have caught on so thoroughly in the culture - like a catchy pop song that you really want to hate, but can't. Yes, these words are just like "Single Ladies."

To conclude, I'll show you my favorite:



(I always think that the trash vants to be alone.)

Also, if you're interested in Australian language, there is an excellent page at the National Museum of Australia's website full of Aussie linguistics.