There's really only so far you can go without a proper teacher or textbook and, until a few weeks ago, anyone who even knows how the language is used and supposed to sound!But that doesn't mean I haven't been learning Australian language! Rosemary, who convenes the group in her office at the Trades Hall, center of the union movement in Victoria, has been teaching me rhyming slang, something Australia inherited from the Cockney. Instead of saying a commonly used word you use a phrase which rhymes with it - extra points if you can leave off the final word or syllable of the phrase. You don't take a look but a Captain Cook. You don't tell a story but a grim and gory. You don't get the the phone but the dog and bone. You dress up not in your best suit but a bag of fruit. You don't have tomato sauce with your meat pie but dead horse (it rhymes, somehow!) with your dog's eye. Now you try:
I really needed a kitchen sink and a forgive and forget, so I headed down to the near and far with some old china. After a couple of young and friskies it was time to hit the frog and toad or face Dalai Lamas with the trouble and strife and the billy lids. But I forgot my titfer at the rubbity and had one more pig's arse of Germaine Greer with a visiting septic tank.
[I really needed a drink and a cigarette so I headed down to the bar with some mates (old china plates). After a couple of whiskys it was time to hit the road or face dramas with the wife and kids.
But I forgot my hat (tit for tat) at the pub (rubbity dub) and had one more glass of beer with a visiting American (Yank).]Isn't it funny how the feminist writer Germaine Greer, who left Australia for England decades ago and seems never to have a good thing to say about anything Australian (she called Steve Irwin a circus performer, for instance), is still remembered back home! (This less than flattering picture of Greer is from a review of one of her books in the Australian Review of Books in 1999.)
