Australians love to make words shorter.
One way we do this is by cutting off the end
and replacing it with a -y or -ie.
For example:
Foot ball - Footy
Chocolate - Chocky
Television - Telly
Barbeque - Barbie
Sunglasses - Sunnies
Cigarette - Ciggie
Board Shorts - Boardies
U-turn - Uie
Biscuit - Bickie
Budgerigar - Budgie
Present - Prezzie
Christmas - Chrissy
etc...
Interesting. Did those come from the United Kingdom? Only I know is Telly.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very good question Shin. I know the British also say "telly" but the others I'm not so sure about. Some of them were most likely inspired by British dialects/slang/regional pronunciation etc, but some probably started in Australia.
ReplyDelete:Phil