Strine or stryne is the English language as spoken by which people?
Stryne or strine is a term coined in 1964 and subsequently used to describe a broad accent of Australian English. The term is a syncope, derived from a shortened phonetic rendition of the pronunciation of the word "Australian" in an exaggerated Broad Australian accent, drawing upon the tendency of this accent to run words together in a form of liaison.
It was the subject of humorous columns published in the Sydney Morning Herald from the mid-1960s. Alastair Ardoch Morrison, under the Stryne pseudonym of Afferbeck Lauder (a syncope for "Alphabetical Order"), wrote a song "With Air Chew" ("Without You") in 1965 followed by a series of books—Let Stalk Stryne (1965), Nose Tone Unturned (1967), Fraffly Well Spoken (1968), and Fraffly Suite (1969). An example from one of the books: "Eye-level arch play devoisters ..." ("I'll have a large plate of oysters").
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25 Comments
Louise C.
That is great trivia, made me laugh and I am Australian and I suppose I never think that we do sound that way to others.
Mark James
As an Aussie, I always thought it was Strayan.
Joy Holbrook
Joyce Grenfell tells a wonderful story of one of her trips to Australia to publicise one of her books. She was signing copies when a woman walked up to the table and gave her a copy. Joyce asked her name, to which the woman replied: ‘Emma Chisit’. Not having heard properly, Joyce asked her to repeat it. ‘Emma Chisit’’ was the reply. Miss Grenfell told her she knew how to spell Emma, but asked the woman to spell ‘Chisit’ for her. The woman leaned forward and said very slowly: ‘How. Much. Is. It?’
William Laughlin
This was the funniest entry I've ever seen from Quizzclub. Even the comments made me roar out loud.
What a wonderfully funny relief from the nonsense of Lilly Nicolson and company! 😂🤣👍🏻
Kimberly Kennedy
Regardless of what their accent is called, I am a huge fan of everything Aussie!
Frank Cowell
I actually used the book "Let Stalk Strine" on a visit there. Worked perfectly. In the section on food you precede every order with "Eye-level arch", as in "Eye-level arch Cabbage Eno". I got exactly the cappuccino I wanted."
Debra Coleman
As an Australian ESL tutor we wrote the correct English on the board but then wrote underneath the way we say that sentence in Australia. Very confusing for the poor students.
Pat Wells
So how did Americans get rid of that English accent? Granted, there are regional accents in America, but none of them are British.
Louella Wilson
Despite having lived here for more than half of my life, I still have a little trouble understanding 'strine'.
My family tell me that I have acquired an Australian accent, but I'm fairly sure that no Australian would/does agree.
earlepg
I figured out that strine/stryne was referring to Australian. I know that Aussies have a different way of speaking, but I didn't think it was as different as these comments make it sound; but then I've not been to Australia. I've had more difficulty in understanding a fellow that I worked with one summer, and he was from near Boston Massachusetts. Thanks for the laughs belgasem.
Dennis Lane
Pat Wells, some person in my experience said that the closest American accent to British is the mountain people of Appalachia. The thought was that those folks had the least outside influence once they settled there.
lady draggon
Louise C., Ive never forgiven Meryl Streep for her Lindy Chamberlain attempt - we don't sound THAT bad and still don't know why they cast her over a genuine Aussie actress
lady draggon
Mark James, Strine in Straya mate! Am also a true blue Aussie born and raised
Rajeev Beohar
"You ' ve come here to die ?" ( today)
"No I came to play cricket "
Chris Baz
Joy Holbrook, 😂😂
Cheryl Love
William Laughlin, I so agree!
Jas Newman
Pat Wells, Have you considered the possibility that today's English accent has changed since the settlement of Jamestown? Who lost their English accent?
Shirley Dutt
Pat Wells, I'm pretty sure America wasn't settled by Britain alone. Irish, Scots, italians, just to name a few. Pennsylvania was mostly settled by Germans. A melting pot from the beginning. But, that's how Europe was before any Belts landed here. And lets not forget all the Native Americans that were already here for thousands of years.
Stephen W. Gerrard
Joy Holbrook, very funny!!
Stephen W. Gerrard
Had to take a guess that it was Australian. Interesting question and comments.
Pat Wells
Shelley Durocher, Not sure the reason you're schooling me in different accents, since that wasn't my original point. I taught ESL for 30 years, so I know a bit about accents.
Shelley Durocher
Pat Wells, The Australian accent isn't the British accent either. Neither is the New Zealand, Jamaican, or any other accent in English speaking former British colonies. All colonies, British snd otherwise, develop their own version of the language of the colonizers.
Lawanta
Joy Holbrook, 🤣