Australia’s unique slang culture based on “mateship and booze” is under threat from American television shows, an historian said on Monday.
The “larrikin” culture, typified by the unofficial national anthem Waltzing Matilda, is fading, said Richard Magoffin, the author of a book on the song.
A larrikin is defined in the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary as a “hooligan” or “one who acts with apparent disregard for social or political conventions”. It is often a term of admiration in Australia.
Waltzing Matilda, a simple song about a swagman (thief) who commits suicide, encapsulates the true Aussie spirit that involves “talking in opposites” to turn disaster into humour, Magoffin told the Australian Associated Press.
“We call a tall man Shorty, a red-headed bloke Bluey, a big fella’s called Tiny and you can call your best mate a proper mongrel bastard,” he said.
“Anzac Day commemorates a dreadful military disaster and we sing a silly song about a suicide. It all suits us because we are a silly lot.”
But it is an attitude worth hanging on to, he said.
“An extreme amount of television is dumbing down Australia and we don’t want to turn into a little America.
“I met a kid the other day who had never heard of a schemozzle [brawl, commotion or muddle] … another bloke at the pub called me buddy and I said, ‘It’s mate.'” — AFP