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January 23, 2004
Great Uncle Sid
There is a point to this story and it relates to the bus trip to work this morning. Be patient. I figured you had enough Chinese stories and it was time to work on the Aussie side of things....
Image your Great Uncle (if you don't have one, make one up). Ever since your Great Aunt died, he has lived with you. He is as deaf as a post but very sensitive about it. The best way to talk to him is to say his name loudly (then he will look at you) and then speak quietly (he can lip read). That way, you get to talk to him but he doesn't keep saying: "Don't shout, I'm not deaf you know."
By the way, your great uncle is named 'Sid' (just change his name if necessary to keep this story rolling - he has to be called Sid). And I nearly forgot, he is very absent-minded. Oh, and he has a really bad knee - arthritis. It isn't too bad except that the combination of forgetfulness and the knee mean that he keeps banging into things when he stands up, sits down or goes through doorways.
Everyone in the family knows this and they do their level best to help him out by reminding him. They call his name and just say 'knee' to help him think of it before he bangs it into something. From morning to night you can here them call: "SID - knee".
And that (for all the Americans out there" is exactly how you pronounce the name of the city I live in. It is not Sid-eh-ney (ala the Olympic committee) and the emphasis os on the first syllable. When you go to the football you can here the long drawn out call of the Swans supporters: "Siiiiiiiiid Kneeeeeeeeee".
What was with the bus? Some (English?) tourist this morning was trying to catch a bus to the Sid-le-ne Airport.
P.S. That rule about stress on the first word would save most Americans a lot of grief when they come here. The Eastern (mainland) capitals are SYDney, MELbourne, BRISbane (or as an Aussie would say SIDknee, MELbin, BRISbin).
Posted by Ozguru at January 23, 2004 12:01 PM
No silly boy, it's Ciiiiiiiiin Deeeeeeeeee. ;-)
My American friends do not pronounce 'Sydney' in 3 syllables or mispronounce any other places in Australia, but I'll take your word for it that there are some, somewhere. Atrocious! However, I'm glad you included the pronunciation for Melbourne - which I've always spoken as Mel-born.
I have mispronounced lots of things while in Germany though.
By the way Oz, how do you pronounce the US state, Oregon? I'm curious.
Posted by: Cindy at January 23, 2004 12:01 PM
i have never heard it pronounced that way... being the incorrect way... but i thought i would test it out and asked my roommate what the capital of australia was so i could get her to pronounce the word without the bias of how i say it... well first of all she didn't know the capital but after i was surprized by that and continues to egg her on she guessed sydney... and pronoiunced it correctly... i told her about people saying it incorrectly and she knew how to say it like that too. to be honest i couldn't even figure out how to pronounce it incorrectly. Oh well. that is the update from this part of america.
Posted by: TL at January 23, 2004 12:01 PM
Cindy - like your explanation. Americans mainly have problems with MELbin and BRISbin (they call them mel BORN and bris BANE). I have actually wondered about Oregon and would guess either oh-re-GONE or or-RE-gon but I don't actually know.
What I loved in Germany was this town called Ausfhart (or something similar) - every exit from every freeway seemed to go there. I assumed it was the German equivalent to 'all roads lead to Rome'. Then someone explained that it meant literally 'exit'. Down under we label our exits with where they go to and assume that you understand that it is an exit.
Posted by: ozguru at January 23, 2004 12:01 PM
TL - I fixed the multi-post problem but I have some bad news. SIDknee is actually just the capital of New South Wales (a state) not the capital of Australia (which would be KANbra - spelt Canberra). We don't mention it to often in case the inmates get excited. If go out bush (away from the city) you may find some people drop the 'D' altogether and you get SINknee or 'sinny' as in the 'sinny orpra howse' (a landmark) and the 'sinny harba brige' (another landmark).
Back to the matter of states - just as the US has states, territories and DC; Australia has states, territories and the ACT. The states are NSW (oldest, capital Sydney), VIC (Victoria, Melbourne), QLD (Queensland, Brisbane), TAS (Tasmania, Hobart), SA (South Australia, Adelaide), WA (Western Australia, Perth). The territories are NT (Northern Territory, Darwin) and ACT (Australian Capital Territory, Canberra). The last is a special case because Canberra and the ACT are pretty much interchangeable. The bits of Canberra that stick out of the ACT into NSW are called QBN (Queanbeyan).
[I have ignored the smaller bits and islands.]
Posted by: ozguru at January 23, 2004 12:01 PM
We've got a thing with mainlanders coming to Tasmania and asking how to get to LORN-cess-ton, with a reeeeally drawn-out 'Lorrrn' going on. Once I even heard a Brit ask how to get to Lonston. (Lonston?! Snigger snigger.)
It's Launceston, LON-cess-ton. But people have no trouble getting Waddamana right.
Posted by: Raena at January 23, 2004 12:01 PM
Oz, you'd love the little town in austria called Fucking. i guess you australians would pronounce that as 'rooting' ;)
Posted by: zed at January 23, 2004 12:01 PM
"...The bits of Canberra that stick out of the ACT into NSW are called QBN (Queanbeyan)..."
Ahem. Queanbeyan (QUEEN-B-YAN) is not classified as Canberra, and is several levels above that of its neighbouring city. (hehehehe)
Don't forget that little suburb of Sidknee called Kogarah (COG-RAH)
Posted by: Peskie at January 23, 2004 12:01 PM
Grassy Ass
Last month Oz at GDay Mate told us a sweet story about his Uncle Sid. Seems Uncle Sid has a bit of an identity problem, as his full name of Sydney is often mispronounced via folks who drag this...
Posted by: Dusting My Brain at January 23, 2004 12:01 PM
