Why Do Aussies Like To Shorten Words?

Why do Aussies like to shorten words? That's the research question that Nenagh Kemp of University of Tasmania (or Uni of Tassie) is asking:

"What we'd like to find out is how people feel when they're listening to someone using those kinds of shortenings, compared to someone who's not," doctor Nenagh Kemp told AFP from Hobart.

"It might tell us more about whether people think it makes you sound more friendly or more intelligent or more casual, and also differences."

Kemp said while abbreviations were present in all forms of English, they were more common in Australia, where tradesmen are "tradies", firemen are "firies", ambulance workers are "ambos" and service stations are "servos".

She believes that the shortenings are a way of conveying a sense of informality in a country known for its egalitarian ethos.

"I think it does set up a feeling of companionship or casualness and friendliness," she said.

"You might use that to say, 'hey, I'm on the same level as you. I'm not being too pretentious."

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Phil M if NZers are so much more intelligent then why are so many coming to Australia to take OUR jobs???
I don't know of nay Aussie who would opt to study in NZ
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@ Phil M

At least we can articulate vowels correctly. The New Zealand accent sounds like regardless of how the words are spelled, the vowels actually enunciated are randomly drawn from a hat.
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@Phil M

So "aussie" isn't short for "awesome"?

When we were lowly tourists in Oz, we were told it wasn't a ditch between Australia and New Zealand but a moat!
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As a New Zealander living "across the ditch" to the Aussies, I can assure you that the real reason for the shortening of the words is that Aussies have great difficulty articulating any words with more than a couple of syllables.

In NZ we consider it a good thing when New Zealanders move to Australia to live, as it raises the IQ of both countries.
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