Divided by a common language.....or do Americans know how to give someone the hairy eyeball?

Y'know the only person I know who really used it (davenport) is my dad & he's an odd sort of duck! Also says "lavatory" for bathroom and gar-antee, and cyoo-pon as opposed to coo-pon; a regular west Michigan redneck, I guess.
Don't know where he got it. He's born & raised right here, so go figure!
Don't you down under have different words for spouses, kids and the like? Just curious!
My kids love the 'bum fruit' one! HA!

How weird! I wonder if a generation of Australians all puzzled over it, not realising that most Americans had no idea either....

Spouses?

Erm...I think we generally say husband or wife.

Hi Dev,
I don't think we have much imagination generally in this area. Spouse is often 'my better half'.

In less common usage some might say 'trouble' or 'trouble and strife' (rhyming slang for wife).

Kids are usually just kids, but occassionally you might hear:
Anklebiters
Sprogs

And then there are the 'euphemisms' for pregnancy:
Bun in the oven (I've heard premmy babies referred to as half cooked)
Belly full of arms and legs (or paws and claws)

Do merkins got chokoes?

Or dunny fruit as we used to call them...

You know, it occurred today that the only family relation for which you can't easily communicate gender in the English language is cousin. Unless I'm missing something...








"Bun in the oven" is pretty universal, I think. No so much "belly full of paws and claws" (but I like it).

hmmmmmm.....

Sounds about right, I guess, 'pd.'
My apologies to you down under, but I think I got some info from some bad movie or something when I was a kid that mentioned Aussies having names for things that rhymed. Let me see, something like: "billy lids" meant kids and "china plate" = mate. I don't really remember anything else. Was that just some whacky 'merkinized tv thing?

Oh, and what are chokoes / dunny fruit?

We inherited Cockney rhyming slang, and expanded it I guess.

I think it's pretty old fashioned......I was not brought up using that language, so it is quite foreign to me.....it may still be in use for some people???????? Or a lot of people, for all I know! I never hear it except occasionally in films.

Sounds like brown trout to me...

Yeah some people still do it, and as Deb says it's very much borrowed from the cockney's.

'I'm gonna hit the frog' is still pretty common. Frog = Frog and Toad = Road.

Oh I just thought, at the pub we have 'Shouts' - what merkins call 'Rounds' as in 'Your shout'.

We also have standard sized beer glasses but we give them different names in every state.

Pint is universal, but a fairly new introduction to Australia - came in about the same time as draught Guinness (surprise!).
3/4 pint is a Schooner usualluy
1/2 Pint is a middie or pot

Full list on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_beer#Beer_glasses

A choko is Australian for Chayote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayote

It's a vine vegetable. And used to grow prolifically on dunnies. A dunny being what merkins would call an 'outhouse'.

"fask-inatin'! & nope we don't have those here. I find a lot of American language boring, but that's just me. I'm fascinated by what I DON'T know. So, tell me more or ask me somethin'!

We say 'Blind mullet' or 'Bondi cigars'

I'm kinda interested in how much Spanish is being incorporated into normal speech. It's much less of an influence here. I doubt anyone knows what a hot tamale actually is (food-wise).

Maybe a couple of us have 'cojones'. But the majority of us know about as much Spanish as Manuel from Fawlty Towers. ?Que?

We speak a little "Spang-lish" in our house. The daughter & I have had enough to speak conversationally, but i wouldn't say it's prevalent.
Although I do know what a hot tamale (the food) is. There's a hispanic neighborhood not to far from where I live. Like to get 'em from a guy who makes & sells 'em fresh from his house. mm mm!

We sometimes say vamoose - which I think we picked up from Yosemite Sam. It was funny when I realised it's a corruption of vamos to move. Although I'm pretty sure 'Ya varmint' doesn't have any Spanish heritage.

We hear 'vittles' in old cowboy movies - we don't use it, preferring: tucker and grub.

Does anyone come in for a cuppa?

What do guys call a 'chat'?

we have: a chin wag or a bit of a yarn or a natter

In America, we don't talk to each other.