Strine

Strine, also spelled Stryne (/ˈstraɪn/), is Australian slang for a broad Australian English accent. Someone who speaks Strine is called an Ocker. In contemporary Australian spoken English, the term Strine is being replaced by Strayan, a word gaining traction in more recent years (although Strine is still used among some populations). In written English, Strine remains more frequently used.^[1][2]

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 syllables together in a form of liaison.^[3]

The term was coined in 1964^[4] when the accent was the subject of humorous columns published in the Sydney Morning Herald from the mid-1960s. Alastair Ardoch Morrison, under the Strine pseudonym of Afferbeck Lauder (a metaplasm for "Alphabetical Order"), wrote a song "With Air Chew" ("Without You") in 1965 followed by a series of books—Let Stalk Strine (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").

In 2009, Text Publishing, Melbourne, re-published all four books in an omnibus edition.^[5]

The late environmentalist and TV presenter Steve Irwin was once referred to as the person who "talked Strine like no other contemporary personality".^[6]

See also

• Diminutives in Australian English
• Monica Dickens
• How to Talk Australians, an online miniseries looking through the eyes of teachers and students at a fictional college