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OK, we all know that NZ is New Zealand. This makes sense to me. But how did OZ come to mean Austrailia? Is it short for Old Zealand?
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OK, we all know that NZ is New Zealand. This makes sense to me. But how did OZ come to mean Austrailia? Is it short for Old Zealand?
Oh, Angel, this is my kind of topic - anything which drags Aus and NZ into a topic together has got to be fun... C'mon stales, doc, MaxQ, CK ... bring out yer versions of the story.
While the K1W1s would love you to believe that they are the new and improved version of Aus, this is not to be believed.
I'm hazarding a guess at the official origins of it, but I suspect that despite being pronounced 'Oss-TRAY-li-a' in most places in the world, in Strine (English with Australian accent - read drawl - and attitude) it is more likely to be pronounced "Oz-trayl-ya".
Australia is abbreviated to Aus, which has evolved into Oz. The other correlation is from "Wizard of Oz" ... I'm sure. We may not have a wizard here, but there has to be some explanation for how John Howard manages to stay our Prime Minister!
Hereby handing over the banner to stales, doc_comfort? Any better explanations?
Hev
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hev -- it seems like just yesterday you were a newbie! A toast!
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A toast!
Cheers, Keiva! If only career progression happened this quickly!
Think I should just jump to addict status, because it far more adequately describes my state! Love it here..
Hev
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I HATE the way so many USns pronounce Aussie - the "ss" should be pronounced as "zz", not "ss".
Is there a reason the "ss" is pronounced "zz"? And does this mean that Australia is supposed to be pronounced Auztrailia? Does this "zz" sound occur in other Australian pronunciations where an "ss" is present, or does it just happen in the word Aussie? [truly confused-e]
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Brissie (Brisbane) - zz Swimming Cossie (costume) - zz
And to further confuse, mozzie (mosquito).
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Aussie - the "ss" should be pronounced as "zz", not "ss".
does this mean that Australia is supposed to be pronounced Auztrailia?
If it were Ausie, maybe we'd let you get away with this gross violation of proper English pronunciation rules but the double ess requires you to retain the unvoiced sibilant. As for the pronunciation of the name of the country, it's properly Australia because the sibilant is followed by an unvoiced plosive. Or do y'all pronounce it Auzdralia?
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old hand
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Damn it's good to have Hev around - she saves me so much work! What she said. And congratulations on your further ascendency m'girl....sulking because nobody complimented him upon his Addiction - all to busy with slings and arrows it would seem
Those of you that still wonder may rest assured that it's a magical place and thus there's merit in it being named after Dorothy's destination. (Though we would have called her "Dot". Why? Because it's shorter than "Dorothy")
And - also what MaxQ said about Ossssie - PLEASE - IT's OZZIE!!! Why? Because it's shorter than "Australian".
Faldage - re "Auzdralia". You sort of got the first bit right - but we never pronounce the end of a word properly. Why? Because they're all too long.. We simply call the place "Oz" or "(unspellable grunt)-straya"
stales
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