An American expat loves the distinctively Kiwi phrases that enrich our vernacular such as "bach" (or "crib" in the deep south). Photo/File
An American expat loves the distinctively Kiwi phrases that enrich our vernacular such as "bach" (or "crib" in the deep south). Photo/File
According to Wikipedia, the vernacular is the speech variety used in everyday life by the general population of an area. Let's have a quick look (a squiz?) at our own. I have just read an article by an American expat who loves the distinctively Kiwi phrases that enrich our vernacular.
Her thoughts reminded me of an early example quite close to home.
A family member who was living in Australia at the time visited the South Island with his Australian wife. On a pleasant summer day they visited an old friend and neighbour.
Very early on in the encounter, the old friend asked the Australian whether she would like "a TT2 or a glass of fifty-fifty".
Even to many modern New Zealanders, that must sound like a foreign language. Fifty-fifty is easy enough; it was simply cordial mix (Gregg's or Hansells?) that was flavoured half lemon, half orange. (I've checked both and one includes the apostrophe and the other doesn't so there's no need to write in about it.)
More curious was the TT2. In its day it had full stops in it but they look too clumsy to the modern eye so I've dropped them. (Purists can send their complaints to "T.T.2 issue" c/- this newspaper.)
A TT2 was simply a commercial ice block and, from memory, the available flavours were orange, pineapple, raspberry, Coca Cola, lime and lemonade.
How they came to be named TT2s I know not but I know our high school principal had an issue with the sticks by which one held them. A stern assembly address was about the "TT2 stick problem" which was causing growing concern.
Apparently, careless schoolboys, on finishing their iced confection, were discarding the sticks without due care and attention and many of the wooden items were ending up in, and blocking, drains.
In those days, chocolate-coated ice cream on a stick was called a "chocolate bomb" so there clearly were early problems with nomenclature.
First on the American's list was indeed a foreign language but "kia ora" has become part of our everyday lives, as well it should.
I must admit that when people first started using it decades ago I didn't feel so comfortable. That was possibly because of poor pronunciation (yes, I clearly remember the Keith Holyoake version).
Now I fully embrace it and appreciate its wide range of welcoming meanings. I feel it should be the standard Kiwi greeting. Other commonly used Maori expressions include "mana", "aroha", "haere mai", "whanau" and "kai" and they roll from our tongues as trippingly as English words.
I'm not quite so positive about another on her list. "Yeah, nah" worries me a little. I suppose it's the contradictory nature that bothers me but it certainly is "Kiwi as". As is the unfinished simile but "sweet as" didn't make her list.
Her others were swimming "togs", "she'll be right", "bach" (or "crib" in the deep south), "good as gold", "eh" at the end of a sentence, "rattle your dags", "spin some yarns" and "what a crack up".
If her visit to our shores had been earlier, she might have also added some other names to her vocabulary: beer in flagons, chilly bins, milk tokens, jandals, stubbies, and fairy bread.
Some, of course, still exist but there will now be parents who offer carrot sticks or raisins instead of fairy bread. "Choice!"
And are there many other countries in the world where you can get away to the "wop wops" or use a "flannel" to wash your face?
I wonder too whether our American visitor has ever been asked to "bring a plate". Bit of "a dag", eh!
Well, I'm "knackered" now. I've worked up quite a thirst with all these recollections. If you don't mind, I'll sign off and go and have a glass of fifty-fifty. Then I should be "a box of fluffy ducks" again.
