What's with Australians ending their words in -ies?

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renclrk

Just the done thing - if it's too long, shorten it
too short, lengthen it
If there happens to be a letter "t" bang smack in the middle - change it to a "d"
ie: boddelo, beaudiful......
'av a go - won'ttakeyalongtogetit!
pausing for breath - that's a whole other thing!

â€¢ Koala â€¢ uÊop É¹Çpun

Australians shorten words wherever possible, particularly peoples names. They are generally shortened to one syllable if possible, and then have a suffix added to the end. Here are a few examples:-
"a"

A Cup of Tea or Coffee becomes a Cuppa.

"ie"
Angela becomes Angie.
Australian becomes Aussie
Barbecue become Barbie
Elizabeth becomes Lizzie
Football becomes Footy, pronounced with a soft "T" somewhere between T & D.

"o"
Johnathon becomes Johnno
Smoko means a break from work for a smoke, which now means a tea break even if you donâ€™t smoke.

down_under_lover_forever2006

This is part of their language. Think Aussies wanted to be different from the British as well as from the Americans.
And I think that was a good idea. Not everything must be totally Americanized or else. I love it although their strine is sometimes hard to understand.

redgypsywine

cause we like abbreviating everything .........

we are different thats why we are unique and people from all over the world love us and our broad sense of humour...........

now crack open a coldie and throw a steak on the barbie -theres a couple more words for you....

Eva

I think it's an extension of our informal way of life. Australian culture and the lifesyle is far more laid-back and informal than countries such as the UK and US. I think our tendency to shorten words is part of this informal frame of mind. I am Australian, but I don't really use heaps of abbreviations, but I do tend to always use mozzie for moaquito, cozzie for swimming costume and of course I say Aussie!

iansand9876

Because it is part of our variant of informal English. Like Canadians and K Ones ending sentences with "eh".

fanta

cos we are Aussies and we can do you not ever abbreviate things?

â™ªâ™« Ikky â™ªâ™«

Australians have a tendency to abbrebreviate pretty much everything. We are fairly laid back and dont take ourselves too seriously. But dont mistake this for being backward and slow, as some people think. We just like to keep things informal :P

West Aussie Chick

It's just part of our language.

We also nickname people with 'o' or 'a' at the ends of their names...like Jono, Chriso...etc. Or Barry becomes Bazza, Larry becomes Lazza, Warren becomes Wozza, Sharon becomes Shazza etc.

I think it makes us unique and shows a closeness to our mates by making their names more personal to us.

WileECoyote

lmao... because any more than 2 syllables is too many!

We are a lazy bunch really, and this extends to forming words.

angela b

I have never noticed until now.

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