Strine

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Scan of the cover of the first edition of Let Stalk Strine showing a sample of Morrison's dinstinctive illustrations for the book

Strine was a term coined in 1964 and subsequently used to describe a joke or made-up "language" purportedly spoken by Australians. The term derives from a phonetic rendition of the pronunciation of the word "Australian" in an exaggerated Australian accent. It was the subject of humourous columns published in the Sydney Morning Herald from the mid 1960s and a later series of books written by Alastair Ardoch Morrison under the Strine pseudonym of Afferbeck Lauder (i.e. "Alphabetical Order").

Written Strine can be initially puzzling to the uninitiated, but reading it aloud can often resolve any confusion (especially for users of, or those familiar with, Australian English). For example, "Eye-level arge play devoisters" is a Strine expression one might employ in a seafood restaurant ("I'll have a large plate of oysters").

The term "Strine" is also used as a synonym for Broad Australian English, sometimes pejoratively, by Australians who suffer from cultural cringe.

Steve Irwin was once referred to as the person who "talked Strine like no other contemporary personality". [1]