Speaking English as a child

[Ariki]

Here are some sayings that I remember from childhood -

Tough bickies! (tough luck, hard luck) - too bad!
By crikey! - when I hear this, I feel that what the next sentence the person is about to say is important, and is usually a command of some sort e.g. - 'By crikey, you had better clean your room, and if you don't, you won't get to play. Tough bickies if it takes you all day!'
Brekky - Breakfast
Ambo - Ambulance
Servo - Service Station
Arvo - Afternoon
Litte lunch/ big lunch - morning tea, lunch
Pigs - police
ciggys - cigarettes
dobber - someone who reports the bad behaviour of someone else (rhymes with robber)
bicky (sing.) bickies (pl.) - biscuits, cookies
hiding, a - to be hit
fill up - to fill up with petrol
tummy - stomach
coz - because

I also never used to pronounce the 'g' in 'ing', the 't' in 'just' e.g. I was jus' readin'

Sometimes, some Māori words would be used in the sentence as well -

puku - stomach
mimi - to urinate
kai - to eat, food


An example of all the words in usage -

G'day, how are you? This'arvo I was at the servo, and an ambo pulled up to fill up. I was jus' standin there readin', and these pigs jus' drove past'us!. Well, someone had dobbed someone else in, I reckon. My tummy's been saw, since brekky. I tried eatin' somethin' for little lunch, but it was still sore. Then came big lunch, and my puku was still hurtin'. I was sad, coz I liked the kai I had with me. My kai I had were bickies! My brother got another hidin' today, coz he was having ciggys! I thought to myself, by crikey, tough bickies if you get a hidin' from dad, you deserve it, for smoking them ciggys. I reckon my brother almost mimi'd himself.

[Lee]

Hehe, that's from your childhood? A lot of them are still used by adults! Are those Kiwi words? They're essentially identical to ours. I used to say "little play" and "big play" instead, "tuckshop" instead of canteen and a "dobber" could also be called a "dibby dobber". Cute.

[Ariki]

The first list are all words that I used and were used at school up in Northern NSW. The second list aren't kiwi words, they're Māori words.

[Ariki]

Hehe, that's from your childhood? A lot of them are still used by adults! Are those Kiwi words? They're essentially identical to ours. I used to say "little play" and "big play" instead, "tuckshop" instead of canteen and a "dobber" could also be called a "dibby dobber". Cute

That reminds...bush tucker . A dobber was also known as a dibber dobber. Our chant for dobbers was

'Dibber dobbers wear nappies, wet ones too!' lol

[Kirk]

I remember "trains" were "choo-choo trains" and those lawn sprinklers that come out of the ground I called "pop-up sprinklers" (actually, that may be a normal word, but I just call 'em "sprinklers" now). Something I remember was that until about 1st grade, some kids called me "Kuhk" (my name's Kirk) because they hadn't learned to pronounce the "r" coloring of the North American English "ur" vowel yet. They were effectively nonrhotic speakers until they got old enough and learned how to produce that sound.

[Lee]

The first list are all words that I used and were used at school up in Northern NSW. The second list aren't kiwi words, they're Māori words.

I wasn't sure were you came from, so I inquired as to whether those were words you used in NZ or Australia. That's what I mean't by Kiwi, I wasn't talking about the Māori.

[Ariki]

I'm just going to clear this up (this isn't an attack on anyone or anything)-

No one, that I know of, who speaks NZ English uses those words unless if they are Māori (the second list that I refer to). Māori words are "uneducated", unfortunately.

Kiwi are flightless birds - it absolutely hurts my eyes and brings pain to my eyes when people refer to themselves as kiwi - and then go on to make racist remarks about Māori - forgetting that kiwi is a Māori word to begin with and if they don't like Māori people and don't want to use the language they should stop using kiwi(they ought to stop using it anyway, kiwi are birds...they have their own geneology and we have our own and if we could mix we would...but we can't.

[MikeL]

it absolutely hurts my eyes and brings pain to my eyes when people refer to themselves as kiwi

And in French "un kiwi" = kiwifruit...
... which of course as children we all called "Chinese gooseberries" - until the marketing people deemed that unacceptable.

[Car]

it absolutely hurts my eyes and brings pain to my eyes when people refer to themselves as kiwi

And in French "un kiwi" = kiwifruit...

That's also the meaning of "eine Kiwi" in German. The "Chinese gooseberries" thing also seems to exist in German, I never heard it anywhere, though. But "Kiwi" referring to a New Zealander also exists.

[Psi-Lord]

it absolutely hurts my eyes and brings pain to my eyes when people refer to themselves as kiwi

And in French "un kiwi" = kiwifruit...

That's also the meaning of "eine Kiwi" in German.

In Portuguese, um kiwi is either the fruit / plant or the bird. At least I myself never saw it used for people. Dictionaries also give its Portuguese form as either quivi (which was the first trend in reading the word) or quiuí (which was the second trend in reading it, and the one which's gained more ground).

[ZombiekE]

A friend of mine heard a child call a "cangrejo" a "cabrón" O_O

[Car]

it absolutely hurts my eyes and brings pain to my eyes when people refer to themselves as kiwi

And in French "un kiwi" = kiwifruit...

That's also the meaning of "eine Kiwi" in German.

In Portuguese, um kiwi is either the fruit / plant or the bird. At least I myself never saw it used for people. Dictionaries also give its Portuguese form as either quivi (which was the first trend in reading the word) or quiuí (which was the second trend in reading it, and the one which's gained more ground).

It seem "Kiwi", when referring to the bird, also exists, but then it's masculine.

[allemaalmeezinge]

it absolutely hurts my eyes and brings pain to my eyes when people refer to themselves as kiwi

And in French "un kiwi" = kiwifruit...

That's also the meaning of "eine Kiwi" in German.

In Portuguese, um kiwi is either the fruit / plant or the bird. At least I myself never saw it used for people. Dictionaries also give its Portuguese form as either quivi (which was the first trend in reading the word) or quiuí (which was the second trend in reading it, and the one which's gained more ground).

It seem "Kiwi", when referring to the bird, also exists, but then it's masculine.

What's that bird? I've never heard about...

[Car]

What's that bird? I've never heard about...

I was also surprised to find it in the dictionary, but just have a look at the Wikipedia article. I didn't know that either, that's why I chose "it seems ...".

[allemaalmeezinge]

What's that bird? I've never heard about...

I was also surprised to find it in the dictionary, but just have a look at the Wikipedia article. I didn't know that either, that's why I chose "it seems ...".

Tatsächlich, danke