I have previously only belonged to one Word forum. Colloquialism or slang was looked upon with disdain and they had rules about it that were difficult for me to understand. And frankly given the trouble those rules caused, it was obvious that others didn't get them either. hehe, and did you notice what I just said? 'didn't get them'. Well OK, I've set the scene.

Here's the thing... Aussies would be lost without slang. Especially this rather 'ocker' Aussie. I don't know how we'd communicate without colloquialisms.

So, given I'm new to this forum, I need to understand where I stand. Is it acceptable in this forum to discuss colloquialisms? And if so, is there some special place I'm supposed to go? Polite answers only accepted...

I am an administrator here, and I can say, without hesitation, that it's fine to discuss colloquialisms. There is no special place for it.

When you registered, you saw that our terms of service ask that any poster be polite in his or her posts, and that we respect our fellow posters. But that's a given.

We have a great community here, and we are very excited to have an Aussie!

quote:

Is it acceptable in this forum to discuss colloquialisms?

AbsoFriggn'Lutely fine, Peta. No wuckers .

We tend to use this particular forum for the words of the day, and bring other word-questions and the like to the "Questions and Answers" section. But you'll find this place is pretty much free of hard and fast rules, other than the rules of politeness.

Welcome aboard, sheila. Where are the Blue Mountains? Inland from Sydney?

Who is sheila

Who is sheila

It's an Aussie term for 'woman'. YCLIU.

I stand to be corrected here, but I don't think "sheila" is used as a term of address in Oz, any more than you'd say "Welcome aboard, woman".

quote:

Here's the thing... Aussies would be lost without slang. Especially this rather 'ocker' Aussie. I don't know how we'd communicate without colloquialisms.

I feel sure that all languages use slang and colloquialisms; we tend to be sparing in their use on this site simply to help avoid misunderstandings. However, nobody gets upset if a colloquialism is used - although some may seek clarification.

In fact, slang and colloquialisms often give rise to some of the most interesting discussions on this site. Often the British posters here will use a particular word or phrase without knowing that it's not in common use in the US. Subsequent explanations can lead to some fascinating digressions.

It doesn't seem to work the other way round very often, probably because the ubiquity of US books, films, and TV mean that we are exposed to US slang so even if we don't use a word or phrase ourselves we understand it.