Re: Aussie terminology question

On 7 Feb 2005, at 12.12 pm, Mark J. Reed wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 07, 2005 at 11:10:57AM +1100, Tristan McLeay wrote:
>> (I hold that calling *anything* 'football' is deviant, because it
>> always refers to the dominant football code in your area: a linguistic
>> variable.)
>
> The only problem with that idea is that the game played by the USA's
> National Football League HAS no other name but "football".  The term
> "Gridiron" properly refers only to the field on which the game is
> played; it was applied to the game itself only recently (and fairly
> briefly) as part of its introduction in Europe.  I don't think even
> the name
> is still used by NFL Europe.
Well, maybe the NFL says so, but Australians say otherwise. Australians
say it's either American football or gridiron. The 'Australian rules'
bit is just a description; over its history, it's also been called
'Melbourne rules' and 'Victorian rules' as the code spread. I got by
perfectly well for most of my (still short) not knowing any other name
for 'footy' but 'football', but calling soccer soccer, rugby rugby,
American football gridiron (or American football). (I don't think I
knew about the Irish or International rules football codes till I knew
Aussie rules by its alternative name. Int'l rules is a merger of Aussie
rules and Irish rules played between Australia and Ireland.)

--
Tristan.

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