Re: Aussie terminology question

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 14:57, Tristan McLeay wrote:
> 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.)
Gaelic Football!  Now _that_ is a cool game!  It's only matched for coolness
by Hurling, which is played with sticks waving around head-high!  Hurling's
the only game I've ever played where our goalie scored a goal from within his
own goal-square - and it wasn't an _own_ _goal_ either!

Wesley Parish
>
> --
> Tristan.
--
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