Re: Word usage in English dialects // was Slang, curses and vulgarities

Keith wrote:
> Gary wrote:
> > That's what I love about this group. I'm always
> > hearing odd and obscure words I've never heard before.
> >  First it was that champion mushroom thingie and now
> > it's "chook".  Where has that word been hiding all my
> > 60 years?  I've never heard it before.
>
> Oh, the rest of the English-speaking world outside of North America's
> heard it before: on blasted awful Aussie soaps like Neighbors and
> Home and Away. Grrr!
Ah, that would explain it then. AFAICT, Americans on average
are exposed to precisely no Australian pop culture, through
any of the major media outlets -- with the possible exception
of some Australian rock bands, which are quite popular in some
subcultures.  In fact, perhaps because of who watches it, the
public television network disdains to show any popular television
from anything other than Great Britain, of which it shows a lot,
like "Coupling", "Fawlty Towers", "The Office", etc.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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