What’s your addy?

I got an email today asking me for my addy.  What’s an addy?  Well, if you follow what I have deciphered as the Kiwi guideline for slang and assume that a word with two or more syllables can be shortened and then given a y or ie ending………….. addy = address !

further proof (others I’ve heard):

prezzie = present

chockie = chocolate

sausie = sausage

mozzie = mosquito

brekie = breakfast

pozzie = position

I think you get the idea.  When I first got here, I wondered if they did this to a select few words, but I’m realizing this may be a free for all.  Anyone can shorten any word they want and throw on the y/ie ending and go on with their sentence as if they are still speaking English.  I know, sorry, I just can’t forgive pozzie.

I received that email from one of the women at work.  I’ve been on placement with a teen parent program for the last 3 weeks.  It’s been going well and all of the ladies at work are really nice.  It’s been fun to hang with the pregnant mums and sometimes their little ones.  I’m learning loads of New Zealand slang from my co-workers, particularly Zee ( a New Zealand born Samoan woman who has worked with youth for a long time).  I told her I’m going to have a little section entitled “What Zee Said”.  So, here’s the first one:

WHAT ZEE SAID:

“Oh, he’s a real blues dude.”

– he’s “whack”

The other day Zee had an American slang question for me.  This came from watching Days of Our Lives; Zee has never been to America.  She asked “Why do Americans say “lookit” all the time?”  I actually had to pause and consider this for a minute. Lookit?  When do we say that? Oh yeah we do say it, probably without thinking, before starting a sentence.   I came up with what I thought was a plausible answer.  “It’s short for look at it this way.”  Agree? or did I totally make that up?

I hope you’re not getting tired of beach pics because I’ve got a few more.  I’m not going to post too many because we’re on super slow internet right now and I have to wait for donkeys (ages) for the pics to upload.  In New Zealand, they limit how much broadband you can use each month.  We usually run out at about 3 weeks.  This, as you can imagine, is really stink (bad).  Kiwis are getting completely screwed on internet and cell phone plans: super expensive for very little.

These are from Orewa, a cute little beach town on the Hibiscus Coast.  It’s one of my faves so far.