Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy!

Many a musical interlude seems to be enjoyed at nursery, with Alice forever coming home singing new ditties. Some of them we don't know, and Alice's tunefulness is still to be developed, so we are left guessing what the song might be. Quite often, however, she'll come home singing an old favourite that has yet to be unearthed from our childhood memories - ie we haven't sung it to her yet.



"One, two, three, four, five, once I caught a fish alive" was just one such number. A familiar little ditty. With a twist. Alice has learned this song from Aussies, so sings it like one:

"Waaan, two, three, four, foyve, once oy caught a fish aloyve", she drawls. I thought this was hilarious until I realised that she actually does have an Aussie accent in all her words. And it's pure Strine. (Unsure overseas readers should kindly say that word out loud with your best Aussie accent and you should guess what word it corrupts. If not, answers on a postcard to Alice's address). It's a bit like us all being from Edinburgh and Alice breaking out into broad Glaswegian.

"Nao" is "No"; everything is intonated as a question; and when she starts pronouncing the second r in prepared, I'll know that her Antipodean-isation is complete!

I don't mind at all, of course. I had just expected that she would sound a bit more like us until she started school. Or a bit more cultured, like her Great Auntie Janet in Melbourne. But as our Aussie compatriots would say, "Tell her she's dreaming".