The Northern Territory news Mon 18 Jan 2010
NT news
The Northern Territory news; NewspaperNT
2010-01-18
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Community newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin; Australian newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin
Nationwide News Pty. Limited
Darwin
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Nationwide News Pty. Limited
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/216786
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/708886
10 Northern Territory News, Monday, January 18, 2010 www.ntnews.com.au P U B : N T N E W S D A T E : 1 8 -J A N -2 0 1 0 P A G E : 1 0 C O L O R : C M Y K y@ntnews.com.au Jump into a good old slangingmatch WORD UP: With peoples preference for turning perfectly good words from the dictionary into slang, the English language is forever undergoing change ByMIKKI BORTON With slang constantlydeveloping, have you ever wondered what your kids will come home saying? THROUGHOUT the years, English speaking countries have determined that the English language simply isnt adequate. As a result slang has been developed, however slang is a very localised sort of thing, leading to some confusion if certain slang is used in different areas. Not only is slang dependent on area, but also age. Im sureweve all heard our parents say groovy or radical and looked at them like theywere Martians on fire, but if they said something like bruss or gammon we tend to look at them like they are nakedMartians. Youmay have also heard your parents use rhyming slang, which isnt really used anymore. Basically you dont say the word youmean, but a word that rhymeswith it. Then you have mc slang. Mc slang is simply taking a word and putting mc in front of it, and theword keeps its originalmeaning. One kind of slang that I tend to use is the sn slang, cousin of the mc slang, which is when you either replace the first few letters of thewordwith sn, or if the word begins with a simply add sn to the front of theword. Confused? Look at the table below right. With slang constantly developing, have you ever wonderedwhat your kids will come home saying? And for themoremature audiences reading, ever had no ideawhat your kid was saying to you? Modern day slang canmake absolutely no bloody sense, and is totally ridiculous,making you wonder where the devil it came from. As an experiment, I want everyone to come upwith a new slang for something, and use it. See if it takes off butmake sure itmakes absolutely no sense. I started saying turning on the fan instead of foreplay, and Ive already got people saying it. They sound like idiots. Its great. So go forth, andmanipulate the English language. Get on your bike to Ho Chi Minh City REVVED UP: Local traffic in Saigon St, Ho Chi Minh City ByDAMIENMcCARTNEY TRAVEL SHOPAHOY: Fruit and vegetable vendors at a floating market in the Mekong Delta HOCHIMinh City (formerly known as and the locals still refer to it asSaigon) is the capital of Vietnam. It has a population of about 7.2 million people, including a fewmillion scooters. If you are scared of scooters at all, steer well clear of HoChiMinh, as there are about 20 timesmore scooters in HoChiMinh than there are people in Darwin. Also, if you are scared of crossing the road in Darwin, dont bother going to Ho ChiMinh. There are traffic lights installed in some places, and they are just as easy to cross as here, but at places there arent look out, take small steps, and just walk. There are some great things to see and do in and around the city. If puttering around in a boat is your style, then the Mekong River Delta is amust. Situated about 90minutes by road outside the city, you get the opportunity to see coconut candy beingmade, eat elephant ear fish, chicken (that chicken that follows you around the tiny island is probably your lunch), experience the history of CoconutMonk Island (a monkwho lived totally off coconuts), and end the day eating fresh prawnswhile watching a beautiful sunset andwitnessing the fireflies come out. The CuChiWar Tunnels are a stark reminder of wars past. The tunnels were first started in the Vietnamese civil war, and for the next 20 years, 250kmof tunnels were built. The tunnels were tiny, about 40cm x 40cm, and theywere stiflingly hot and the air thick. I only crawled 20mof the tunnels (and they had beenmade bigger), and I came out in a lather of sweat. The last place to visit is not for the faint-hearted. The Vietnamwarmuseum is full of images, debris, tanks, planes, grenades and firearms, all in pristine condition. The images are graphic. Images of troops carrying blown-up bodies,maybe a head, bit of an arm, part of the torso, that sort of thing. I can guarantee that you will walk out of there very, very shellshocked. City tours are also available. The city comes alive at night and is the sort of place you have to experience yourself, especially over NewYears. With performances every night over the holiday season (the last night was the 3rd of January this year), it is a vibrant city full of energy. Oh, and the power and the phone lines are interesting, too. Breakdown of how slang works English Darwin Rhyming Mc Sn Thief Alcohol Cas Boy Grog Tea Leaf Honky Tonk (Plonk) Mcthief Mcalcohol Snief Snalcohol MIKKI BORTON Modern-day slang can make absolutely no bloody sense, and is totally ridiculous. Dont diss the kids weird lingo BRISBANE:With the new decade poised to become known as the teenies, adults are warned that if they diss teen speak, they risk an epic fail. A survey of 2000 teen users of the social networking site HabboHotel nominated dissmeaning disrespect as the top Teenglish buzzword of 2009. The nextmost popular word was fail, used to show disapproval for something, and in third placewas ftw, literally for thewin, an expression of enthusiasm for something. The survey also probed the attitudes and interests of the 13 to 17-year-olds, whowill come of age over the coming decade. Habbo spokesman Jeff Brookes said adults should treat the bizarre lingowith respect, describing it as both complex and creative. If older people saw, I would say, nearly all of thosewords, theywouldnt have a clue about them, Mr Brookes said. The Teenglish dictionary provides a bit of an insight into how this Generation Z is interacting socially, and cultural influences on thewords. Some of thewords and acronyms are quite obvious but then others are highly creative. ButMr Brookeswarned parents or rentals as the teenswould say to adopt the words at their peril.