This Old Man Comes Rolling Home by Dorothy Hewett (1976)
A play about family life among the Sydney workers in the 1950s
The Dockerty home reproduces the average type of Redfern home. Their Australian accent is typically broad; it is the language of the working class and the language of 80 percent of Australians in the 1950s.
Families were crowded into small old houses, spilling onto the street; still going to the corner pub, and still working in the same factories. A girl worked in the boot factory or the fruit factor at IXL just as Mum and Grandma had done.
The language is characterised by assimilation and ellipsis. Tom and Laurie discuss the married relationship of their daughter, Pet, who has an intellectual disability: “We should never have let ‘er get married.” As Laurie says, “How could we stop ‘er, Tommy?” After Pet returns home Tom states: “Nothin’ c’n ‘urt ‘er ‘ere.”
Tom says: “I oughta be out deliverin’ me Tribs and exercisin’ me grey’ound dawg”. (note the assimilation – oughta/ought to / “me” instead of “my”; elongated dipthongs – “dawg” instead of “dog”
Colloquialisms and terms of endearment abound: “poor little sod.” Laurie uses idioms: “she was dead set on it”. ; The Old Man says: “Put a sock in it, can’t ya?”; Laurie gives the old man a drink: “Get this into ya. It’ll warm the cockles of your ‘eart”. Julie says: “coupla gutless wonders!”
They also use broad dipthongs: “she’d only a got inter trouble hangin’ around the streets. Simple an’ all.”; Broad dipthongs: “into:” as “inter: – isn’t it”: “aint it” ; sparrow = “sparrer”’; dog is “dawg”
This is Redfern: the years before the Vietnam war, and before young people issued their 1960s challenge to the moral values and lifestyle of their parents.
Return to English Language: Overview of Linguists