As you probably know, the Aussie family cartoon show Bluey is a smash hit around the world.
But the producers have had to put their foot down and stop Disney from dubbing the show with British and American voices for those markets.
As it turns out, when they tested the show on kids around the world the kids loved the Aussie accents—and, in fact, the kids decided that this must be how all dogs talk!
If you’ve never caught up with Bluey it’s about a family of blue heeler dogs who live in an old ‘Queenslander’ house (up on stilts) in a city that is unnamed but is clearly Brisbane.
The dad is Bandit, plus there’s mum and the two kids Bluey and Bingo.
And according to the show’s creator Joe Brumm, because of the influence of Bluey there are now kids around the world who call the toilet the ‘dunny.’
Isn’t that great?
The Aussie word for the lavatory ‘dunny’ is an abbreviation of an older, British, word ‘dunniken’—but only in Australia was this shortened to ‘dunny.’
The older word is recorded here from the start of the 1900s.
The shortened version, ‘dunny’, is first recorded in 1924 (in the Barrier Miner published in Broken Hill).
The original word, ‘dunniken’, is the most honest word there is for a toilet, since the ‘ken’ part at the end is an old slang word for a house, while the ‘dun’ part at the beginning is a variant of ‘dung.’
So, when you say ‘dunny’ you are literally saying ‘dung house.’
Can’t get more honest than that!
And I just like to imagine some American kid saying to his parents as he walks out of the room ‘I’m going to the dunny.’
How are the yanks coping with that?
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BY THE WAY...
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
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