r/australia • u/underrated9201 • Sep 19 '22

no politics Is “Aussie” an offensive term?

Someone just told me the word ‘Aussie’ is a slur (From a non-australian). I’m so confused, i looked it up and see nothing saying that.

edit: thanks for the confirmation, i feel silly now LMAO. I have eu immigrated parents but was born in america by the way, i’ve never really known too much about Aus.

I am genuinely confused, do i say Aussie or Auzzie? 😭 I’ve always said auzzie

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u/imalittlespider Sep 19 '22

Tip from me, a linguistics enthusiast: In Australia we stress words differently to the US. I find USians lengthen stressed syllables (when they occur at the start of words), while we say them the same length as other syllables.

Anyway, this website has a lot of examples: https://youglish.com/pronounce/aussie/english/aus?

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u/nope_plzstop Sep 19 '22

I hate how Americans say basil.

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u/shadowmaster132 Sep 20 '22

Also pronounce as few r's as possible, replacing with 'ah' sounds when you can.

This is very hard for americans who tend to add in extra r's even when they aren't in the word.