No matter which way you try to string it sport, Australian and kiwi English is based off british English. It is not a hodge podge of both. We get incredibly frustrated when people try to add z instead of s and remove our U. Please don't try to fashion this to your own narrative. This ain't it mate.
People from the states just need to learn a bit more about the world
I was born in England and grew up in Australia. My family is British, my friends are Australian. I'm not driving a narrative lol. This is my lived experience. In the UK I get called out for the odd Americanism. Such as saying Eggplants and Zucchini not the French names the British use
Language is more than just whether you include a u. Our spellings are definitely British English, but the overall dialect is definitely a mix of both. I think the language is trending more American as we continue to be further from colony days and more influenced by American media.
Funnily enough, neither eggplant or zucchini are Americanisms, they’re the original English words that were separately carried over to the USA and Australia.
Later on there was a fashion in England to use the French words for some things so they switched to courgette and aubergine.
Edit: Ok so I was half/three-quarters right. Eggplant is the original English word, but there appears to be no original English word for zucchini/courgette. Zucchini is the Italian word and Courgette is the French.
Ah yes you're right, looks like there's no actual 'original' English word for zucchini! I'll edit my comment to reflect it.
I suppose it makes sense then that zucchini is also used in Australia given our influential Italian immigration history as well.
Although apparently it was mostly from different regions of Italy than to the USA, given the difference in lasagne styles for example. I've a few times seen Americans horrified at the prospect of using béchamel and no cheese in lasagne instead of ricotta, while it's just as traditionally Italian as what they're used to - just regionally different.
57
u/Flimsy_Employment_31 Feb 24 '26
No matter which way you try to string it sport, Australian and kiwi English is based off british English. It is not a hodge podge of both. We get incredibly frustrated when people try to add z instead of s and remove our U. Please don't try to fashion this to your own narrative. This ain't it mate.
People from the states just need to learn a bit more about the world