Place Names

Are Australians lazy?


That’s the only explanation I can think off.

How would you pronounce a word like Stawell. There’s clearly two sillybles in that word, but no, it’s Stawl. Victorian place names can only have one syllable, it seems. There’s Ky (abram is never pronounced), Shepp (arton), Wang (aratta). Although the Victorian capital was duly Christened with a proper name it seems to have a Bourne Identity crisis all of its own because it’s almost pronounced, Melb’n. I think that second sillyble is trying to sneak off.

But before we New South Welshmen get too uppity let’s just note that having two syllables doesn’t make you any better if we measure how many you’ve chopped off. Coota, Denni, Byron, even Wagga is half the town it used to be.  We do the same thing.  I’ve even heard Ariah Park given the chop to become, “The Park”. Now that’s still two words, but it’s only two sillybles. The Gong. See what I mean? I guess New South Welshmen are a bit more heducated than the Victorians because they’re allowed have two sillybles.

Well as a seasoned traveller I believe it’s my duty to fit in. So from now on, Victorian towns only get one sillyble, whether I have to cut off the end of the word or just squash it up. New South Wallies can have two and when we get to Queensland, we’ll just see what happens, ay?

So last night we stayed in Ox.  Tomorrow we hope to head up through Wang and Dong and get through Aubry and get pretty close to Tumut. After a weekend at Tallie we will head down to The Bay.