I say Maccas, You say Macker's, Apostrophe optional

I hate to draw more attention to the McDonald’s chain of Family Restaurants than is necessary but we have a National Emergency relating to the spelling of Aussie slang.

Last week while perusing Dr June Factor’s excellent book on children's colloquialisms Kidspeak! I noticed the following definition

Macker’s = McDonald’s

Wait a minute…. Dr Factor is a highly respected academic and author of kids’ favourites such as “Far out Brussel Sprout!” and “All right, Vegemite!”. Surely she would know that we Aussies call McDonald’s

Maccas

Don’t we? Five out of five adults I asked that night thought so. But I did the honourable thing and emailed Dr Factor to ask how, why, what!? Here is her lovely reply

Dear Ms Asterisk and Ms Ellipsis,

.. it's all about pronunciation: my spelling is an attempt to catch
the sound (and note the apostrophe). But of course you may well be right, at least where you live, and people pronounce it your way*. …

Regards,

June

* content not related to our discussion omitted

Pronunciation we can agree on, it’s spelling that is causing me angst. How do we check which spelling is used most? Let’s check that paragon of knowledge: the Internet

Google

• “Maccas” turns up 183,000 search results; all results on the first page concerned McDonald's, top result referred to the Australian McDonald's Website .
• “Mackers” turns up 57,800 searches; none of the first page results referred to McDonald's.
  

Fairfax Newspaper Archives
A search of the Fairfax archives in the last 12 months finds 48 references to “Maccas” but no references to “Mackers” or “Macker’s”.

ABC website
A search of the ABC website finds 44 references to “Maccas” as in the restaurant (Not Ian “Macca” McNamara) and one reference to “Macker’s” (PM program in 2001).

The Australian Index (exploring australian blogs)
A search of this website revealled 78 references to "Maccas" and 3 references to "Mackers"

Neither term is referenced in the Macquarie Dictionary or the Australian Word Map.

So where is the spelling “Mackers” used? It's used in websites designed to introduce non-Australians to Australian slang such as the ones here and here. References to these and similar “Aussie slang” websites are to be found in a few blogs but the spelling "Mackers" doesn't appear to be extensive.

Spelling is something that evolves over time and “Maccas/Mackers” is a young word. Which one will win out? I reckon the overwhelming case is for a “Maccas” spelling.

What do you think? I mean, not that I care but, well, it’s just going to annoy me.

One thing is certain: it’s obvious from the literature that we have no idea whether Maccas/Mackers has an apostrophe or not. I’m voting for not. But that is a subject that deserves its own post.

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We Aussies are Top-Rate Spongers!

Have you ever checked out the Australian Word Map site? It’s a co-production between our own dictionary - The Macquarie - and the ABC to map Australian regional speech. I recommend you log on and add your own Aussie words or comment on whether you ate Polony, Devon or Fritz sandwiches as a child. Or whether you wear bathers, cossies or swimmers to the beach.

However, it doesn’t comment on pronunciation. From what I gather AuE (Australian English) is somewhat of a sponge language. We soak up words from everywhere. And since English, itself, is somewhat of a sponge on other languages we Aussies are top rate spongers! Can’t invite us anywhere.

The effect is that, according to our researchers at the Macquarie Dictionary, we not only soak up words from other countries and add them to our mix, but we also soak up their pronunciation (and give it our own little twist). As a result, we accept more than one pronunciation for each word and there doesn’t seem to be any clear regional differences.

the new studies seem to suggest that the pronunciation of Australian English everywhere is effectively the pronunciation of 'Sydney English’. This is why it is everywhere uniform to a surprising degree and why, paradoxically, it is everywhere various too. Macquarie Dictionary Online

Melbournites will hate to hear that. Anyone who has lived in Melbourne will know that they proudly pronounce “Reservoir” as Reservwar rather than Reservwa; and “Castle” as Cassle instead of Carsel.

But on the other hand there doesn’t seem to be any regional pattern to the pronunciation of other words such as Schedule (Skedyool/Shedyool). Your preference seems to depend whether you identify more with BrE* (Shedyool) or with AmE* (Skedyool) and that, I guess, may be revealing in itself. The Macquarie recognises both of these as correct. And many people say both, interchangeably.

I have a well-travelled friend who can’t stand the word “toilet” also can’t stand “schedule” pronounced “Skedyool” either. I guess she will be able to meet the Queen, and I won’t.


*BrE = British English; AmE = American English