another Aussie question

[Alpo]

Do y'all have radio, or wireless?

 

The British have wireless. Or at least they used to.

 

The movie Father Goose. There's seven little girls. Two of them are French and some of the other five are British and some of them are Aussie.

 

In one scene one of the little girls came down and told Cary he was wanted on the wireless.

 

In another scene Trevor Howard, who was the Australian boss of coastwatchers, told Cary to "keeeep them away from the radio Walter".

 

Both of them were, I am sure, saying what the script said. I just wondered whether the script was correct or not.

 

If the little girl was playing an English girl, then saying wireless would be correct. But if Aussies don't say wireless then Trevor would be correct in saying radio. Even though he is actually English and in real life would say wireless.

[Alpo]

Ooh. Another thought.

 

Do y'all have long distance, or do you make trunk calls, or do you have another term? Like if you're in Queensland and want to call someone in New South Wales, what do you use.

 

Again, we call long distance but England makes trunk calls. I don't know what y'all do.

 

It's amazing how many people speak English that don't speak the same language.

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

These days most folks listen to the radio; ..... but that Coastwatcher probably had a wireless two-way communication device.

 

We used to make trunk calls but now we "dial direct" and pay extra in the phone bill.

 

The English speaking world is separated by a common language.    🙃

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

4 hours ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said:

These days most folks listen to the radio; ..... but that Coastwatcher probably had a wireless two-way communication device.

 

We used to make trunk calls but now we "dial direct" and pay extra in the phone bill.

 

The English speaking world is separated by a common language.    🙃

The French and Spanish speaking worlds also have their enclaves.

and the Chinese…

[Buckshot Bear]

6 hours ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said:

These days most folks listen to the radio; ..... but that Coastwatcher probably had a wireless two-way communication device.

 

We used to make trunk calls but now we "dial direct" and pay extra in the phone bill.

 

The English speaking world is separated by a common language.    🙃

 

What the Wallaby said.

Just to add, that landline phones are on the way out down here. In my area copper phone lines ended in 2018, some folks went to VOIP, but the majority just use mobile phones (or as you folks in the US call 'cellular phones'. We also stopped printing telephone books quite a few years ago. 

[Painted Mohawk SASS 77785]

Your just a dang spy Alpo askin' all these questions ....

[Pat Riot]

Pretty sure we are all “Wireless” now. 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Aussies still use tin cans on string in the outback.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

16 hours ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said:

These days most folks listen to the radio; ..... but that Coastwatcher probably had a wireless two-way communication device.

 

We used to make trunk calls but now we "dial direct" and pay extra in the phone bill.

 

The English speaking world is separated by a common language.    🙃

I believe that was a near verbatim quote from Winston Churchill. 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

4 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

I believe that was a near verbatim quote from Winston Churchill. 

Right time frame. But…

Quote

George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde are both credited with saying something similar to "a people divided by a common language

 

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

I don't really care who said it ...... THEY WAS RIGHT !    😐

[Trailrider #896]

President Trump just made "English" the legal language in the U.S.  I think he made a mistake in the term...he should have made American the national language! Haven't spoken "English" in this country since about 1776 or earlier. For that matter, what they speak in Maine is a far cry from what's spoken in the rural South...or the Left Coast, or the Mid-West!  Oh as Prof. Henry Higgins said, "In America, they haven't spoken it for years!"