Australian English: Sharpies and Textas (texters)

"Can you pass me a Sharpie?"

That was what a work colleague of mine from the USA asked me once in 2005.

There was total shock on my face. I had no idea what she actually meant. Is this some sort of sharp object? My colleague couldn't believe that I didn't know what she meant, so in her frustration she had to explain to me that she was referring to Sharpies, the permanent marker pen brand-turn-trademark name that many people in the USA use. Honestly, it was the first time I had even heard of the brand.

"Don't you mean a texta?" I replied.

Cue the same look of bewilderment on her face mirroring mine from before.

This is the thing: "Sharpie", particularly for Aussies above the age of 40, has a completely different and uniquely Australian connotation to the term.

Now, you're probably thinking that it might have something to do with "needles" as "sharps" is a general medical term for them and that Aussies being Aussies have given the typical '-ie' diminutive ending to them. Somewhat surprisingly, that's not the case.

If Australia ever created a purely local youth sub-culture, then it was the Sharpies.

"Sharpies were a uniquely Australian, (largely) working-class, postwar youth culture that lasted from the early 1960s until the mid-1980s. Sharpie culture was most popular and long lasting in Victoria, though sharpies could be found (to lesser degrees) in other states and cities of Australia."

Starting off as a group of well-dressed ("sharp", hence their name "sharpies"), young working-class guys and girls in the mid-1960s, mainly the children of '10 pound Poms' (British immigrants who had their passage assisted to the Australia with £10 boat trips), by the 1970s Sharpies had taken on elements from the skinhead movement in the UK and became far more associated with violence. Their distinct look included knitted Conti cardigans (known, of course, as 'Connies'), high-waisted and flared jeans, clogs and distinctive hair featuring 'hair tails'. To go with this was their own dancing style with moves such as the Sharpie Shuffle, which involves clenching the hands together and making a digging motion (apparently devised as a way to get through dancefloor crowds). Sharpies formed into suburb-based gangs and they were into fighting, but the level of 'gang warfare' that is often attributed to them is more a tabloid beat-up and the stuff of legend. Still, it did earn them a reputation for being dangerous.

Do you want to check out what Sharpies look like in their natural environment, complete with dancing and fashion? Well, take a squiz of this clip from the Concert for Bangladesh at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne on April 20, 1975, exactly a half century before the day when this post was published (and a very special day for me, if I say so).

Now at the 1.54 minute mark, the clip points out "Alan Pentland (aka Ferrett)". Very important as for many Aussies in their 30s and 40s who just missed the Sharpies heyday, Pentland is better know for the Sharpie comedy character Ferrett, alongside "Michelle", yet another legendary character created and acted by Australian comedy icon Magda Szubanski (of Babe and Kath & Kim fame). Michelle and Ferrett were regulars from the seminal Australian comedy skit show Fast Forward from the late 1980s/early 1990s (definitely the golden age of Australian skit comedy).

Here is Michelle explaining the finer details of "scrag fights" (physical altercations between females i.e. "scrags"), featuring at the 1:34-minute mark Michelle's catch phrase "read my lips" (always with obscene hand gesture), which entered the Australian vernacular.

For a fascinating and in-depth look into the history and stages of the Sharpie scene in Melbourne, complete with details into the must-have fashions and accessories, have a read of this blogpost by a genuine ex-Sharpie.

"Sharpie" was eclipsed in the early 1980s by a new catch-all term for your unrefined working-class stereotype: bogan. Most Aussies are unaware that "bogan" is relatively new term. Bogans in general are working-class "Anglo" Aussies (and Kiwis, as the term also crossed the Tasman), usually displaying an unrefined, taste. Bogans are stereotyped for wearing ugg boots, drinking excessive amounts low quality beer and being very loud and obnoxious. The world's most famous Bogans would be Kath and Kim of the eponymous comedy TV show. The Wikipedia entry for Bogans is actually quite informative.

But the latest Australian youth sub-culture to generate the same sensational tabloid headlines and outlandish, violence-associated caricatures as the Sharpies of decades back is the Eshays (or Adlays). Knowing about them is crucial in terms of the overblown place they take up in the modern Australian conscious. More about them can be found here.

Recently when talking about the Sharpies with my mother, who lived through their era, my 16-year-old niece was overhearing what we had to say, but like with me and hearing about Sharpie pens in 2005, she too was puzzled as to what we meant by "Sharpies". Curiosity got the better of her, and so she interrupted us and flat-out asked:

"What's this about Sharpies that you're going on about? Did you go to Office Works?"

She thought we were talking about marker pens.

For the past two decades, Sharpies have been on sale in Australia, and they've become so ubiquitous that just like in the US, Australians have adopted the term on a general basis. The linguistic term for this phenomenon is a "generic trademark": when a brand name becomes the generic term for a product or service. There are many examples of these in most modern languages. Popular ones include Kleenex, Hoover, Xerox, Jacuzzi, Glad Wrap...

The thing is that there was... well, still is among older Australians... another generic trademark for marker pens in Australia: Texta!

In the 1960s, the first brand of marker pens to be released on the Australian market was called "Texta" and so the name stuck for the next few generations of Australia, and definitely until that US blow-in took swoop. The other related term, much used in the 1970s and 1980s when talking with children, was "textacolour". Apart from "texta", you'll also hear Aussies say "felt-tip pen" but that applies to those markers that are with smaller tips and look like ink pens.

Now the thing is that going by the way pronounce the final "-a" in words as "-er", many Aussies are usually unsure how to spell the term: "texta" or "texter". I can confirm that it is "texta" (just look at the picture). With this pronunciation in mind, when I asked my niece about "textas", she thought I was talking about "texters" i.e. people who prefer to send text messages rather than in other ways.

So now we can roughly tell an Aussie's age by using these two terms:

👉 Older Aussies:
Sharpie is the toughies from the 1960s to 80s and a texta is a marker pen

👉 Younger Aussies:
Sharpie is a marker pen and a texter is someone who texts

Need to be sharp that your text and copy for Australia can be clear with dealing with the "sharpies" and "textas"? To make sure that your message is clear to your target age group in Australia, best talk to me. Email at info@nicknasev.com for more info.