But You Can't Utter Australian Slang On SkyWest

More news about continuing problems for passengers flying on US airlines. No, we're not talking about multi-hour delays on the tarmac, lost luggage, or burgeoning cancellations... but rather, something really important. And that would be: can you say the Australian phrase "fair dinkum" on a US flight.

President Bush said it... before the Australian parliament, no less. And "Crocodile Dundee" actor Paul Hogan built a brief-but-noteworthy career out of using phrases like that. But neither man ever flew on SkyWest.

Fox News reports Sophie Reynolds, who hails from the Land Down Under, muttered the phrase last week when she turned down the crackers offered as a snack on her Delta Connection flight, and asked for pretzels instead.

She was told there were no pretzels... which is what prompted the Aussie to respond with "fair dinkum?" -- meaning "seriously?"

The situation soon turned very serious... as the flight attendant took offense to the phrase, believing Reynolds was swearing at her -- a federal crime. The flight crew even confiscated her passport, and had police meet her at the gate in Pittsburgh.

After explaining the situation to the authorities -- including, one can imagine, use of an "Aussie-to-US English" dictionary -- Reynolds was released.

SkyWest says it is investigating the incident (PR-speak for "would you please stop reporting on this story already? -- Ed.) The airline maintains Reynolds exhibited other aggressive behavior during the flight.

University of Pennsylvania liguistics professor Anthony Kroch says one person's fair dinkum is, occasionally, another person's %$^#@.

"Misunderstandings due to dialect differences are very common," he said. "But I don’t think most people hearing something they don’t understand would assume it’s offensive."

The phrase is often used to convey sarcasm, added Australian Penny Mapp, now living in New York. "I can’t see how it can be misconstrued," the expat Aussie told Fox. "It seems somewhat extreme."

"There’s no way to tell whether people are swearing just by their inflection," Kroch said. "If you use a swear word that the other person doesn’t know, it doesn’t count as swearing. Swearing is the use of taboo words. A word that you don’t know can’t be taboo."

Unless you're flying commercial.

FMI: www.skywest.com, www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-fai3.htm