I think I prefer whining.

When I was a missionary serving in Switzerland people there assumed that as an American my native language was 'American', rather than English.  Some of them thought that we literally spoke two different languages.  I laughed at the notion.  But living here in Australia, and learning a lot of new words and pronunciations, I can see how they may have gotten that impression.

Bell peppers are called 'capsicum.'  I first ran into this when trying to read the ingredients list on a jar of pasta sauce.  On the evening news the other day they even mentioned that police had used 'capsicum spray' to subdue some rioters.

Then there are the words like 'boot' and 'mate', that are so well-known that they're almost cliché (I'm happy to report that I've resisted the temptation to say 'wow, you guys really do say that?').  A shopping cart is a 'trolly', the parking lots are 'car parks', diapers are 'nappies', strollers are 'prams'.  A lot of the words are from the UK, but there are some that are original to Australia.

One that really makes me smile is the British word 'whinging.'  The 'g' in the middle is pronounced like a 'j' and the word means 'to complain or protest, especially in an annoying or persistent manner.'  Or, as we'd say in North America--whining.  At this point the Harry Potter fans might be saying, 'Oh!  Little Whinging!  Of course!  Hahaha!'

I like 'whinging', it's cute.  Maybe too cute.  Perhaps I'm just not used to it, but for me it really doesn't call to mind someone who's complaining or protesting in an annoying or persistent manner.  They get a lot of things right here, but I think I'm going to have to stick with 'whining.'  It's such a great word.  It's practically an onomatopoeia.

This picture doesn't really have anything to do with the post, it just made me smile too.