Most of us are familiar with the beautiful words of the Bard in The Merchant of Venice, but if we spoke in that way to our contemporaries they would no doubt be a little startled.

Each generation has its own special way of speaking which defines it from the one before, but the technological evolution and the introduction of texting have made the language of the young people of today almost incomprehensible to their elders.

The Orange Oral History Group acknowledged this when we met this month to remember the things our grandparents said and which are no longer in use.

Many were distinctly Australian but some had roots in the languages spoken by the early settlers and the indigenous people who were already here.

Many of grandma’s sayings seem to be directed at improving our behaviour as Leslye Melville pointed out.  “Waste not, want not,” and “don’t cut off your nose to spite your face,” she would sometimes warn us.

And watery ones like: “you’ll never miss the water till the well runs dry” and “water finds its own level” which is a little mystifying, although possibly similar to “birds of a feather flock together.”

Lynne Sparks’s mother was even more puzzling when she replied to her daughter’s query about what she was knitting: “a wigwam for a goose’s bridle,” she would say. She also added to the confusion by telling her that something lost “was up in Annie’s room behind the clock”.

Political correctness was unheard of in those days and you had to put up with any amount of insulting language, as Pauline Jenkins told us.

“You are not the full quid” and “you’ve got a face like a chewed rissole,” would probably destroy any self esteem you may have had.

To be told “the lights are on but nobody’s home” could be very hurtful, but Tom Hogan could go even further by saying, “you’re as useful as a hip pocket in a singlet” or worse “as a glass door in a dunny”.

Reg Golding lifted our discussion to a higher level when he spoke enthusiastically of an attractive woman: “by Cripes, there a corker Sheila —she’s a bonzer one”. He also told of encouraging someone to hurry up, “get a wriggle on , even worms dance quicker than that”.

“If you hadn’t succeeded in getting the girl you wanted,” said Keith Rawsthorne, “someone would comfort you by saying , “there’s better fish in the sea than has ever been pulled out of it”.

Rhyl Martin pointed out that, as a Queenslander, she referred to “a port”, whereas in some other states it was called “a case”.

We were reminded of the story of a journalist from Queensland who arrived in Adelaide only to find his luggage was missing. “I have lost my port,” he told the man at the desk, “I must have it as it contains all my papers.”

To his chagrin the attendant put a message on the loudspeaker. “I have a gentleman here who has lost his bottle of port which he needs to do his work”.

John Coxhill is the token Englishman in our group. He arrived in Australia 50 years ago and feels that our language has changed in that time.

“There was a welter of Australian expressions in those days which I found intriguing like “flat out like a lizard drinking” and “she’ll be apples”.

“My wife was surprised when we were invited to “bring a plate “ to a party. “Do you think they don’t have enough crockery ?” she asked me.

John also like the expression, “he’s got Buckley’s”. There are conflicting theories about the origins of Buckley. One is that he was an escaped convict who lived with aborigines for many years before finally being captured and incarcerated once more. The other explanation is that Buckley’s was a department store in Melbourne and if you couldn’t find something there you wouldn’t find it anywhere.

Marj Prior reminded us of the growth of speech sanitisation which began, she said, in the 1990s.

Governments started to focus on the words which were considered racist or insulting and the word “political correctness” came into our language.

“In the old days people who were intellectually handicapped were referred to as “imbeciles” or “lunatics”, she said.

We seem to have become more considerate with some of our terms and we realised, as always, that much has changed since our youth.

We have also become less colourful in our use of language and, because of the internet and other technological advances, much less isolated. Whether that is a good or bad thing remains to be seen.