The spanish form might be close phonetically but it's not remotely related
Oir it's a verb on and by itself and comes from latin audīre and the "¡Oye!" Expression is usually used as a retort, not as an initiator. In cooking settings "¡Oido!" Is used both as a call for attention as an answer.
“You what, mate?” is fairly aggressive, it immediately makes me think of some dickhead in a pub taking offence to someone and looking to escalate to a physical confrontation (I’m British).
Unrelated but “oi, dickhead” is what I shout at my cat when he tries to climb the Christmas tree for the nth time that day.
I do find internationals usually do miss the second "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie". It really confuses crowds when international sports commentators come over and don't understand the call and response ordering!
- Drawn out "oiiiiiii" and a pointed finger when someone makes a witty remark or has some kind of success. As in, "oiiii, nice one".
- "OI!" as a generic "hey!" shouted at someone to get their attention in the street.
- "oi?" with an upwards inflection to express disbelief
- Getting your friend's attention, usually followed by an insulting term like 'dickhead'. As in, "oi dickhead, watch out" when someone is trying to pass them on the street.
That's very interesting - the Chinese "oi" has pretty much exactly the same usages, down to the little details! (I'm most familiar with the Cantonese 喂 wai2, though it's not my first language)
I wonder if that suggests this is one of those universal pre-linguistic words, like "huh" [1]. That feels especially believable given the utter simplicity of the mouth sound. It's almost just a yell, in the same way that "huh" is almost just an outbreath.
Oi! is how I find my friends in crowded places. We've all lived with Australians, who taught us. One quick "oi" will really quick cut through the commotion of a crowd and cause our gazes to practically crash zoom into each other.
I'm pretty sure this is also used in some Italian dialects both in the "vocative" ("ohi bimbi!" In Tuscany) and in the "expression of pain" (as an alternative to the more common "ahi").
The Italian spelling would contain an "h" but it is not pronounced anyways.
Not really, the English "Oi!" is used assertively as a strong interjection. Something you'd shout across the street.
In Italian "oh!" is similar but more flexible and we use it constantly, at least north of the Po river, to assert oneself, as expression of pain, as expression of sadness, etc.
Similarly expressive is our "eh!"; usually used to reinforce and agree with someone else. "Eh! Te l'ho detto!"
It's interesting how perceptions of things change in different cultures. I remember an Australian colleague who used this term in a casual context among our other Texan coworkers. The Texans were quite surprised, and almost aghast. When asked later, they said that the term was demeaning, despite no one being offended in the slightest, and they didn't really seem to understand how context changes the meaning of a word, or how to pick up on context clues.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 95.1 ms ] threadThe interwebs have taught me that Oi can often be followed with "you what, mate?!*
Also interesting and not mentioned among the other languages/"see also" sections - "Oyez!" and "¡Oye!"
Oir it's a verb on and by itself and comes from latin audīre and the "¡Oye!" Expression is usually used as a retort, not as an initiator. In cooking settings "¡Oido!" Is used both as a call for attention as an answer.
Only in Britan. In Australia it's usually "oi, dickhead" or - in a call and response format "oi", "what, dickhead?".
Unrelated but “oi, dickhead” is what I shout at my cat when he tries to climb the Christmas tree for the nth time that day.
Is that the etymology of the word "oik" ( "a person who says oi" ) ?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oi!
- Drawn out "oiiiiiii" and a pointed finger when someone makes a witty remark or has some kind of success. As in, "oiiii, nice one".
- "OI!" as a generic "hey!" shouted at someone to get their attention in the street.
- "oi?" with an upwards inflection to express disbelief
- Getting your friend's attention, usually followed by an insulting term like 'dickhead'. As in, "oi dickhead, watch out" when someone is trying to pass them on the street.
I wonder if that suggests this is one of those universal pre-linguistic words, like "huh" [1]. That feels especially believable given the utter simplicity of the mouth sound. It's almost just a yell, in the same way that "huh" is almost just an outbreath.
[1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/everybody-almo...
The Italian spelling would contain an "h" but it is not pronounced anyways.
Alas, this is really hard to Google :)
In Italian "oh!" is similar but more flexible and we use it constantly, at least north of the Po river, to assert oneself, as expression of pain, as expression of sadness, etc.
Similarly expressive is our "eh!"; usually used to reinforce and agree with someone else. "Eh! Te l'ho detto!"
For anyone interested, the Australian criminal/entertainer Spanian is an excellent look into contemporary “eshay” culture
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCecAIXPb5KTJz5BFnUzlTaA
OI! YOU!