It seems to be a common thought that the phrase "heaps good" is uniquely South Australian, but is this really the case?

Key points: It's widely believed that the term "heaps good" is uniquely South Australian

It's widely believed that the term "heaps good" is uniquely South Australian Experts say it's an example of how Australians like to play with language intensifiers

Experts say it's an example of how Australians like to play with language intensifiers The "heaps good" T-shirt made the phrase an icon in SA in the mid-2000s

Amy Hardwick posed the following question to ABC News in Adelaide, and we thought it was worth a look:

"Where did the term 'Heaps Good' come from, why is it only used in this state?"

Ms Hardwick said she first noticed her use of the phrase while working in Canada as an 18-year-old.

It was very foreign to other international workers.

The iconic 'heaps good' t-shirt logo. ( ABC News: Camron Slessor )

The phrase was always a part of her vocabulary growing up and she believed she first heard it while in primary school — and loved how South Australia seemed to "own the phrase".

Evidence of 'teenspeak' from the 1990s

Opinion among experts is divided on the exact origin of the phrase, but most believe it to be used more commonly in South Australia than other parts of the country.

Many linguists believe the term became widely popular from the year 2000, but one expert found evidence of its use even earlier.

Julia Robinson, an editor and researcher at the Australian National Dictionary Centre, she described "heaps good" as an informal term used across Australia, rather than just by Croweaters.

"Certainly, there does seem to be a perception that it's a particularly South Australian expression," she said.

"The earliest evidence of 'heaps good' I can find is from the late 90s, in both SA and NSW newspapers.

"It seems to be teenspeak at this time, and indeed an article in the Illawarra Mercury [from 2000] includes it in a list of teenspeak, defining it as 'excellent'."

Another example was its use in the Australian movie Bootmen (2000) with Sam Worthington's character apparently using the line, "you're a heaps good dancer".

Ms Robinson said the phrase seemed to become more prevalent from the year 2000 and it was likely the term derived from colloquial British English.

"The 'heaps' element of 'heaps good' is an adverb, meaning 'very' or 'really'," she said.

"It's likely that this meaning derives from a colloquial British English sense of 'heaps', a noun meaning 'lots' or 'a great number or quantity'.

"The Oxford English Dictionary records this usage from the 16th century."

An example of Australian culture

Dr David Caldwell, a lecturer in English language and literacy at the University of South Australia, said while he had certainly heard the term, he found no evidence to indicate it was uniquely South Australian at all.

"It's very difficult to trace back the origin of any word in terms of what we traditionally call etymology," he said.

He said that it was common with Australian slang for informal language to really "mark one's identity" and it was an example of how Australians liked to play with language intensifiers.

"To go back to the grammar of the actual idiom or statement, we do this a lot, we will often play with our intensifiers and 'heaps good' is a really good example of that," he said.

"Sometimes a word will be invented or coined because it will be a product, or it's never been produced before.

"That's different with what's going on here, these are words that are already in the lexicon but they're being played with and the grammar is being played with."

'Heaps good' T-shirt made it an SA icon

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A simple-branded T-shirt featuring the shape of South Australia with the slogan printed on the front made waves nationally more than a decade ago.

The T-shirt was designed and created by Adelaide's Chris Edser and Sam Barratt.

Mr Edser said while he didn't know the precise origin of the phrase itself, he believed it was local.

"I can't have any claim to the origins of the phrase, it was more observing that it was a thing that happened in South Australia," he said.

"I lived overseas for a bit with a lot of English speakers from England and America and they found it quite humorous that I and other people from South Australia used 'heaps' as an adjective for 'very'."

He said it wasn't long before they could be found everywhere.

"It just went crazy, you'd see them out and about and then suddenly you'd see them at mainstream events like the footy, the Big Day Out and the cricket and you'd think 'okay this is a thing now'," he said.

Mr Edser said he believed South Australian radio personality and former footballer Ryan Fitzgerald — who wore it during his stint on reality television program Big Brother — might have also played a part.

"I think he used it almost at a catchphrase level," he said.

Slumdog Millionaire actor Dev Patel, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and triple j's Lindsay McDougall are among the celebrity identities that Mr Edser said had been seen wearing the shirt around the world.

Where else has 'heaps good' been used?

Dan Steinert, Nick O'Connor and Emma Fradd of Heaps Good Friends. ( Facebook: Heaps Good Friends )

The phrase has more recently been in the spotlight thanks to the rise of Adelaide band, Heaps Good Friends.

The trio of Emma Fradd, Nick O'Connor and Dan Steinert released their first single Let's Hug Longer, breaking onto the Australian music scene through triple j Unearthed in late 2016.

Lead singer Fradd said the group met in South Australia, and the band name represented their music.

"I feel like it's definitely more of a thing in South Australia for sure," she said.

"I think we thought our music was really friendly and not necessarily thousands of dollars [was] put into the production.

"We make the sound in Nick's studio in his backyard so we found that it was quite friendly and approachable so we wanted 'friends' in the name.

"I suggested Heaps Good Friends and Nick thought it might be a bit too cheesy, but then eventually it grew on him and that was that."

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Australian hip hop artists Muph & Plutonic — who released their debut album in 2004 — also used the phrase in one of their most successful songs titled Heaps Good.

Studying Australian slang abroad

The use of language intensifiers like "heaps good" has also been a topic of an academic study abroad.

Romina Buttafoco is in the middle of a PhD at the University of Bamberg in Germany.

She said her work covered how Australians used informal language in contrast to other speakers of English and it would partly cover the use of "heaps" in Australian English in contrast to British, American and New Zealand English.

She said her study would look at the acceptance of the word "heaps" and "loads" in combination with different expressions, such as "heaps good".

Although she has not finished her study, she said it seemed "heaps good" was paving the way for the use of similar expressions with unaltered adjectives among young and middle-aged Australians.

"I had collected some questionnaire data in the Sydney area and I remember some people mentioning that they still associate 'heaps good' with South Australia," she said.

"But as many young respondents in my survey considered their use of 'heaps good' as rather likely, I think that we're having quite an interesting example of language change that is not just restricted to South Australia."