Lexical Monographs

Australian Aboriginal Words in English: Their Origin and Meaning

Second Edition. R.M.W. Dixon, W.S. Ramson, Bruce Moore, Mandy Thomas. Oxford University Press, 2006. 261 pages. ISBN 0 19 554073 5.

Australian Aboriginal Words in English records the Aboriginal contribution to Australian English and provides a fascinating insight into the contact between the first Australians and European settlers. The words are grouped according to subject, and for each one there is information on the Aboriginal language from which it derives, the date of its first written use in English, and its present meaning and pronunciation. This book brings them together and provides the fullest available information about their Aboriginal background and their Australian English History.

Aboriginal English

J.M. Arthur. Oxford University Press, 1996. 264 pages. ISBN 0 19 554018 2.

Aboriginal English is the first and most significant dialect of Australian English. The term `Aboriginal English' refers to the form of English used by Aboriginal people. It is a complete language, incorporating elements of Standard Australian English and many Aboriginal languages.

This book deals with the vocabulary of Australian English. It is arranged thematically around the experiences that have shaped that vocabulary. Arthur shows how the values of traditional Aboriginal society (especially spirituality and kinship relationships) were expressed in a new language, how this language dealt with the attackes on thos values by the white colonisers, and how more recently this language has become an important marker of Aboriginal cultural identity, celebrating continuity, survival, and renewal.

Voices of Queensland: Words from the Sunshine State

Julia Robinson. Oxford University Press, 2001. 200 pages. ISBN 0 19 551395 9.

This books deals with Queensland words. The chapters focus on various aspects of Queensland, starting with the contributions Queensland Aboriginal languages have made to Australian English, moving to the outback, to lifestyle, to work, to politics and perceptions, and ending with the voice of the language of one of Queensland's indigenous peoples.

Chapters:

Bruce Moore 'Queensland Aboriginal words in Australian English'

Dorothy Jauncey 'The good life: "Beautiful one day, perfect the next"'

Julia Robinson 'Dust and distance: outback Queensland'

Linden Wolfe 'Bittersweet: the language of the canefields'

Dorothy Jauncey 'Behind the scenery: people, politics and perceptions'

Nicholas Evans 'The Kayardild language'

Tassie Terms: A Glossary of Tasmanian Terms

Maureen Brooks and Joan Ritchie. Oxford University Press, 1995. 174 pages. ISBN 0 19 553812 9

Working at the Australian National Dictionary Centre, and using the proven methods of historical lexicography, Maureen Brooks and Joan Ritchie have compiled Tassie terms, a companion volume to their Words from the West, which similarly records words used in, and perhaps peculiar to, agiven Australian regional community.

Tassie Terms contains some 645 dictionary entries of words with approximately 200 associated terms. Unlike Words from the West, this glossary does not rely exclusively on newspaper sources for its lexicon but draws on a variety of written material. Not all the words are exclusive to Tasmania but taken collectively the terms clearly reflect the identity and spirit of the Island State.

Words from the West: A Glossary of Western Australian Terms

Maureen Brooks and Joan Ritchie. Oxford University Press, 1994. 222 pages. ISBN 0 19 553628 2

This book represents the first attempt to record the words used in, and perhaps peculiar to, a given Australian regional community. It contains some 750 dictionary entries of words found in Western Australian newspapers. The words are defined, and the definitions are supported by quotations from the newspapers.

In compiling this glossary, the editors examined a wide range of Western Australian newspapers covering the various regions within the state, including the North West, the Central Coast, the South West, the Wheatbelt and the Goldfields.

Bardi Grubs and Frog Cakes: South Australian Words

Dorothy Jauncey. Oxford University Press, 2004.

Bardi Grubs & Frog Cakes is a dictionary of words about the croweaters' state, giving dated evidence of the usage of 500 words associated with South Australia from 1835 to 2003. South Australians have always regarded themselves as different. No convict taint was the proud claim of the new province in the mid-nineteenth century, and different words arose as the free settlers borrowed from Aboriginal languages to describe the 'new' plants and animals and fish. Cornish and German-Lutheran arrivals to South Australia then added other terms to the language. As settlement moved further away from Adelaide, other words had to be found to describe agricultural innovations, and features of the state's extraordinary outback. By the 2000s, the stuffy respectability of early Adelaide had made way for socially progressive legislation and an enviable lifestyle, and terms to document these changes also entered the vocabulary.

This dictionary reflects the social history of South Australia through these words.

Diggerspeak: The Language of Australians at War

Amanda Laugesen. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0 19 555182 6.

Wars have been highly significant in the development of Australian English, generating new words and meanings. Rather than a collection of military slang or jargon, this dictionary draws together the diverse words produced and used by ordinary Australians at war, and examines their ongoing and contemporary usage. The language of Australians at war reveals a great deal about the experiences and understanding of war and is also a fascinating insight into Australian culture and values.

W.H. Downing's Digger Dialects

Ed. J.M. Arthur and W.S. Ramson. Oxford University Press, 1990. 257 pages. ISBN 0 19 553233 3

W.H. Downing's Digger Dialects was first published in 1919. The words and phrases used by Australian Service personnel were recorded `live' in 1919 by Downing, and are presented in this new edition with editorial comments and additions by J.M. Arthur and W.S. Ramson. It is enhanced by almost 100 illustrations, drawn from field or troopship magazines, providing something of the spirit and flavour of the times.

Gold! Gold! Gold! The Language of the Nineteenth-Century Australian Goldfields

Bruce Moore. Oxford University Press, 2000.
190 pages. ISBN 0 19 550838 6

This book examines the language of the the nineteenth-century Australian goldfields. It takes the form of a dictionary, with supporting quotations from contemporary texts. More than 500 headwords cover many aspects of the goldfields, including methods of mining, law and order, social life, hardships and afflictions, thieves and villains. The extensive quotations from contemporary texts have been chosen for the historical information they provide, for their readability, and for the ways in which they evoke the living pulse of the golden era--the book is a goldfields' 'reader' as much as a dictionary.

Convict Words: Language in Early Colonial Australia

Amanda Laugesen Oxford University Press, 2002. 208 pages. ISBN 019551655.

This dictionary is the first dictionary to document the words that shaped this language, a language that in itself helped to shape the nation. It captures the 'mythic' convict Australia: the lags, canaries, and magpies; floggings and treadmills; bellowsers and traps; absconders and bushrangers. There is also the more prosaic language of bureaucracy and administration: ticket of leave, absolute and conditional emancipations, and certificates of freedom. Convict Words is an essential reference work for all those interested in this period of Australian history.

A Lexicon of Cadet Language: Royal Military College, Duntroon, in the period 1983 to 1985

Bruce Moore. Australian National Dictionary Centre, 1993. 488 pages. ISBN 0 67315 1377 0

This book documents many aspects of the language of male army cadets at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Australia, in the period 1983 to 1985 (immediately prior to the creation in 1986 of the Australian Defence Force Academy, a tri-service academy which accepts both male and female cadets).

The book includes over 2000 terms. Many are Duntroon-specific, but the book also includes terms associated with the more general military life and with cadets' extra-military activities. The terms, their definitions, the extensive citations showing how the cadets themselves use these terms, and the scholarly and often witty analysis of all of the material combine to make this book a significant and entertaining contribution to our understanding of the Australian language.

You can order this book by sending a cheque for $22.50 (payable to ANDC) to The Australian National Dictionary Centre, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200. Overseas customers should enquire about postal charges by fax (06 249 0475 ) or by email (ANDC@anu.edu.au).

NB Readers should be warned that this book contains many terms which may cause offence. There is also much sexually explicit language.

Lexical Images: The Story of the Australian National Dictionary

W.S. Ramson. Oxford University Press, 2002.

Bill Ramson, former Director of The Australian National Dictionary Centre relates in detail the fascinating and sometimes controversial story behind the making of an Australian icon, the Australian National Dictionary, the first historical dictionary of Australianisms. The book brings to life different aspects of Australia’s history by discussing words included in the dictionary, and shows how these words have become part of a distinctively Australian branch of English.

Who's Centric Now? The Present State of Post-Colonial Englishes

Bruce Moore ed. Oxford University Press, 2001. 320 pages. ISBN 0 19 551450 5.

These are the papers from a conference held at the Australian National University 27 to 29 October 1999. The conference was sponsored by Oxford University Press Australia and New Zealand, the Australian National Dictionary Centre, and the Humanities Research Centre.

Chapters:

Tom McArthur 'World English(es), world dictionaries'

Tony Deverson 'New Zealand, New Zealand English, and the dictionaries'

Bruce Moore 'Australian English: Australian identity'

Graeme Kennedy 'Lexical borrowing from Maori in New Zealand English'

Penny Silva 'South African English: politics and the sense of place'

Vincent B.Y. Ooi 'Globalising Singaporean-Malaysian English in an inclusive learner's dictionary'

Rahela Banu and Roland Sussex 'English in Bangladesh after independence: dynamics of policy and practice

R.S. Gupta 'English in post-colonial India: an appraisal'

Cavan Hogue 'The spread of Anglo-Indian words into South-East Asia'

Darrell Tryon 'Pacific Pidgin Englishes: the Australian connection'

Ian Malcolm 'Two-way English and the bicultural experience'

Jan Tent 'The current status of English in Fiji'

John Simpson 'Queen's English and People's English'

Katherine Barber 'Neither Uncle Sam nor John Bull: Canadian English comes of age'

Pam Peters 'Varietal effects: the influence of American English on Australian and British English'