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Australian Style Colour.Pmd A NATIONAL BULLETIN ISSUES IN AUSTRALIAN STYLE AND THE USE OF ENGLISH IN AUSTRALIA Volume 11 No 2 DECEMBER 2003 The Australian Word Map Sue Butler, publisher of the Macquarie Dictionary, writes about the Australian Word Map project and its contribution to the recently published Macquarie ABC Dictionary. ustralian Word Map, the being accessed at the rate of 20,000 corner of the ABC website hits a week. I N THIS Adevoted to Australian region- The reason for the introduction of alisms, is the result of the synthesis an editorial filter was that the ISSUE of the special aptitudes of response, though enthusiastic, was Macquarie Dictionary and the somewhat undisciplined. Con- ABC. Macquarie does the lexico- tributors were sending general graphy behind the scenes. The colloquialisms as well as regionalisms ABC picks up our small voice and which, if included, would have QuestionsI N of THISRhetoric 3 amplifies it across Australia, then blurred the focus of the site. It was ISSUE follows up by providing the important to keep people attuned to SCOSE Notes 4 mechanism by which people from the notion of regionalism. around the country can reply. Of course, publication on the The idea of collecting regionalisms site was one thing, but publication Australian English 5 appealed to the ABC because its role in the dictionary was another. For grammar as a national broadcaster requires it to that we needed evidence that an provide services to the regions. It item had some kind of general appealed to us as dictionary-makers currency, even if that currency was Style Council 2004 5 because we were tired of the wellworn limited to a small region. examples of regionalism that made up The comments from contributors From the Editor 6 the sum of knowledge to date. After helped to corroborate offerings devon, fritz, polony, etc., what was which might otherwise have Letters to the Editor 7 there to say? The dreadful thought appeared to be one-off eccentricities. had occurred that perhaps In addition we researched other regionalism was part of a colonial past available resources and were able to Book Notes 8 and no longer existed under the track down items and, in some Oxford Guide to World barrage of national communications instances, account for their presence and standardisation. in the region. Finally, we compiled a English The response from the website was national email list from the addresses The Meaning of Everything immediate and encouraging. At the helpfully provided by contributors time of the publication of the willing to be part of a follow-up Feedback 22 10 Macquarie ABC Dictionary, 6000 campaign. These people were contributions had been selected to go surveyed on a number of items to on the site from about twice that provide verification for their regions. Feedback Report 11 number of unedited offerings, and The fact that there were words another 6000 people had and phrases appearing on Word Rubicon 12 commented on the listed items. The Map which were new to the editors Australian Word Map website was of the dictionary demonstrates that DECEMBER DECEMBER 2001 2003 AUSTRALIAN AUSTRALIAN STYLE STYLE 1 1 Continued from page 1 fact that colonial Tasmanians referred to wombats as badgers. There are still rural areas where echidnas are known as porcupines. Queenslanders will have a duchesse in their bedrooms rather than a dressing table, the duchesse in mid-nineteenth-century England being a particular kind of dressing table with a swing glass. The other strongly discernible influence is the statewide standard imposed in some areas of language. Sometimes these jargons are actually set by state governments, as in education and the infrastructure of roads and railways. Sometimes they simply operate within a state by the spoken language is still primary, major causes of regional variation – custom and convenience and the and has a range of expression and a the make-up of the original influence of statewide media, as in lexicon that goes beyond what might settlement community with its the jargon of real estate. appear in print. various language influences, and Thus a kindergarten in New There are phrases that seem to run the imposition of items by state South Wales is a prep class in around the countryside as a national governments setting standards in Victoria and Tasmania, and a shared joke. Each comm-unity matters of housing, roads, transport reception class in South Australia. A develops its own version of the joke and education. power pole is a Stobie pole in South which makes it even more delicious. The original patterns of Australia, an SEC pole in Victoria, Take, for example, the range of settlement made different dialects and a hydro pole in Tasmania. humorous names for a cask of wine – of British English influential in A semi-detached house is in South red handbag, Dapto briefcase, etc. And different parts of the country. Australia called a maisonette. A sleep- the collection of words for speedos – Victorians may well ask for a piece out is in most of Australia a partially budgie smugglers, ball-huggers, nylon instead of a sandwich, thus enclosed porch or veranda, but in disgusters, dick pokers or dick revealing a Scottish presence in Victoria it is a building separate from stickers, dick togs or DTs. their community. The Tasmanians the main house. This building is in Just as the key items of Australian refer to a spoiled or troublesome Tasmania called a chalet. English identify Australians as a child as a nointer betraying a In the past, collecting evidence of community separate from those Northern British dialect. How the regionalism was a laborious exercise, which speak British English or South Australians acquired the term carried out in the old way, with American English, so too do these gent for a maggot, a shortening of questionnaires and field research. It regionalisms in their smaller sphere gentleman, which dates back to the is just as well that new technology identify a person from one part of jargon of anglers in England in the has given us the means to tap into the country as distinct from 1500s, is a mystery. this aspect of Australian English and another. Often it is when we move Background languages had their move past devon, fritz, polony, ... out of the area in which we grew up influence too. So, for example, the to another part of the country that German community in the Barossa we notice the identifying features of has given rise to a number of our regional dialect. With time, distinct items of English in South that keen observation blurs and we Australia, such as fritz (a luncheon begin to adopt the local expressions meat), schnitter (a sandwich) and of the new community to which we streusel cake (a cake with a topping belong, while retaining a distinct of nuts, sugar and spices). sense of nostalgia about the words In some cases regional items we have left behind. Language and from the early days of settlement identity, even at this local level, are have become fossilised in a The address of the WordMap entwined. particular community. Thus the website is: Historically there have been two badger box bears witness still to the http://abc.net.au/wordmap/ Australian Style is published by the Style Council Centre, Macquarie University. It is edited by Pam Peters, with executive assistance from Adam Smith. The editorial reference group includes Ann Atkinson, David Blair, Sue Butler, Richard Tardif and Colin Yallop. Views expressed in Australian Style and the styles chosen are those of the authors indicated. Design: Irene Meier. ISSN 1320-0941 2 AUSTRALIAN STYLE DECEMBER 2003 Questions of Rhetoric on Watson’s tirade against who speak and write in public Bill Krebs is Associate Professor the abuse of language by places to be responsible, careful and of English Language and Dpeople who should know clear. He reworks themes familiar Literature at Bond University, better will raise three hearty cheers over the last 400 years: about how and the Australian editor for in many quarters. You will language, especially the deliberate Collins Dictionaries. He recognize Watson’s prime targets or habitual misuse of it, can easily responds to Don Watson’s for censure if you have ever had to be an impediment to clear critique of Public Language, suffer the brainless abuse of thinking, to solid science and to Death Sentence: the decay of language now so common at the sound judgment. To add my public language (Knopf 2003, points where the world of business favourite Francis Bacon quotation RRP $29.95.) and marketing meets government on this theme to the dozens of and the public realm. quotes that Watson offers in an ill- Death Sentence might well linked collage of citations remind you of the times you were swimming in a marginal stream involved in the drafting of mission beside his text: “words do shoot statements or other such exercises back upon the understanding of in public language where the wisest, and mightily entangle obfuscation, an odour of sanctity, and pervert the judgement”. and sounding terribly impressive Language is a powerful tool, but were at least as important as misused can be at best a hindrance communicating clearly. You will but at worst, (certainly according remember the sense of having to Watson) downright pernicious. joined Alice at the Hatter’s tea Watson’s core theme, on which party as commitments, enhance- he will get little argument from ments, flexible game plans chased most, is the infection of politics, each other archetypically through education and public service by the flexible, market-centred strategies often vacuous language of to self-regulatory agreements marketing and manager-speak.
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