Australia
New Zealand
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Reviews
Books
Hammerström, Göran (1980). Australian English. Its Origin and Status. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
The book Australian English. Its Origin and Status was published in Hamburg in 1980 and is a volume of the series Forum Phoneticum. The first thirty pages deal with the question whether Australian English is derived from an early London dialect and still remains nearly unchanged. In small chapters, certain features of the language are examined such as vowels, phonology or early authors. The second chapter deals with the conservatism of Australian English. Here, Hammerström stresses that there are hardly any different accents within Australia and that the language seems to have not changed a lot in the last centuries. The following chapter sees to the question if Australian English is an amalgam. The theory that modern Australian English is a mixture of various English dialects brought to Australia by settlers from different parts of England is disapproved in this chapter. The last chapter of the book deals with Australian sociolects. Finally, one can find a short summary and list of references at the end of the book.
The summary lists in a short way the main results of the text in very few sentences. The book is a good way to find out about the origins of Australian English. It also gives a brief overview of the research history of Australian English. The book is structured more like an essay proving a thesis than like a textbook that explains or teaches.
To read this book, one needs basic knowledge of linguistics in order to understand the terminology and the phonetic signs used in the text. Otherwise, the style of the book is easy to understand and clear.
[We hope that this book is available in our library soon. In the meantime, please use the inter-library loan system (Fernleihe).]
Burridge, Kate; Mulder, Jean (1998). English in Australia and New Zealand. An Introduction to Its History, Structure and Use. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The book English in Australia and New Zealand. An Introduction to Its History, Structure and Use is designed as a textbook and tries to give a complete overview over all aspects of the English language in Australia and New Zealand.
The authors aim at making the context understandable for everyone. Technical terms in the book are in bold print the first time they appear and can be looked up in the glossary. It gives a brief definition for many terms; some are general like “affix” or “verb”, some are more complex like “Grimm’s law”, and some are more specific to the topic, such as “global English” or “high rising intonation”. At the end of every chapter, there is a list of points to remember and some exercises. For some of the exercises, language has to be observed and analysed. This might present some difficulties in a non-English speaking country.
The book is divided into twelve chapters. These give an introduction to general linguistics and always refer to Australian and New Zealand English. The chapters could stand by themselves and could be read for a first overview of a topic. However, the book leads from the general to the specific. One can see that this book is designed to be a textbook in a class, but it can also easily be used for self-study. At the end of the book, there is a list of suggested further readings.
The style of the language is usually simple and clear. Sometimes it is even colloquial or comic, e.g. “Let’s begin our look at the history of English spelling by listening […]” (89), “Again NZ English has something interesting to offer here.” (117) or “Another hallmark of bureaucratese is the expression of […]” (241). With this, the authors try to make the book easier and more entertaining to read. The focus of the book is everyday language.
Finally, one can conclude that this is a book of teaching rather than of academic research. Nevertheless, it can be a useful tool to gain a first insight in linguistics and Australian and New Zealand English.
[We hope that this book is available in our library soon. In the meantime, please use the inter-library loan system (Fernleihe).]
Blair, David; Collins, Peter (eds.) (2001). English in Australia (Varieties of English Around the World, 26). Amsterdam (et al.): John Benjamins.
The book English in Australia is volume 26 of the series Varieties of English Around the World. The book is divided into two main sections. Section A deals with the structure of English in Australia, and section B deals with variation. Each section contains essays with different topics contributed by different authors. An introduction by the editors gives a good overview of the fields of research of Australian English from the beginning up to the current state of research. Section A is subdivided into phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon and contains eight articles. The second part of the book includes chapters on Torres Strait (a Creole spoken on the Torres Strait Islands) and Aboriginal, ethnic varieties, diachronic and generational variation and regional variation. There are ten articles in this part of the book.
Each article can be read independently. So, to find the wanted information it is not necessary to read the book as a whole. Many articles include figures, tables or examples. The style of the language is formal and clear. To read this book, one would need a basic knowledge of linguistics and linguistic terms to understand the approach. The target group for this book is definitely a university readership.
[English Seminar library: SBP Z01001]
Pauwels, Anne (2002). Non-Sexist Language Reform and Generic Pronouns in Australian English. English World-Wide 22 [1]. 105-119.
Pauwels observes in her article the changes in Australian English from a feminist point of view. There has been a reform in Australia to make language more gender neutral. In the article, possible ways of non-sexist of gender-inclusive language before and after the reform are discussed. Furthermore, a survey was carried out to compare the situation in the 1960s and 70s before the reform on the one hand and in the 1990s on the other. The survey was focused entirely in oral language; so, the sources were public speeches, interviews, parliamental debates and broadcasts from television and radio.
The results of the pre-reform research are not very surprising: most of the time he is used as a generic (meant for both male and female) pronoun. However, in the 90s they is used as a gender-neutral generic pronoun by far the most.
In addition, the article includes some research on social gender association. It shows that some occupational nouns are usually replaced by a specific pronoun, such as nurse with she and surgeon with he. All the results show the use of pronouns in Australia only. In other countries, this has yet to be found out as encouraged by the author.
The essay is easy to read, and terminology that occurs is clear in the context. The input of tables and figures is very well done and stresses the argument at all times. A readership for this article could be the interested public as well as specialists.
[Central library: ZGB 3217]
Papers in journals or edited volumes
Bradley, David (2003). Mixed Sources of Australian English. Irish English, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax and Lexicon. Australian Journal of Linguistics 23 [2]. 143-151.
Bradley states in his essay that a large number of the convicts and immigrants who came to Australia were Irish. In the article, he shows certain features of Australian English that originate from Irish English.
The first part of the essay is split into several paragraphs on phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, and semantics. The second part of the essay deals with mixed origins of sociolects. One can tell by the width of the topics that each field can only be looked at very briefly within the limits of the essay.
The style is clear but, due to its shortness, it can be confusing. The plain structure of the text always lets the reader know what lies ahead.
Many technical terms appear in the text, such as it-clefting or left-dislocation. So, one can say some knowledge of linguistics is needed in order to understand the text. Regarding the style and terminology, it becomes clear that the text has been written for a specialist readership. Although the text is well structured, the use of the tables is not convincing. They appear in mid-sentence and without any explanation.
The conclusion at the end sums up the essay very well. The author wants to show that Australian English has been influenced by different Englishes in the past and that regional areas have developed their own dialects due to different influences.
(review by Jana Hohage)
[The journal is accessible via the Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek at the RUB.]
Delbridge, Arthur (1999). Standard Australian English. World Englishes 18 [2]. 259-270.
The article by Delbridge deals with the concept of Australian English within the last 60 years and the acceptance of it in public and by individuals. In the beginning, there was no such thing as Australian English, and British English was seen as the standard. Slowly, this began to change.
At the beginning of the essay, a list of early publications on Australian English is given, and quotes illustrate the bad reputation the Australian dialect had up to the 1940s. Then, a change of perception took place. In the following, the use of English is observed in the fields of national broadcasting, schooling, university teaching and research. Then the emerging of special Australian dictionaries is taken into account and the national policy on languages over the years is mentioned. Afterwards, the author introduces the term Standard Australian English and briefly mentions style guidance.
The essay ends very suddenly. Nevertheless, it gives a good overview of the difficulties there are, concerning standard language and national identity in Australia. The article is well structured, informative and easy to read.
[The journal is accessible via the Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek at the RUB.]
Lonergan, Dymphna (2003). An Irish-Centric View of Australian English. Australian Journal of Linguistics 23 [2]. 151-161.
The article An Irish-Centric View of Australian English is a short essay by Dymphna Lonergan. It tries to evaluate the influence of Irish English and Gaelic on modern Australian English. Therefore, technically the article is about Irish languages brought abroad and not Australian English as such.
The essay is informative and easy to understand. Many examples prove the author’s points throughout the article. Nevertheless, some points remain speculative. The sources are trustworthy and well documented. However, the structure of the essay is rather unclear. It seems to be a list of words in Australian English that may derive from Celtic Gaelic or the English spoken by Irish people who settled in Australia.
At the end, the only conclusion is that the article should be an inspiration to other researchers, but the article itself comes to no specific result. Therefore, the insights gained when reading this article are limited.
As the essay was published in a linguistic magazine, the target group is a university readership. The style is simple and easy to understand. One does not need any previous knowledge to understand the article.
[The journal is accessible via the Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek at the RUB.]
Sussex, Roland (2004). Abstand, Ausbau, Creativity and Lucidity in Australian English. Australian Journal of Linguistics 24 [1]. 3-21.
Sussex’s article is concerned with the social history of language. At the beginning, he gives many references and a short research history in the field of Australian English. He uses the term Abstand and Ausbau according to Kloss to show the level of difference between languages and dialects. The term creativity is used to describe the way Australians bring new words into their language, and lucidity stands for the playfulness with which the Australians handle their language.
Sussex stresses the numerous occurrences of diminutives and attributes them a stylistic and a social dimension. Here, the process of finding a new identity, which is important for Australia, comes up.
To support his points, Sussex gives many references from everyday language, often colloquial expressions. The examples are taken from newspapers, literature and, most of them, from television.
The essay contains some linguistic terms, such as the theory of Kloss, but it is written in a clear style and can be fruitful reading for experts as well as for a wider readership.
[The journal is accessible via the Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek at the RUB.]
Trudgill, Peter; Gordon, Elizabeth (2006). Predicting the past. Dialect Archaeology and Australian English Rhoticity. English Worldwide 27 [3]. 235-246.
This article by Trudgill and Gordon takes a completely new position concerning rhoticity. The first part of the article explains the concept of rhoticity: versions of the English language can be divided into rhotic and non-rhotic ones, according to the pronunciation of the letter /r/. In rhotic languages /r/ is always pronounced and non-rhotic speakers only pronounce it if it is followed by a vowel. Traditionally, the southern hemisphere’s Englishes were seen as only non-rhotic because English was brought to this areas when the process of not pronouncing /r/ in all places had already begun in England.
New evidence has been found that English in New Zealand certainly was rhotic in the 1940s. Therefore, they formed the hypothetical deduction that in Australian English as well there is rhoticity. For the first time, proving material is presented in an article. The new material is convincing and this lets arise a new set of questions, such as “Given that Australasian English was originally rhotic, how do we explain the fact that it no longer is?” The authors succeed in answering the questions and thereby convince the reader.
The article is well structured and informative to read. Although the topic is linguistic, the article can be understood with little previous knowledge in this field.
[The journal is accessible via the Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek at the RUB.]
Websites
Aussie English for the Beginners. National Museum of Australia, Canberra.(13.7. 2007)
http://www.nma.gov.au/play/aussie_english_for_the_beginner/
The page is provided by the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. There are two parts of the page: an Aussie English Guide and a True Blue Aussie Quiz. Both feature cartoons by David Pope. The guide contains seven chapters and in each of them, there are two to seven examples of Australian expressions or vocabulary. The chapters for example concern Australian history, similes or abbreviations. Each Australian expression is explained in a short text and can be listened to in a short typically Australian conversation. The Quiz contains six multiple choice questions. Wrong answers are immediately corrected and explained. There are virtual prices at the end of the quiz according to the player’s performance.
The style of the page is highly informal and more for entertaining than educating purposes. Nevertheless, the page is well made and appealing. It could be a valuable tool e.g. in EFL teaching as the language is easy and pupils could make informal contact with Australian English. Furthermore, the immediate feedback in the quiz makes it easy to use for pupils even without supervision or correction by a teacher.
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