W.H. Downing's Digger Dialects
W.H. Downing's Digger Dialects

Author: Walter Hubert Downing

Publisher: New York

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13:

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Digger Dialects is a unique record of one of Australian English's most creative and crowded hours. The words and phrases used by Australian personnel in World War I were noted in 1919 by W.H.Downing and are presented here with editorial comments and additions. Words which have new meanings or wider applications are frozen as they were in 1919; words which meant something at that time mean little now and need to be explained. The editors of this volume describe how the phrase going into cold storage meant to be killed in the winter of 1916; how kangaroo feathers was a jocular name for the emu plumes worn by members of the Australian Light Horse Brigade. The book is enhanced by 100 illustrations, drawn from field or troopship magazines, which aim to provide something of the spirit and flavour of the times.

A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries
A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries

Author: Julie Coleman

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2008-10-23

Total Pages: 515

ISBN-13: 0191563587

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This book continues Julie Coleman's acclaimed history of dictionaries of English slang and cant. It describes the increasingly systematic and scholarly way in which such terms were recorded and classified in the UK, the USA, Australia, and elsewhere, and the huge growth in the publication of and public appetite for dictionaries, glossaries, and guides to the distinctive vocabularies of different social groups, classes, districts, regions, and nations. Dr Coleman describes the origins of words and phrases and explores their history. By copious example she shows how they cast light on everyday life across the globe - from settlers in Canada and Australia and cockneys in London to gang-members in New York and soldiers fighting in the Boer and First World Wars - as well as on the operations of the narcotics trade and the entertainment business and the lives of those attending American colleges and British public schools. The slang lexicographers were a colourful bunch. Those featured in this book include spiritualists, aristocrats, socialists, journalists, psychiatrists, school-boys, criminals, hoboes, police officers, and a serial bigamist. One provided the inspiration for Robert Lewis Stevenson's Long John Silver. Another was allegedly killed by a pork pie. Julie Coleman's account will interest historians of language, crime, poverty, sexuality, and the criminal underworld.

The Story of Australian English
The Story of Australian English

Author: Kel Richards

Publisher: NewSouth

Published: 2015-03-01

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 1742241905

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The English language arrived in Australia with the first motley bunch of European settlers on 26 January 1788. Today there is clearly a distinctive Australian regional dialect with its own place among the global family of ‘Englishes’. How did this come about? Where did the distinctive pattern, accent, and verbal inventions that make up Aussie English come from? A lively narrative, this book tells the story of the birth, rise and triumphant progress of the colourful dingo lingo that we know today as Aussie English.

The Vulgar Tongue
The Vulgar Tongue

Author: Jonathon Green

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 0199398143

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"The Vulgar Tongue tells the full story of English language slang, from its origins in early British beggar books to its spread in American and Australian culture in the eighteenth century"--

Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog's Dinner
Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog's Dinner

Author: Alex Games

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2010-12-15

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 1446415082

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Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog's Dinner is a thrilling ride through the provocative, bewildering and often downright bizarre world of language and etymology. From the brash jargon of celebrity magazines to the delicacies and feints of the euphemism, author and word-sleuth Alex Games has uncovered the remarkable stories that lie behind some of our best-loved words and expressions. By grouping words into distinct themes - such as put downs and insults, the vocab of fashionistas and the lingo of dodgy dealings - Balderdash & Piffle looks at the English language in a fresh and revealing light. Who was the original Jack the Lad? What is the tragic story behind the expression Sweet F.A.? Balderdash & Piffle will show you where thugs come from, why 'barmy' once had more to do with your beer than your brain, and how a little bit of 'hanky-panky' could literally work magic. From the 'Cloud-cuckoo-land' of Aristophanes to the town of Balaclava, this is a funny but rigorously researched account of English words and their origins. Drawing together sources as diverse as William Shakespeare, David Cameron and the Burnham-on-Sea Gazette, Alex Games recalls the trends, innovations and scandals that have produced some of our most familiar but least explored words and phrases. Accompanying a brand new series of the hit BBC television programme Balderdash & Piffle - and containing all the results of the 'Wordhunt' from the first series -this entertaining book is a treasure trove for English-language lovers everywhere.

Tommy French
Tommy French

Author: Julian Walker

Publisher: Pen and Sword Military

Published: 2021-05-12

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 1526765934

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‘Napoo’, ‘compray’, ‘san fairy ann’, ‘toot sweet’ are anglicized French phrases that came into use on the Western Front during the First World War as British troops struggled to communicate in French. Over four years of war they created an extraordinary slang which reflects the period and brings the conflict to mind whenever it is heard today. Julian Walker, in this original and meticulously researched book, explores the subject in fascinating detail. In the process he gives us an insight into the British soldiers’ experience in France during the war and the special language they invented in order to cope with their situation. He shows how French place-names were anglicized as were words for food and drink, and he looks at what these slang terms tell us about the soldiers’ perception of France, their relationship with the French and their ideas of home. He traces the spread of ‘Tommy French’ back to the Home Front, where it was popularized in songs and on postcards, and looks at the French reaction to the anglicization of their language.

New Trends in Lexicography
New Trends in Lexicography

Author: Olga Karpova

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2010-02-19

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 1443820180

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The present book contains a collection of works developing new trends in theoretical and practical lexicography devoted to manifold description of lexis. All papers are divided into two main sections: Part I, Systemic and Cross-cultural Relations of Words in the Dictionary, presents analysis of cultural issues and phraseology with special reference to English dictionaries for general- and specific-purposes. The main focus is given to the principles of lexicographic presentation of non-equivalent lexis, idioms, clichés, nominations of non-verbal behaviour and proper names of people in bilingual and monolingual dictionaries. Part II, entitled Specialized Dictionaries: Traditions and Innovations, deals with peculiarities of Author Lexicography, Learners lexicography, LSP dictionaries, dictionaries of English verbs, and varieties of the English language in its synchronic and diachronic aspects. This book is based on plenary presentations of the VIIIth school on Lexicography “Synchronic and Diachronic Lexicography: A New Age of Theory and Practice” (Ivanovo State University, September 10–12, 2009) and continues the series of monographs devoted to theoretical and practical problems of modern and historical lexicography: Essays on Lexicon, Lexicography, Terminography in Russian, American and Other Cultures (2007) and Lexicography and Terminology: A Worldwide Outlook (2009) published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

De-Illustrating the History of the British Empire
De-Illustrating the History of the British Empire

Author: Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-05-24

Total Pages: 159

ISBN-13: 1000391299

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De-Illustrating the History of the British Empire aims to offer a timely and inclusive contribution to the evolving cross-disciplinary scholarship that connects visual studies with British imperial historiography. The key purpose of this book is to introduce scholars and students of British imperial and Commonwealth history to a clearly presented and diversely themed evaluation of several "visual manuscripts" – images of all genres depicting particular events, personalities, social and cultural contexts – that document the development of some of the British imperial and post-colonial visual literacies history. The concept of "visual manuscripts" alongside theories of visual anthropology and memory studies are addressed across the entire volume thus allowing the readers to approach with greater ease the discourse on imperial iconography and historiography.