Klik op een omslag om naar Google Boeken te gaan.
Bezig met laden... A dictionary of Austral Englishdoor Edward E. Morris
Geen Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
Actuele discussiesGeenPopulaire omslagen
Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)427.9Language English Historical and geographic variations, modern nongeographic variations of English Geographic variationsLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
Ben jij dit?Word een LibraryThing Auteur. |
Note that the title is A Dictionary of Austral English. That's not a mistake; it is not "Australian English." It's intended to cover New Zealand as well. And maybe even a little beyond.
That's a bit of a problem in a couple of ways. First, necessarily, it's better at Australian than New Zealand English. And it tries to step back from local usages -- and steps back so far that it seems to be standing from somewhere around London. Sometimes this feels less like a dictionary of Australian English than a "Dictionary of Those Oh So Regrettable Differences From Proper English That Turn Up In Australia."
Plus it's more than a century old. Some of what is in here is out of date. More to the point, many, many new words have evolved since this book was compiled. If you want to go to Australia or New Zealand and have a reference for the language they use now, this is almost as useless an American dictionary would be. An obvious example: There are no references to "Matildas," or "Waltzing Matildas" -- except in a small corner of Queensland, Australians humped their blueys rather than waltzing their matildas, and the song wasn't widely known yet.
And yet, it's fun. Most dictionaries of localized English include a lot of quotations showing examples of how words are used. But none includes so many quotations, of such a great degree of diversity as this. You won't really learn about Austral/Australian English as it's spoken. But you'll learn a lot about late nineteenth century Australian culture, often in amusing forms. And if you truly want to study the evolution of Australian English, this gives you a nice reference for the period around 1890.
So it's a fun book. Unlike most dictionaries. I have two Australian dictionaries. I use both. But the other one, even though much more comprehensive, is as dry as any ordinary dictionary; all you'll ever do with it is look up words. This one, I actually sat down and scanned each page, looking for interesting entries. And I found more than you'd think. ( )