Historical Monographs

Diggerspeak: The Language of Australians at War
Author/editor: Amanda Laugesen
Year published: 2005
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…

Convict Words: Language in Early Colonial Australia
Author/editor: Amanda Laugesen
Year published: 2002
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;…

Gold! Gold! Gold! The Language of the Nineteenth-Century Australian Goldfields
Author/editor: Bruce Moore
Year published: 2000
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…
Aboriginal English/Regional Monographs

Bardi Grubs and Frog Cakes: South Australian Words
Author/editor: Dorothy Jauncey
Year published: 2004
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…

Voices of Queensland: Words from the Sunshine State
Author/editor: Julia Robinson
Year published: 2001
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…
General Lexicographical Studies

Lexical Images: The Story of the Australian National Dictionary
Author/editor: W.S. Ramson
Year published: 2002
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…

Who's Centric Now? The Present State of Post-Colonial Englishes
Author/editor: Bruce Moore
Year published: 2001
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…