Australian English Vocabulary

Australian English Vocabulary

n Australian English includes some colloquial phrases and unique slang. Numerous works giving an overview of Australian English have been published; many of these are humour books designed for tourists or as novelties. One of the first was Karl Lentzner's Dictionary of the Slang-English of Australia and of Some Mixed Languages in 1892. The first dictionary based on historical principles that covered Australian English was E. E. Morris's Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages (1898).

In 1976 the Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary was published. In 1981, the more comprehensive Macquarie Dictionary of Australian English was published, after 10 years of research and planning. Updated editions have been published since and the Macquarie Dictionary is widely regarded as authoritative. Oxford University Press published their own Australian Oxford Dictionary in 1999, as a joint effort with the Australian National University, and have also some other dictionaries of Australian English, including the Oxford Dictionary of Australian English and The Australian National Dictionary.

Various publishers have also produced "phrase books" to assist visitors. These books reflect a highly exaggerated and often outdated style of Australian colloquialisms and they should generally be regarded as amusements rather than accurate usage guides.