Booktopia - Speaking Our Language : The Story of Australian English, Bruce Moore, 9780195565782

Speaking Our Language : The Story of Australian English

By: Bruce Moore

Retail Price:	$32.95
Booktopia Price	$28.83

ISBN: 9780195565782

Format: Paperback
Published: February 2009

All prices in Australian Dollars

Stock Availability
This title is not in stock at the Booktopia Warehouse and needs to be ordered from one of our suppliers. Click here to see "In Stock" titles.
Click here to read more about delivery expectations.

Payment Options

Bank transfers, cheques and money orders are also accepted.

Add to wish list

View wish list

For the first time ever the story of Australian English is about to be told in full. As part of our Centenary celebrations Oxford University Press Australia is proud to be publishing this significant contribution to the national landscape.

Speaking our Language is written for people who want to know where Australian English came from, what the forces were that moulded it, why it takes its present form, and where it is going.

The sub-title of this book, "The Story of Australian English", derives in part from the chronological story that the book traces: the story begins with Joseph Banks and Captain James Cook collecting indigenous words such as kangaroo and quoll in northern Queensland in 1770, and it continues from there right up to the present day, when Australian English is firmly established as the natural and national language of Australia.

It is a 'story' in another sense as well: the story of the development of Australian English is inextricably intertwined with the stories of Australian history and culture, and of the development of Australian identity. Of all the markers of identity, language is by far the most significant.

This language we speak, and which gives voice to our Australian identity, is not, however, a unifaceted thing. It is, as the book demonstrates, a multifaceted entity.

Australian English is central to the process of giving voice to our Australian identity: in important ways, we are what we speak, and we are how we speak.