Sidney J. Baker

This is a rather special (and dare I say cruelly neglected) volume. As the subtitle proclaims: "An examination of the English language and English speech as used in Australia, from convict days to the present, with special reference to the growth of indigenous idiom and its use by Australian writers".

Born and raised in New Zealand, Sidney J. Baker came to Australia with his young family in the 1940s. After some time spent in London, Baker was startled by the incredible distinction of Australian (and Kiwi) speech and vocabulary from that of our Anglo ancestors. The typical view well into the 20th century had been that "Australian English" was merely a working-class bastardisation of "proper English". Little more than slang, really. (Even when my parents grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, the Australian accent and vernacular were an embarrassment to more urbane types.) The notion of studying the history and development of Australian English was not in itself unusual, but Baker's enthusiasm - even reverence - for his subject matter certainly was.

Yet of course the thousands of words, idioms, phrases and concepts specific to the Australian experience (and the rejection of the thousands of equivalent English ones) were crucial to the lives of millions of Australians. It was merely that the people in linguistic power - whether news presenters, school teachers, or heads of state - were not encouraged to admit this. (Although surely in many cases, they "code-switched" between everyday language and their professional accent.) Yet even this emphasis on allegedly incorrect English was contradicted by the very way in which Australians saw the world around them. To an Australian like myself, words such as meadow, copse, spinney, thicket, dale, glen, vale, brook, woods... these don't have an inherent meaning to me outside of Wordsworth poems. If they are used at all on this continent, it is likely to be in specific regional situations only.

Baker probes every nook and cranny of the Australian experience from the bush to the city, war, local jargon, Pidgin English, slang, naughty words, the impact of literature, and so on. The second edition (see below) is a gorgeously dense volume. Broad analyses alternate with long lists of slang contemporary to Baker's lifetime, much of which I suspect has already been forgotten - at least by anyone under 50. It's also an exhaustively researched volume, and he combs delights and trinkets from all sorts of archival material representing the first 180 years of colonial Australia's history.

The first edition of Baker's volume was published in hardback in 1945 and launched him to three decades of fame, from writing columns on books for the Sydney Morning Herald to his recognition as an expert on the Australian language for those most passionate of observers: the Americans. He published two short supplements in the following years before incorporating them into a heavily revised second edition of 1966. This edition was reprinted in 1970 (the copy I have) and I believe this was the last. (My copy has a small number of blank pages where there is evidently meant to be text. I assume this is just a printing error, but given 1960s Australia's notoriously censorious publishing environment, one wonders.)

I have no earthly idea if Baker's ideas on philology and linguistics remain accepted by current experts. No doubt some of his etymologies or hypotheses have been rendered inaccurate over the past half-century; these vicissitudes are inevitable. I'm also sure that some contemporary readers might bristle over the inclusion of slang terms that would be considered offensive today - although Baker, an eternal believer that language, like life, must move forward, routinely notes where he is quoting words or phrases that Time has rendered archaic or offensive, so I think he would understand.

For me, though, the book's age has only increased its appeal. I want to resurrect terms I had never heard of such as "hot dog board", "go for the big chuck", "horse's hoof", "biscuit factory" (apparently a South Australian regional slang for a men's lavatory), "chest warmer" and "fag artist" (i.e. someone who smokes). As our country's barbaric copyright laws will keep Baker's work out of the public domain until at least 2046, here's hoping that some publisher takes the plunge and gets him back into circulation!… (mer)