|
 As
the editor warned in our very first issue (May 1997), free periodicals are
rare. Strange it is, therefore, that our third such mag should be another
language-oriented one. Where are all the gratis environmental ones? Or the
ones on art? Or music? (On the Internet probably.)
Anyway,
thank you to the two readers who let Bikwil know of the
existence of Ozwords, a twice-a-year publication of
Australian National Dictionary Centre (a joint venture of
the Australian National University and Oxford University
Press). To subscribe, write to
Debra Burgess
The Subscription Manager
Ozwords
GPO Box 2784Y
Melbourne, 3001.
(db@oupanz.com.au) |
Like
Australian Style (Bikwil
Issue 9, September 1998), Ozwords looks at aspects of Aussie
English. It consists of eight A4 pages and over recent years has covered
such diverse topics as
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Racing slang in
Australia
Is “true blue” an Ozzyism?
Regionalisms
Folk etymology (“the process by which a word whose origin has been
‘lost’,
or which has been borrowed from a foreign language, is
remodelled
to conform to more familiar words in the language”)
Recent words
The ab(h)ominable haitch
The Australian nasal twang
The word “larrikin”
American accent and syntax for Aussies
Why did Matilda waltz?
The word “lamington”
“Send her down, Hughie!” |
Each
issue also contains a Mailbag page, news from OUP and/or the Australian
National Dictionary Centre, and a competition. Speaking of the latter, I
was particularly taken with the one in the October 1999 issue. Here you
were invited to invent a word and its definition, following the examples
given, some recently gleaned from the Net, like “lactomangulation” (the
process of manhandling the ‘open here’ spout on a milk carton so badly
that one has to resort to the illegal side).
By the
way, there is also a New Zealand equivalent called Nzwords (pattersd@oupcom.au).
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