Buongiorno

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the internet is a wide, weird, wonderful place!

Today, I received an email from a lady in Italy who indicated she'd seen my article about colloquial English on the internet. I'm guessing she means this one: http://www.justlocal.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?p=80&sid=8c8c5ccc6fb006b903f1762259be1283, but I'll know more soon.

The timing is interesting because I was thinking about posting the essays and features that I created as part of my coursework, but I wasn't sure if there would be sufficient interest. I'm guessing that in light of this enquiry, there just may be!

In any case, my article and essay explored, 'The American Influence on Australian Language'. This is a very prickly topic here in Australia, which is often dominated by emotion and hyperbole rather than fact.

And on that note, I'd better close for now, especially since I need to get a book I'm designing finalised and over to the printer, not to mention editing a massive manuscript. While I'm away, feel free to ponder this extract of my article:

Contrary to public belief, American words are not ‘coming in on submarines or being dropped from the sky or sent in undercover, fifth-column-style’ (Wajnryb 2005). American words have not been adopted en masse in Australia. Instead, Australians carefully select delicate morsels from the sumptuous banquet of the American language, leaving the gristle for others (Richards 2003). They slip into such lexicons as ‘dunny’ and ‘dag’, like well-worn and well-loved robes; only donning new lexical attire after trying it on for size, and changing the colour from red, white and blue to green and gold. The Australian language is filled with examples of transmuting borrowed words into native lingo. ‘Pash’ is a great example. It is said to be an Americanism, but it’s about as ‘true blue’ as they come. Australians are also deft at creating words specifically for the Australian language landscape. These words all tend to carry Australians’ finely honed sense of irony, as in ‘wanker’ and ‘dag’; a good-natured sense of humour, as in ‘anklebiter’ and ‘bum nuts’; and a ‘tell-it-like-it-is’ attitude, as in ‘ear bash’, ‘smash repairs’ and ‘toilet’. For the most part, newcomers, such as ‘movie’ and ‘vacation’ do not displace the native variety, but rather ‘create a new lexical space’ (Wajnryb 2005).

Ciao for now!
Renée