15.3240, Review: Sociolinguistics: Willoughby (2004)

Thu Nov 18 23:39:53 UTC 2004

LINGUIST List: Vol-15-3240. Thu Nov 18 2004. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 15.3240, Review: Sociolinguistics: Willoughby (2004)                                                                                                                                                                     

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1)
Date: 18-Nov-2004
From: Louisa Willoughby < Louisa.Willoughby at arts.monash.edu.au >
Subject: Australia's Many Voices: Australian English - The National Language 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 18:37:22
From: Louisa Willoughby < Louisa.Willoughby at arts.monash.edu.au >
Subject: Australia's Many Voices: Australian English - The National Language 

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 16:54:47 +1000
From: Louisa Willoughby <Louisa.Willoughby at arts.monash.edu.au>
Subject: Australia's Many Voices: Australian English - The National Language

AUTHOR: Leitner, Gerhard 
TITLE: Australia's Many Voices 
SUBTITLE: Australian English - The National Language 
SERIES: Contributions to the Sociology of Language 
PUBLISHER: Mouton de Gruyter 
YEAR: 2004 
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-2118.html

Louisa Willoughby, Language and Society Centre, Monash University

INTRODUCTION

Gerhard Leitner's book, together with its companion volume Australia's 
Many Voices: Ethnic Englishes, Indigenous and Migrant Language, Policy 
and Education, provides what is undoubtedly the most comprehensive 
survey of Australian English to date. This much anticipated series charts the 
development of Australian English from settlement to the present day, 
covering topics as varied as lexical borrowings from Aboriginal languages, 
origins of the Australia accent and variations within it, the impact of the 
Macquarie dictionary and other codification attempts and Ethnic and 
Aboriginal varieties of Australian English (covered predominantly in volume 
two). While some readers may already be familiar with much of the material 
presented, Leitner is to be commended for the lucidity with which he draws 
together numerous small-scale studies into a grand history of English in 
Australia.

SUMMARY

The division of labour across Australia's Many Voices: Australian English - 
the national language may strike some readers as slightly unusual, as 
Chapter 3 comprises around two thirds of the book, with the remaining 
three chapters essentially serving as introduction and coda to the main 
argument.

Chapter one "Australia's Language Habitat" introduces the diversity of 
Australia's language habitat, both past and present, and demonstrates the 
difficulties of precisely defining both what (mainstream) Australian English 
is, and what it's origins are. In order to answer these questions, Leitner 
outlines the following key areas for investigation: 

"1. what features of language are affected by contact and interaction?" 
"2. what has happened to the old language habitat as people of different 
     language and cultural backgrounds started to interact?" 
"3. what has changed in the lives of languages?" and 
"4. what was and is the role and impact of the society and of elite sections of 
     it?" (p 13). 

These questions, as well as Leitner's ensuing model of language 
development in a new habitat (represented diagrammatically on p 21), give 
the book a theoretical grounding much stronger than earlier surveys of 
Australian English (such as Burridge and Mulder or Blair and Collins), and 
provide theoretical food for thought for all linguists working on contact 
languages. Indeed, many linguists may be interested in the book solely for 
the strength of its contribution to the field of contact linguistics, and will no 
doubt be pleased to hear that the theoretical underpinnings so thoroughly 
developed in Chapter one are referred back to throughout the book. The 
chapter concludes by drawing a distinction between mainstream Australian 
English (the focus of this volume) and Aboriginal and Migrant varieties of 
Australian English (the focus of volume two). While Leitner acknowledges 
that the boundaries between the mainstream Australian English and other 
varieties are highly permeable, for the purposes of this book he defines 
mainstream Australian English as "the nationally dominant ... [variety which] 
now influences any variety, and indeed any indigenous and migrant LOTE 
on the continent" (p35).

Chapter two "The Demography of Australian's Language Habitat" provides 
the background on Australia's chequered immigration history necessary to 
understand the complex beast that is mainstream Australian English today. 
The basic story of Chapter two should be familiar to most Australians or 
those interested in Australian history, however the detail with which Leitner 
explores immigration - particularly pre 1900 - makes it an interesting read 
for all. Readers less familiar with Australian history and society will find this 
chapter particularly useful, not least for it's analysis of subtle differences in 
immigration patterns between the States and Territories and their 
implications for language use in those areas today. In addition to profiles of 
Anglo-Celtic, European and Asian migration patterns, Leitner provides a 
brief overview of the Aboriginal situation since white settlement, which, 
although more relevant to volume two in the series, is crucial to 
understanding the linguistic situation Australia's Aboriginal communities 
find themselves in today.

As mentioned previously, chapter three "Australian English: the national 
language" advances the bulk of Leitner's argument and therefore warrants a 
somewhat extended summary. The first section of chapter three deals with 
attitudes towards mainstream Australian English both locally and overseas 
over the past 200 years. Leitner sees pride in an Australian accent or way of 
speech as arising in the late 19th century as the country moved towards 
federation only to decline under the effects of colonial cringe (circa 1930-
70) before reasserting itself in recent history. This discussion leads 
naturally into section two, which deals with the British English heritage of 
mainstream Australian English, and through this the degree to which 
mainstream Australian English has deviated from British norms over time. 
The inventory of mainstream Australian English vowel phonemes, and 
comparison with their RP equivalents will be a highlight for phoneticians 
unfamiliar with the Australian accent, although as Leitner himself points 
out, the phonemic status of some of these phones remains under dispute. 
The subsections on lexis and grammar which follow the discussion on 
accent are commendable in their attempts to synthesise numerous small 
research projects on mainstream Australian English quirks in these areas, 
although the emphasis on how these forms reflect a British English heritage 
does become somewhat lost.

Section three moves the focus away from British influences to examine the 
effect of contact with Indigenous and migrant languages, and other 
varieties of English (American English, New Zealand English, Scots English 
etc). Going through each variety in turn, Leitner first examines lexical 
borrowings, (as this is where contact has had its most noticeable effect) 
before discussing their impact on mainstream Australian English syntax 
morphology and pronunciation, along the way providing attestations of 
current usage from a wide variety of media sources.

Section four deals with the long-running question of whether there are 
dialects within mainstream Australian English; approaching the question 
from the point of view of both regional and class-based variation. On the 
question of social stratification, Leitner concurs with Horvath (1985) in 
distinguishing four accents of mainstream Australian English - Cultivated, 
General, Broad and Ethnic Broad - and examines them from the point of 
view of vowel variants, use of the High Rising Terminal and realisation of -
ing. At a dialect level he examines the continuum from formal mainstream 
Australian English to slang, focussing

particularly on differences in lexis (primarily the love of swearing in 
colloquial Australian English) and grammar (nonstandard elements such as 
clause final but). On the question of Regional varieties Leitner draws heavily 
on the work of Pauline Bryant (particularly Bryant 1992) in order to develop 
a rough map of dialect regions within Australian (presented on page 255. 
While these areas have small differences in pronunciation and slightly larger 
ones at the lexical level, Leitner ends the section with a general caution that 
investigation into regional variation within Australian English is still in its 
infancy, and thus the findings presented remain preliminary.

Sections five and six both take a somewhat historical view of mainstream 
Australian English development - section five through looking at the 
influence of various institutions and codification attempts, and section six 
addressing the history directly. Section 5 begins with an extended look at 
the role of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as linguistic gatekeeper 
and self-appointed guardian of 'correct usage' over the past 70 years. It 
then moves to a discussion of the impact of the Macquarie dictionary (first 
published 1981), along the way giving a history of the project itself and an 
overview of its inclusion policy. Thereafter follows short sections on the 
impact of Government, style guides and PC language movements, with the 
section concluding by foreshadowing discussion in volume two of the 
influence of ESL education in Australia on norms and codification efforts. 
Section six attempts to tie the chapter together by considering if and how 
developments mentioned in earlier sections correlate with developments in 
Australian history. Like chapter two, the historical data presented in this 
chapter will be of most interest to those unfamiliar with Australian history, 
but even those with sound historical knowledge are likely to find something 
new in Leitner's overview of the interaction between Australia's 19th century 
history and dialect development. Leitner then closes the chapter with a very 
short 7th section on the language repertoire of the mainstream Australian 
English speech community in which he highlights the high levels of 
bilingualism in certain sections the Australian community and foreshadows 
many of the issues which will be addressed in volume two.

Chapter 4 "An Epi-Centre in the Asia-Pacific Region" provides a brief 
summation of the issues dealt with throughout the book. Within its eight 
pages it does however touch on the new issue of the status of Australian 
English within the Asia Pacific - essentially concluding that while still much 
less widely used than either British or American norms Australian English is 
gaining status and credence within the region due to the popularity of 
Australia as a destination for study, and Australia's increased political 
influence (and aid commitments) in the region. The book concludes with a 
warning that current trends in the development of mainstream Australian 
English point to it overwhelming other language varieties within Australia in 
the near future, and as such provides a poignant lead into a discussion of 
these varieties in volume two.

CRITICAL EVALUATION

Australia's Many Voices: Australian English - the national language is the 
result of years of careful scholarship, and as such presents by far the most 
comprehensive overview of Australian English on the market. The detail of 
Leitner's work may well frustrate those looking for a clear overview

of Australian English features, but those interested in unpacking the finer 
points of mainstream Australian English will not be disappointed. Leitner is 
to be particularly commended for the breadth of work synthesised within 
this volume, and the bibliography alone is an invaluable resource for those 
interested in most conceivable aspects of Australian English. That said, I feel 
the denseness of Leitner's prose, and some small stylistic eccentricities can 
make Australia's Many Voices: Australian English - the national language 
heavy going at times. However, as the book is clearly divided into sub-
sections which comprehensively address their topic readers interested in 
particular topics can easily navigate the book and skim over points not 
directly relevant to their own interests. As Leitner himself points out, 
elements of his analysis, such as the inventory of mainstream Australian 
English monophthongs are the subject of some dispute and alternative 
interpretation, and thus serious scholars should not accept all of Leitner's 
without criticism and reflection. That said Leitner generally provides 
convincing argumentation as to why his particular view should be adopted 
and even though (as a native speaker of Australian English) I found myself 
quibbling at times over definitions of 'typically Australian' words and the 
degree to which examples reflect current mainstream usage (as oppose to 
discourse, or occasionally region-specific quirks), I felt the quality of the 
analysis to be largely exceptional.

Since Australia's Many Voices: Australian English - the national language is 
after all volume one in a two-part series, it seems somewhat unfair to 
critique it as a stand-alone volume. However, while one's understanding of 
each volume is certainly enhanced by reading the other, it is more than 
possible to read each on its own and still gain valuable insights. Although 
Leitner's work is not for those in a hurry, it provides a comprehensive 
overview of mainstream Australian English accessible and interesting to 
native speakers and global scholars alike.

REFERENCES

Blair, David and Peter Collins (eds). 2001. "English in Australia". Amsterdam: 
Benjamins.

Bryant, Pauline. 1993. Regional Variation in the Australian English Lexicon. 
In "Style on the Move: Proceedings of Style Council 92. ed Pamela Peters. 
Macquarie University: Dictionary Research Centre. pp 31-42.

Burridge, Kate and Jean Mulder. 1998. "English in Australia and New 
Zealand. An introduction to its history structure and use". Melbourne: 
Oxford University Press.

Leitner, Gerhard. 2004. "Australia's Many Voices: Ethnic Englishes, 
Indigenous and Migrant Language, Policy and Education". Berlin: Mouton de 
Gruyter. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Louisa Willoughby is a PhD student with the Language and Society at 
Monash University, Clayton. Her doctoral research focuses on the 
relationship between language and cultural maintenance and identity 
construction among the teenage children of immigrants to Australia; 
though she is interested in all aspects of the interaction between language 
use and identity construction.

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