The ANU is moving to kill the Australian National Dictionary

Bonzer. Dinkum. Troppo. We love our distinctive words and expressions.

We love the confusion they cause to foreigners. We celebrate the stories behind it. We even create a few furphie about them.

However, what many Australians may not know is that a private team at the National University of Australia (Anu) for nearly 40 years is that these past stories – real and furphy – and closely follow new ones.

You will find it difficult to find a more determined group of verbal patriots. Everything you know, you want to know or hear is Australian words Australian National Dictionary Center (And). From the media to academics, to daily Australians, we all trust these silent patriots – even if we don’t always know.

But despite this work and Central (and Funded by the State) role Anu is to play in the history and identity of Australia, Anu Leadership Kill Andc. The university has stated that the decision is a necessary part of the decision to reduce operating costs.

‘The story of our language is our story: Will the Australian national dictionary center go to Bung?’ By Amanda Laugesen and Frank Bongiorno https://t.co/YA2OOU80MR

– Andc (@ozworders) 2 August 2025

Dictionaries and our sense of national self

Dictionaries help define and reflect the identity of a nation. When Samuel Johnson broadcasts in a famous way English Language Dictionary In 1755, Many of them were celebrated He and his 40 French academics of a handful of assistants realized in the nine years when they took in the half -century.

Dictionaries are particularly important for colonial English, such as those spoken in many countries, including Australia and the United States. At first, people looked at these British.

Noah Webster in the USA It was mocked For his proposal, Americans should defend their linguistic independence from England. US periodical publications are clearly hostile, Jeering Webster’s “rude deviations” and “illiterate and harmful” language views.

However, when Webster’s Dictionary of American Language emerged in 1828, this formed the global importance of new English. Mark Twain He wrote soon:

The king’s English is not the king. This is a joint stock company, and Americans have most of the shares.

Australia’s colonial English made a slow start – “Basic Language of British thieves” And “rough, amorphous and careless”But at the end of the 19th century, the Australians began to celebrate different words. BulletinIn books like Sidney Baker’s Australian languageAnd in dictionaries like Ee Morris Australian language.

Nevertheless, many of them really called for a national dictionary to capture the way the Australians speak. Australian lexicographer Peter Davies wrote In 1975:

Strong cultures are proud and interested in their language and literature by building great works in honor.

Working in Aussie English and building living monuments

Finally, in the 1980s, the Australians stopped taking linguistic tips from England. By publication Macquarie dictionary In 1981 and Australian National Dictionary In 1988, the language found its local voice.

However, these works differ about Australian English. . Macquarie dictionary As they are used in Australia, it explains the writing, pronunciation and definitions of English words.

. Australian National Dictionary (AND) It bases our words and meanings on historical and cultural contexts. . AND He tells us where the words come from, when they first used it, and how their meanings change over time. In short, AND As Australians, it is a living, breathing and developing record of how the language is clinging to who we are.

Anu crown jewelery

It was celebrated by the previous chances, the Australian Biography Dictionary and the other national project Australian National Dictionary are threatened by university outages https://t.co/22Qxrws4kf pic.twitter.com/8t03fbcbnu

– chass (@chass_aus) 22 July 2025

Don Laycock as a linguist He wrote once“There is no other dictionary like this in the world”. His Pages Tell Song “Border rider, Larrikins, Sundowners, Fizgigs, Excavators and other Dinkum Aussies”. Sidney J. Baker controversial “Australian language [was] Something to be taken into consideration with him ”was due to these iconic characters.

But the first editor of the dictionary Bill Ramson, It wasn’t as romantic as Baker. Ramson asked for an academic and historical work – he left the romantic side of Australia English to the rest.

As a monument for an academic study or rather for Australian English AND It is unique. Second edition, It was released in 2016It includes more than 16,000 words and word phrases history. Moreover, the second edition made Sert Yakka to accept the effect of indigenous words on our English (including words such as yak yakka in Yakka).

But AND It is more than an academic source – insights inform the media, education and daily life. We (authors) every year with hundreds of media views, we talk about Australia English on a wide range and we talk and we both wrote high school texts Discovering its history and use. Howard Manns Developed recently A SBS program To introduce newcomers to Australia English.

Most importantly, And The research not only supports this work, but also makes it possible.

‘The most patriotic thing so far’?

When Australian National Dictionary First – by Oxford University Press in the UK – some of them are baulked on foreign participation. Australian publisher Kevin Weldon in 1983 Even called The “the most not patriotic thing so far”, who objected to the arrangement of a New Zealanda (Bill Ramson) and a British woman (Joan Hughes).

History, of course, justified them – and others, whether or not this cultural turning point, Australia, which helps to create the cultural turning point.

But Weldon wasn’t necessarily wrong. Finally, it looks like American -style management Andc will be the death. Weldon certainly did not predict that it was the most not the most patriotic thing so far – – AND – There will be an action by the Australians at the National University of Australia.

In a statement, Anu explained Speech: “This decision reflects the need to reduce recurrent operating costs while providing sustainable burial of basic academic activities in schools and colleges”.

Cutting Andc is not a short -sized administrative decision to save only a few pounds. Australian cultural heritage and academics’ past, present and future of the Australians to help us understand our English and identities to help us to understand the deliberate.

This dictionary is a national asset – after we go, we lose the live record of our national voice.

This article has been re -published here Speech.