Kidspeak. - book review

By June Factor. Melbourne: University of Melbourne Press, 2000. 244 pp. A$43.95 (hbk). ISBN 0-522-84790-0

June Factor, Senior Fellow at the Australian Centre of the University of Melbourne, presents us here with a splendid dictionary of Australian children's vernacular language covering the second half of the twentieth century. As Iona Opie comments in her foreword, it is "a most welcome tool for those of us who dig in the field of children's folklore."

The primary sources for the book are the archives of the Australian Children's Folklore Collection, collection sheets specific to this project, colloquial language used in the media, and unpublished memoirs and letters. Secondary sources include publications such as autobiographies and novels. The book has two aims: to record--uncensored-meanings and usages of colloquial language in the second half of the last century; and to acknowledge the central role of play and the language of play. The compilation highlights the influence of popular culture and points out the strong aesthetic in colloquial speech and the linguistic resources available to children. The striking use of metaphor--for instance, in a phrase such as "Aspro: a stupid person, a slow-working dope" or "over-shoulder boulder holder" for brassiere--points to children's love of playing with words. Similarly, their delight in rhyming slang, playful reconstruction of words, punning and love of absurdity are all demonstrated in the language of young Australians.

The language illustrates the increasing influence of American culture, but the resources Australian children draw on also include old English words such as "gammon" that have dropped out of standard British English, Aboriginal words and words from recent immigrant languages such as Greek, Italian or Arabic. The dictionary also demonstrates regional variations, with children in Darwin, for instance, making good use of Aboriginal terms, while children in Victoria, where there are many Italian immigrants, may well use words or phrases derived from Italian, even if they are not themselves of Italian origin.

The book runs from "ABC," with its two meanings of a skipping game based on the alphabet and an insulting acronym standing for "Aboriginal bum cleaner," to "zzz," a sound that mimics snoring, used to feign sleep. It is not for the faint-hearted or for anyone with an over-romantic view of childhood. Factor tells it how it is. The book contains, for example, twenty colloquial synonyms for female genitalia, twenty-eight for penis and an astonishing fifty-five for sexual intercourse! Because of the frankness of the language, Factor seems to have experienced some difficulty with publishers, her first having withdrawn for fear of offending their usual readership. Happily, the University of Melbourne Press has had more courage and recognised the value of the collection, for, as Factor herself comments, "vulgarity is a treasured mode of speech performance for a large number of young people, a form of linguistic subversion and is well represented in Kidspeak."

The dictionary is well-researched, clearly laid out and, above all, fun. It can be ordered on the MUP website (http://www.mup.com.au) or by e-mailing the publisher at publish@mup.unimelb.edu.au

Mavis Curtis, National Centre for English Cultural Tradition, University of Sheffield, UK

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