by Dorothy Jauncey (Oxford Uuniveristy Press)

THE following words and phrases are not South Australian: dugout, maisonette, miners cottage, pasty, reap, terrace, Bible Christian and Black Knight. So how did they get into Bardi Grubs and Frog Cakes? Judging by its title, and because it originated from the Australian National Dictionary Centre at the Australian National University, I expected this to be a dictionary of words derived from Aboriginal languages, coined here or used with specific local meanings. This expectation was consistent with the back cover blurb referring to “the 500 regional words listed”. However, the introduction states that it is “a collection of words that are associated [my emphasis] … with South Australia”. The difference is very significant.

Most headwords – about half of which are phrases – fall into three categories: imports by Cornish and German migrants, Aboriginal, and proper nouns. The book is divided into seven thematic chapters: Aboriginal, early colonial, Cornish, German, “Wealth from the Land”, “The Outback” and the “Lifestyle State”. Each has its own explanatory and historical introduction.

The entries are thorough, informative, usually with much historical detail, and some are fascinating. One unnecessarily comprehensive entry marks this as a book of our time, for it contains a simple recipe for a powerful explosive made from readily available ingredients. On the negative side, examples of early use are too rare – the earliest for frog cake is 1998; for (pie) floater, 1999; and for bungalow, 2001. Help with pronunciation is rarer and more would be welcome, especially with such German words as melodienacht.

These are mere quibbles compared with the book’s overwhelming flaw: the choice of words and phrases is subjective to the point of bizarreness. Many are entirely of English origin and usage. Even if one accepts the selection criterion of “association”, the choice remains bizarre, as evidenced by the most common sentence type in the book: “Air shafts are neither unique in word nor occurrence to South Australia, but their proliferation at the opal mining town of Coober Pedy warrants their inclusion here”. So the author is aware that many choices are problematic. Just how problematic is shown by comparing inclusions with omissions. Barossa Pearl and Sparkling Rhinegold are in, but not Para Port; Balfours but not Coopers, Ditters, Haighs or Sym Choons; Hills Hoist and Stobie pole but neither iron lung nor pedal wireless; Advanced School for Girls and model school (which “dates from 1854 in England”) but not Native School Establishment; Tuna Toss but not (Johnnies’) Christmas Pageant.
Word choice in any project such as this will always be argued about. However, in this case it is so arbitrary, at times farcical, that the book is scarcely true to part of its title: South Australian Words. From Bardi Grubs to Frog Cakes is neither fish nor fowl, but falls somewhere between a lexicon and a glossary to a history book.