The Aitch Factor

Front Cover
Macmillan Publishers Aus., Aug 1, 2014 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 300 pages
2 Reviews

Living languages change all the time, but many of us wish they didn't.

For thirty years, Macquarie Dictionary editor Susan Butler has been in the front row watching Australians alternatively defend, reject, embrace and argue heatedly about every aspect of language usage. She has witnessed crusades against 'youse', ducked the missiles over the phrase 'man boobs', pondered the changing pronunciation of 'Beijing', recorded - controversially - the evolving meaning of 'misogyny' and wondered why on earth we still cling to the grammarian's flourish known as the apostrophe.

Drawing on her own depth of experience, community consultation and the odd letter of outrage, Butler chronicles her unique adventures with the wonderfully malleable but strangely resilient beast known as the English language, and pays particular attention to the way Australians have trained it to fit their circumstances.
Entertaining, insightful and occasionally irreverent, The Aitch Factor is the perfect book for word warriors, punctuation pedants and everyday lovers of language.

 

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LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Fliss88 - LibraryThing

Some very interesting reading here, written by the editor of the Macquarie Dictionary. All about words and how we use them. Words we use everyday, words some of us would never use, some words we've ... Read full review

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - shelleyraec - LibraryThing

The Aitch Factor by Susan Butler, a long-time editor of the Australian Macquarie Dictionary, contains a series of short essays about language, its history, development and idiosyncrasies. Butler ... Read full review

Selected pages

Contents

Cover
Australian values
Bush
Digger
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The Aitch Factor: Adventures in Australian English
Susan Butler
No preview available - 2014

Common terms and phrases

accepted American English American spelling apostrophe Australian English Australian values bandicoot blog bogan boom bowerbird British English burqini bush bush compounds capture century citation clever cliché colloquial colourful compounds context correct culture definition dialect dictionary editors edition empanadas English language entry etymology example expression fair dinkum fashion Fiji flash folk etymology Google haitch headword honour hyphenated hypocoristic jargon joke Kevin Rudd kind label language community larrikin Latin lexicographer lexicon Linguicism linguistic literally look Macquarie Dictionary meaning misandry misogyny Mondegreen muffin top noun one’s origin particular Paul Keating person phrase political popular Prime Minister pronunciation reference remember rhyming slang seems sense Shakespeare someone sometimes sound speakers speech standard stereotype style Sydney taboo talk term thing tourism trademark ugg boot un-Australian usage variation variety of English Vaux verb vowel word writing youse

About the author (2014)

Susan Butler is the Editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, Australia's national dictionary, and, as Editor, is largely responsible for the selection and writing of new words. She has been Publisher since the early 80s. In late 2013 the Sixth Edition of the dictionary was published, with a revised and updated range of dictionaries in print, online and in digital and app forms. When one edition is published she immediately begins the next, so work has begun on the Seventh Edition.

Susan has written the Dinkum Dictionary, published in its third edition in 2009. She is also a regular commentator on Australian English on radio, television and the internet.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The Aitch Factor
TitleThe Aitch Factor
AuthorSue Butler
PublisherMacmillan Publishers Aus., 2014
ISBN174353339X, 9781743533390
Length300 pages
Subjects › 

Language Arts & Disciplines / Reference
  
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