Author Archive
Monday, May 30th, 2011
Taking Slut Back: How a word gets reclaimed
This post will obviously contain language that may offend. So stop now if you’re a prude. Cross-posted at Fully (sic). In Melbourne on Saturday, more than 2000 women and men gathered for a protest called slutwalk. The immediate catalyst for the march was the indiscretion of a Toronto police officer who was giving a routine [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in English,Linguistics,Politics,Sociolinguistics by jangari
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
Something fishy with MyKi
Melbourne, as many people will be aware, has been in the process of unveiling a new, fancy integrated ticketing system to replace the old magnetic tickets. Just like Sydney’s Tcard, the MyKi has suffered cost blowouts and delays, and since its release has been marred by lack of broad take-up in the community, and problems [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Linguistics by jangari
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Virgin sexes up job ad genre
A friend pointed me in the direction of this job advertisement the other day. It appears to be for a cleaner in a gym. Apart from the obvious euphemy in the job description, I was intrigued by the subversion of the job ad genre1. Here is the ad in full: Changeroom & Poolside Assistant Bit [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in English,Euphemism,Linguistics,Media,Writing by jangari
Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
Tweemo
Just saw this word on an online forum and was so impressed, I thought I’d share it with the blogosphere: Tweemo: n. derog. Of or pertaining to Twitter and Emos, i.e., immature and whiny. Eg: Walking backwards is such a tweemo form of ‘protest’! (source)
No Comments » - Posted in English,Lexicography,Linguistics by jangari
Friday, February 4th, 2011
Googleganger: Word of the Year?
I read today that Macquarie Dictionary have named their Word of the Year for 2010: Googleganger. The word is immediately understandable; a googleganger is someone that has the same name as you, whom you find when egosearching on Google. Quite obviously it is a blend of Google and doppelganger. However I have a few apprehensions [...]
No Comments » - Posted in English,Lexicography,Linguistics,Media by jangari
Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
Resurrecting the Blog
This is evidently my first post in some six months and I have to confess, I have been thinking about throwing in the towel altogether. Two of the reasons for this were that I have been writing (although again, not lately) on Fully (sic), Crikey’s language blog, and that I was so busy teaching over [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Bilingualism,Education,English,Fieldwork,Indigenous,Languages,Linguistics,Politics,Tiwi by jangari
Friday, April 16th, 2010
A quixotic debate
This week, an argument has been being waged in the Opinion section of the Sydney Morning Herald about the effect of the internet on language. It started with an article on Tuesday about Australian author Cate Kennedy, who fears literature is being threatened by the internet. She’s referring specifically to writers who become addicted to [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in English,Languages,Linguistics,Media,Technology,Writing by jangari
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
My new toy
On Sunday I went to the triannual1 Sydney Camera Market, which was basically a room full of old cameras, lenses, filters, as well as some new stuff. As an amateur photographer trying my hand at film photography, I found it very interesting. I’d never seen a Hasselblad in the flesh, and there was a huge [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Photography by jangari
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Rite of passage
I just arrived home after having my very first bicycle-vehicle collision, so I feel like I’ve had my initiation into cycling in Sydney (after cycling in and around Sydney for more than 18 months). I’m not injured – just a bruise on my thigh, a scratched arm, a sore hip and a tender shoulder (where [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Nothing in particular by jangari
Friday, November 27th, 2009
“The Greens won’t do anything about it”
As I was leaving the house the other morning, I took a quick look in the letterbox and found a small, fridge magnet-sized flyer: I have to confess, I have no idea what the message in this is supposed to be. Why use the election cycle as the frame of reference? Is this an election [...]
