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The Aitch Factor: Adventures in Australian English
Only dead languages don't change; living ones change all the time.
From aitch to amazeballs, from mondegreens to man boobs, there is no topic too controversial or complex for Australia's most influential editor, Susan Butler. Sue, long-time editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, takes you on an insightful, often hilarious exploration of the words you think you know and a few you've never heard. She looks at why we keep changing our pronunciation of Beijing, when to use a hyphen, why we really should just take a stand and ban the apostrophe, and why saying 'Haitch' once meant social death in certain circles.
This beautifully designed, quirky gift book is sure to delight word lovers and language aficionados from Melbourne to Mooloolaba.
From aitch to amazeballs, from mondegreens to man boobs, there is no topic too controversial or complex for Australia's most influential editor, Susan Butler. Sue, long-time editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, takes you on an insightful, often hilarious exploration of the words you think you know and a few you've never heard. She looks at why we keep changing our pronunciation of Beijing, when to use a hyphen, why we really should just take a stand and ban the apostrophe, and why saying 'Haitch' once meant social death in certain circles.
This beautifully designed, quirky gift book is sure to delight word lovers and language aficionados from Melbourne to Mooloolaba.
- GenresNonfictionLanguage
300 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2014
3 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Susan Butler
7 books13 followersSusan Butler was the Editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, Australia's national dictionary and, as Editor, was largely responsible for the selection and writing of new words. She is the author of the Dinkum Dictionary, The Aitch Factor, and New Words: Changes in Australian English (2020). She is also a regular commentator on Australian English on radio, television and the internet and was a TEDxSydney speaker in 2015. In June 2018, she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia. She is also, as of June 2018, an Honorary Lecturer at the ANU in the College of Asia and the Pacific. Sue now has her own website (www.suebutler.com.au) where she blogs on aspects of Australian English.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 20, 2015
If you've ever been interested in the history of words and phrases in Australian modern English (as well as the development of new ones), then The Aitch Factor by Susan Butler is the book for you.
Susan Butler began working at the Macquarie Dictionary as a Research Assistant in 1970 and is the current Editor; being uniquely situated to offer decades of experience on all manner of topics relating to the English language as it is spoken here in Australia.
I found myself laughing at some of the entries and observations, and Butler's sense of humour definitely shines throughout on almost every page.
She discusses the subtle differences in language between the states and territories, as well as touching on regional words and slang, which I found very entertaining.
One of Butler's roles at Macquarie is to collect new words (like firescape*), and determine when they should be added to the dictionary. Words like binge-watching, dental-tourism and facepalm seem self-explanatory and clever constructs and indicate an ever changing use of slang and buzz words.
What I found most shocking though, was Butler's stance on the apostrophe. I agree that the humble apostrophe is largely misused these days, but she believes we can do without it completely. I'd hate to see this happen, but what do you think?
The Aitch Factor is a great read for word lovers and trivia buffs the world over.
* Firescape means: to arrange the features of a garden (or other area of land) in a way that inhibits the spread of fire. Who knew?
Susan Butler began working at the Macquarie Dictionary as a Research Assistant in 1970 and is the current Editor; being uniquely situated to offer decades of experience on all manner of topics relating to the English language as it is spoken here in Australia.
I found myself laughing at some of the entries and observations, and Butler's sense of humour definitely shines throughout on almost every page.
She discusses the subtle differences in language between the states and territories, as well as touching on regional words and slang, which I found very entertaining.
One of Butler's roles at Macquarie is to collect new words (like firescape*), and determine when they should be added to the dictionary. Words like binge-watching, dental-tourism and facepalm seem self-explanatory and clever constructs and indicate an ever changing use of slang and buzz words.
What I found most shocking though, was Butler's stance on the apostrophe. I agree that the humble apostrophe is largely misused these days, but she believes we can do without it completely. I'd hate to see this happen, but what do you think?
The Aitch Factor is a great read for word lovers and trivia buffs the world over.
* Firescape means: to arrange the features of a garden (or other area of land) in a way that inhibits the spread of fire. Who knew?
August 8, 2014
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 begins with the Haitch vs Aitch debate (my maternal grandmother in particular would have been horrified had I ever pronounced the letter H as 'Haitch') and goes on to explore other topics like Capitalisation, Internet gibberish, The attraction of slang and How do words get into the dictionary?
Butler is not without a sense of humour which these essays also reflect with subjects that include, Should man boobs be in the dictionary?, The mystery of the bogan, and her recommendation that we adopt Canadian spelling as an international standard over British or American English.
I was most impressed, and feel somewhat vindicated, to learn that Butler considers (and history proves) the apostrophe to be 'an artifice of writing, a grammarian's flourish' and actually advocates that we forgo it entirely given it is possible to do so without any effect on our comprehension of written language. Ive often thought its true, and shes right, isnt she?
An ideal gift for language lovers, or pedantics, grammar Nazi's or wordsmiths, The Aitch Factor is an entertaining and illuminating treatise on the ever evolving landscape of language.
February 4, 2015
I have made a startling discovery today: The Spouse has been bandicooting! The photograph on my blog is the evidence.
The bandicoot, as Australians know, is a cute and furry marsupial unique to our shores. (Well, nearly unique. Apparently there are some in New Guinea, but I think we own the brand.) Cute it may be, but its habit of digging means that it has few friends among gardeners and farmers, and in less enlightened times it was hunted for sport and to augment the family table. (Bandicoot stew, anyone?)
Its reputation as a pest led to some Australianisms such as miserable as a bandicoot and barmy as a bandicoot. In the 1900s when Australian writers romanticised other elements of bush life, the poor old bandicoot – as exemplified in Norman Lindsay’s The Magic Pudding – was stuck with its personification as slightly stupid and of low status with a blend of timidity and cunning.
And what does all this have to do with potatoes?
The verb, to bandicoot, derives from potato farming in Victoria in the 1890s. It captures the action of digging around the roots of the potato plant to steal the tubers without disturbing the plant.
The Aitch FactorI am indebted to one of my dearest friends for this delightful augmentation of my Aussie idiom
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/01/25/th...
The bandicoot, as Australians know, is a cute and furry marsupial unique to our shores. (Well, nearly unique. Apparently there are some in New Guinea, but I think we own the brand.) Cute it may be, but its habit of digging means that it has few friends among gardeners and farmers, and in less enlightened times it was hunted for sport and to augment the family table. (Bandicoot stew, anyone?)
Its reputation as a pest led to some Australianisms such as miserable as a bandicoot and barmy as a bandicoot. In the 1900s when Australian writers romanticised other elements of bush life, the poor old bandicoot – as exemplified in Norman Lindsay’s The Magic Pudding – was stuck with its personification as slightly stupid and of low status with a blend of timidity and cunning.
And what does all this have to do with potatoes?
The verb, to bandicoot, derives from potato farming in Victoria in the 1890s. It captures the action of digging around the roots of the potato plant to steal the tubers without disturbing the plant.
The Aitch FactorI am indebted to one of my dearest friends for this delightful augmentation of my Aussie idiom
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/01/25/th...
January 10, 2022
This book is an ode to language and how it is constantly changing. However, she could have summed this up in one chapter instead of an entire book. It felt very repetitive and it feels like some of the chapters don't really go anywhere. There were still some facts that I found interesting.
March 17, 2017
Clever book. Inspired me to buy a (her) thesaurus and look up the meaning of lots more words a lot of which were ones she used in this book! I would definitely borrow this book again, almost as if just to take a few notes of interesting conversation pieces and I don't consider myself anywhere near well versed in lexicography.
February 20, 2015
This is a sort of interim report by long-time editor Susan Butler of the Macquarie Dictionary (Australia’s National Dictionary) about the trials and tribulations (for want of a better phrase) lying in wait for those held “responsible” for language development (or at least reporting about it) in Australia.
There are about 106 or so chapters to this 275 page book, so it is obvious that each chapter is quite short and usually quite pithy — Butler writes simply and authoritatively on the many issues Dictionary Editors have to deal with. The problem, of course, is that with living languages, especially the English language, the “rules” are flexible, to say the least. Of some interest to outsiders, this book could provide some insights into the vagaries of Australian English; but this is more for popular local consumption than anything else. There are no deep linguistic analyses to be found here; nor is there any strong argument one way or the other as to what, exactly, is the preferred usage. Butler gives her opinion on some of the more “contentious” issues, of course — but no one is urged to make specific preferences. A Dictionary is there to represent actual usage, not “correctness” (and that, of course, is a problem in itself).
A specific difficulty (in my opinion) lies in our modern technologies, which respond almost instantly to neologisms, alternative spellings, jargon, patois, etc., and even deliberate obfuscation in some instances — all those things which in a non-digital age were local, yes, but would hardly have survived more than a decade or so. Yet all of these are always readily available and easily inserted into new and ever-expanding digital Dictionaries, giving them a longer life and authority than would have otherwise resulted. In the not-so-distant past, the sheer length of time in searching out and determining the extent of “variations”, then getting them into hard copy and distributed extensively, would have weeded out quite a lot of guff. Nowadays, however, every single variation and idiosyncrasy is perpetuated indiscriminately. Whether this is good in the long term for the survival of the language is problematic. In a weird sort of way the very success of English on the international level may very well contribute to its decline: a kind of modern Tower of Babel, where just about any variation is “acceptable” (if only in certain areas or regions) to the extent of eventually confounding rather than illuminating discourse and literature. In the end fewer and fewer will be able to communicate effectively
Such a scenario, of course, is unduly melodramatic and apocalyptic. Killing the language (i.e. making it a “dead” language, where only “approved” spellings, pronunciations and definitions are tolerated) would be just as horrific a scenario. As usual in discourses such as this, one can simply opt for some kind of middle ground — or, indeed, not opt for any side in particular, and just let it all hang out, as it were — let it be: simply note, notate and notify… Ultimately, it’s not a race, nor a competition; and nowadays, less numerous English speakers of a certain style have a better chance of surviving than ever before. It could all be very enriching and stimulating and exciting… Or not.
Welcome to multiple Englishes!
There are about 106 or so chapters to this 275 page book, so it is obvious that each chapter is quite short and usually quite pithy — Butler writes simply and authoritatively on the many issues Dictionary Editors have to deal with. The problem, of course, is that with living languages, especially the English language, the “rules” are flexible, to say the least. Of some interest to outsiders, this book could provide some insights into the vagaries of Australian English; but this is more for popular local consumption than anything else. There are no deep linguistic analyses to be found here; nor is there any strong argument one way or the other as to what, exactly, is the preferred usage. Butler gives her opinion on some of the more “contentious” issues, of course — but no one is urged to make specific preferences. A Dictionary is there to represent actual usage, not “correctness” (and that, of course, is a problem in itself).
A specific difficulty (in my opinion) lies in our modern technologies, which respond almost instantly to neologisms, alternative spellings, jargon, patois, etc., and even deliberate obfuscation in some instances — all those things which in a non-digital age were local, yes, but would hardly have survived more than a decade or so. Yet all of these are always readily available and easily inserted into new and ever-expanding digital Dictionaries, giving them a longer life and authority than would have otherwise resulted. In the not-so-distant past, the sheer length of time in searching out and determining the extent of “variations”, then getting them into hard copy and distributed extensively, would have weeded out quite a lot of guff. Nowadays, however, every single variation and idiosyncrasy is perpetuated indiscriminately. Whether this is good in the long term for the survival of the language is problematic. In a weird sort of way the very success of English on the international level may very well contribute to its decline: a kind of modern Tower of Babel, where just about any variation is “acceptable” (if only in certain areas or regions) to the extent of eventually confounding rather than illuminating discourse and literature. In the end fewer and fewer will be able to communicate effectively
Such a scenario, of course, is unduly melodramatic and apocalyptic. Killing the language (i.e. making it a “dead” language, where only “approved” spellings, pronunciations and definitions are tolerated) would be just as horrific a scenario. As usual in discourses such as this, one can simply opt for some kind of middle ground — or, indeed, not opt for any side in particular, and just let it all hang out, as it were — let it be: simply note, notate and notify… Ultimately, it’s not a race, nor a competition; and nowadays, less numerous English speakers of a certain style have a better chance of surviving than ever before. It could all be very enriching and stimulating and exciting… Or not.
Welcome to multiple Englishes!
February 19, 2015
This book is written by an editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, and it's full of snippets of info about Australian English. Some of them are very interesting - some not so much - and the author does tend to ramble a bit about her own opinion about several topics.
Probably only worth reading if you are a) a bit of a grammar Nazi; b) interested in Australian English and a bit of Australian history.
Having been brought up in an "aitch" pronouncing household, the title of the book caught my attention :)
Probably only worth reading if you are a) a bit of a grammar Nazi; b) interested in Australian English and a bit of Australian history.
Having been brought up in an "aitch" pronouncing household, the title of the book caught my attention :)
December 26, 2014
An entertaining and thought-provoking series of anecdotes about Australian English, how we use it, why we use it the way we do and why sometimes the English teachers among us need to calm down a bit on correcting everyone and everything. Highly recommended.
June 2, 2015
I personally loved this book, however I studied Linguistics at university and am a native Australian English speaker. I got a lot of laughs and learnt some new things about this unique language of ours. Beautiful and bizarre.
Want to read
February 13, 2015Given to husband for birthday 14/2/15 after reading review by Lisa Hill
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews