NEW ZEALAND SLANG

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 197, 17 May 1941, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND SLANG

Place Of Colloquialisms In

The Language

“New Zealand Slang,” a dictionary of colloquialisms, by Sidney J. Baker f Wellington: Wliitcombe and Tombs).

There are many fascinating avenues of research into which most people never bother to wander. One might be tempted to say unthinkingly that New Zealand slang did not seem a very promising subject for study. Air. Baker, a former Wellington journalist now living in Sydney, in contributing the first survey of its kind in New Zealand, proves conclusively and without difficulty that entirely the opposite is the case. New Zealand is a young country in the process of developing a national individuality, slowly lessening her dependence in cultural matters on the place from which most of her early settlers came. Mr. Baker points out that our environment and many of our ways are different from those of Britain. Thus it is only natural, and also desirable, that the language we use to express our ideas should take on distinctive features, just as New Zealand literature and art, to be truly representative and pot copies of something else, must clearly mirror conditions of life in the Dominion and the outlook of its people. So the way in which, through the years, we have gathered together the picturesque and telling modes of expression called slang—and the slang of today has a habit of being admitted to the most respectable dictionary company of tomorrow —offers an opportunity for examining one aspect of our national development. In this book is set forth something of what our language owes to the Maoris, the “rough diamonds” among the early whaling population. the immigrants who settled the country, the gold miners; and, later, the Australians who are our neighbours, and the Americans who, apart from providing us with a good many of the amenities of modern life, tire adepts at coining -succinct words and phrases. Mr. Baker is concerned with recording what has already happened and stating an ideal, and the possibilities thus opened up he has exploited well. It is obvious that long hours of patient research have gone into the compilation of this list of colloquialisms and the result of his efforts is a book which may be studied with both interest and profit, and one which, by virtue of its subject matter and the manner of its presentation, will merit a place in many a New Zealander’s library.