Australian English - The National Language: 90 (Contributions to the Sociology of Language [CSL]) - Softcover

"The breadth of information Leitner brings together in this series makes it a perfect ready-reference and springboard for casual enthusiast and scholars of Australian languagues alike."Louisa Willoughby in: Linguist List 16.955 "One can only commend the book's underlying aim, to provide a unified description of Australian English, within a contemporary linguistic paradigm. It brings light sources that will be of interest to future researchers and provides a map of that very large geographical and sociolinguistic landscape."Pam Peters in: Journal of English Linguistics 6/2005 "Leitner is not the first to conceive the idea of relating language developments with the socio-political history of the continent, but he has done it more extensively than earlier writers like Jupp, Ozolins, Clyne and Mitchell. And he is the first to explore the possibility of treating all the major questions within a single overarching concept. And that makes history!"Arthur Delbridge in Zeitschrift fur Australienstudien, 19, 2005 "These volumes really are now the standard reference work on the Australian language habitat, past and present; every library should have copies."Scott F. Kiesling in: World Englishes

Australia's English is at the centre of interest in English and Australian Studies. It is indispensable to an understanding of the development of English world-wide. This book develops a comprehensive, descriptive, and sociohistorical view of mainstream Australian English and of the social processes that have made it possible for it to become the national language of Australia reaching out into the Asia-Pacific region. This study is both of interest for specialists from a range of language and policy disciplines, and for non-specialists with no background in linguistics. Both will find its discursive, non-technical style appealing.