Book Review: "Word Watching" by Julian Burnside

There's something about words that takes me into a whole new world. I love the idea of pouring over a word's meaning, etymology and how it came to be used - the more obscure the better. Our narrator describes himself as an 'amateur philologist' and yet, goes into fanatastic depth about individual words and phrases, showing us the backstories of how they've been used socially and culturally, as idioms and in their true forms. With the insertion of the OED and Dr Samuel Johnson's dictionary plus many more, he manages to show us how words have been defined differently over time. There is a lot in language to take issue with therefore. If you've read the book then you'll understand why I wrote 'issue' in italics.

One of the topics this book covers is the way in which Australia came into its own usage of English - that was quite interesting because throughout my own studies of the English Language I very rarely hear any talk or read anything of interest solely on Australian English. The author talks about how there were different events and changes in the political and cultural landscape that created Australian English as the Australians know it today. For example: there are the letters of Ned Kelly.

I personally would not have thought of Ned Kelly as someone who solidified the Australian English language if it had not been for this book. Kelly didn't write the letters, but he dictated them and I think there's agency there to show us how people of the day wrote and spoke. Were these letters an example of common folk speaking, or was it an example of their writing? I would say speaking and thus, the language is formed by a shared understanding.

Another chapter I enjoyed was perhaps one that we are all too familiar with in our modern day: doublespeak. Formulated by George Orwell in his novel 1984 - doublespeak is the existence of speech which does not, in fact, answer the question at hand though 'seems' like it does so. Used by the media and politics, it is often deployed to hide true intentions and belief systems (for example: 'final solution' for 'killing Jews' in Hitler's political propaganda machine during Nazi Germany - a 'final solution' doesn't sound all that bad and doesn't tell you exactly what is going on - it is doublespeak). It is well-known that those further on the right wing are more likely to use doublespeak due to their lack of morals and sympathy when it comes to other people.

The author uses the example of the horrific treatment of 'illegals' in Australia. That by calling them 'illegals' automatically attaches a negative connotation to them though they are not actually criminals. The terrifying treatment (which could be considered against human rights) of these people (it also aligns itself somewhat with Nazi Germany if you look into it) is subdued with 'watered down language' which is more palatable for the native audience. It also stops anyone investigating and stops people being punished because it doesn't sound all that bad. It doesn't tell you what's going on, that's why.

There's also a chapter on the 'King's English' in which the author goes through the way in which the monarch of England might speak. He looks at a book which was written to describe the topic, stating that this English should favour using Anglo-Saxon words over the more flamboyant, romance languages. He uses the example of Winston Churchill's famous speech in order to show how this is more than likely, often understood one way but misunderstood in another. I personally enjoyed this chapter because of the things I was able to learn about the actual formations of the 'King's English'. It is not as simple as simplicity with pronunciation of very particular method. There are a whole host of rules that are applicable when it comes to this type of speech.

From looking at swear words to analysing all major ways from 400 to say 'rubbish', the author has definitely done his research when it comes to wordage. These are the types of books I absolutely love getting my teeth stuck into. We cover the fancy words, the ones that have fallen out of use and even the ones we have been using wrong the whole time. Julian Burnside's book is a must-read for anyone who wants a deeply interesting book about different ideas on language and why we use it.