DIGGER DIALECTS

A Collection of Slang Phrases used by the Australian Soldiers on Active Service

W. H. DOWNING (Late 57th Battalion, A.I.F.)

1919


During WW1, Australian troops on deployment on the Western Front or in other theatres of war developed new words and usages including many terms imported and adapted from other langauges. In 1919, a glossary of these terms prepared by Downing and his collaborators was published in Australia.

The original book separated the terms associated with the troops in Western Europe from those originating in other combat zones. In the wirdz version, these have been combined into a single list.

Original Acknowledgements


The Editor desires to thank the following for their assistance in submitting lists:

Mr. G. F. Carmichael (late Australian Wireless Unit in Mesopotamia; and Baku and Caucasus Force), Mesopotamian (Hindustani), Persian and Russian expressions.

Capt. E. T. Brown, LL.B. (late Administrator, etc., Australian Forces in Papua), Papuan, Pidgin- English phrases, etc.

The Farmer and Settler, Sydney.

Original Introduction


By the conditions of their service, and by the howling desolation of the battle-zones, our men were isolated during nearly the whole of the time they spent in theatres of war, from the ways, the thoughts and the speech of the world behind them.

It followed that the members of their little communities - batteries, squadrons, battalions - unique not only in the unanimity of their aspirations, but also in their keen and vigorous mentality, were thrown inevitably upon their own intellectual resources. This Glossary represents the sweat of those strivings; it is a by-product of the collective imagination of the A.I.F.

Australian slang is not a new thing; but in those iron years it was modified beyond recognition by the assimilation of foreign words, and the formula of novel or exotic ideas. This process of enrichment is common to every living language in all the ages.

Neither is it definite, for there are divergencies within every division; even within every brigade. In the Flying Corps it is different from the speech of the Infantry. In France, in Egypt, in Palestine, Mesopotamia, Salonika, the Caucasus, Russia, the Pacific Islands, it is nowhere the same.

But it savours of a new national type, and its characteristics are the same.


The original version of Digger Dialects is in the public domain. This curated version is Copyright © JHC Technology Limited, 2020.

Online version at wirdz™ online dictionaries - Digger Dialects by W H Downing