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https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/save-the-national-dictionary-so-ai-speaks-with-an-australian-voice-20250827-p5mq5x

If the ANU vice chancellor can’t see the value and importance of our nation’s linguistic peculiarity, surely someone in government can?

The thing I most wanted for my 10th birthday was an English dictionary.

My parents indulged me, and I still have that Oxford English Dictionary today, emblazoned with my name in Dymo tape.

I’ve always loved words and, as you can see, from a young age in country Victoria, I had a fascination with language and languages.

As an Italianist, though, I have joyfully accumulated dizionari (the cognate of the English term, dictionary, which reveals them as tools to help with pronunciation) and vocabolari (books that collect together words or vocaboli) not because I need so many word books (my calque on the German word for dictionary Wörterbuch) but because there’s something I love about them.

I like the different choices that are made by different lexicographers: the grammatical categories and explanations, sometimes a touch of etymology, idioms, and what you can and can’t do with the word. Dictionaries are culture, and the words they include reveal what matters.

I knew my interest in dictionaries was personal, and a little professional (after all, I’m a languages educator with a background in linguistics, among other things). But the Australian National University’s proposed decision to defund and disestablish the Australian National Dictionary Centre, “given reduced external funding and limited alignment with the College [of Arts and Social Sciences]’s broader strategic direction”, has also made it patriotic.

It’s clear from the current media barrage that the ANU has and continues to have systemic issues. But I would have thought keeping the ANDC was a no-brainer.

Under the Australian National University Act 1991, one of the key functions of the university is “providing facilities for research and postgraduate study, both generally and in relation to subjects of national importance to Australia”. Our eminent thinkers on Australian English, Kate Burridge and Howard Manns, have aptly characterised the decision as the “wilful disregard of Australian cultural heritage” and sounded the call that “once it’s gone, we lose a living record of our national voice”.

For me, this short-sighted, penny-pinching, wrong-headed move constitutes a cataclysmic blunder in the current context of the rise of artificial intelligence.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will have realised that there’s been a revolution – AI is now encroaching on every aspect of our lives, whether we like it or not.

And just like similar technology revolutions that have crucially involved language over the last century or so – I’m thinking cinema and television and then computing and mobile telephony – the United States has dominated. ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, for instance, are all powered by large language models, which are trained on massive datasets that include information scraped from publicly available material online. This magnifies enormously the work of the ANDC.

It has already become clear that AI tools that don’t digest Australian data have problems meeting our needs and expectations.

While the ANDC doesn’t build nuclear subs – we all know how much countries like their armies as a signifier of nationhood – in the age of global English, I would suggest having our own dictionary, and more importantly, a dedicated bunch of people who care for, curate, and conserve our Australian linguistic uniqueness, is a question of real sovereignty.

AI is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be monocultural. We need Australia’s rich language to be rigorously and authoritatively represented to ensure that LLMs are not simply trained on a version of English that doesn’t represent us.

If the ANU vice chancellor can’t see the value and importance of Australia’s linguistic peculiarity, surely someone in government can? And if that fails, perhaps it’s time for other universities, maybe in concert (hint: Melbourne and Monash), to step in and relocate this national treasure to a new home.

C’mon Aussies, don’t be drongos!

Matt Absalom is a senior lecturer in Italian studies at the University of Melbourne

The word is used to describe something gross, nasty or generally a bit shit. It’s hard wired into my vocabulary and someone pointed out to me that apparently it’s uniquely Sydney. I grew up on the north shore. Me and friends remember using it as far back as about 1999-2000

Start with the ubiquitous not sure of this is the right place statement.

Aside from place names and billabong are there any words in common usage across Australia that have originated from the various indigenous languages?

The word flog (including flogged and flogging) can have many different meanings depending on the context. Many of these are probably borrowed from the Pommies as it is a pretty old word.

While it isnt used as much as it used to be, what other multi-meaning words have similar versatility?

Some of the meanings and examples of use in context:

Ratbag, grub, arsehole 'That bloke's a flog.'

To steal 'I flogged a couple of packs of lifesavers from the milkbar on the way home from school.'

To cop or give a beating 'I spilled a beer at the Espy and the steroid-infused bouncer flogged the shit out of me'.

Or similalry, to get the cuts (back in the day when that was a thing) As mum would often say 'Do that again and you are in for a flogging'.

To get beaten soundly at sport 'Footy's back! The Tigers flogged the Blues in the first round again.'

To sell 'I've got a part time job flogging crocheted tea cosies at the local market.'

Masturbate 'Back in the days of the Shaft Adult Cinema in Swanston St, the raincoat brigade used to flog off in the cinema.'

Whipping (in convict times) 'Tie him to the post and give him a good flogging with the cat-o-nine-tails.'

So flogging crocheted tea cosies can mean either selling or stealing them, flogging someone with a crocheted tea cosy is an inefficient way of beating someone up, while flogging off into a crocheted tea cosy is something better done at home than in the cinema.

There are blueys and bludgers, chardonnay socialists, cleanskins and cashed-up bogans. The way Australians use the English language is often direct, facetious and occasionally just a little cruel.

And for almost 40 years, the words the nation uses in speech, newspapers and books has been mapped by a small team at the Australian National Dictionary Centre in Canberra.

Those efforts are set to come to an end after Australian National University management, as part of a major cost-cutting drive, unveiled plans to “disestablish” the centre.

“It is going to be a loss to the community as what we do is explaining changes in language use,” said centre director Professor Amanda Laugesen.

Researchers at the centre produce The Australian National Dictionary as the pre-eminent record of Australia’s unique vocabulary.

“Its job is to document and study the way Australians have used language over time, and as such is essential to understanding Australian society, culture and identity. There is no other project that does this in Australia and so it will be a tremendous loss to the nation.”

The Australian National Dictionary Centre conducts research into Australian English, and provides Oxford University Press with editorial expertise for their Australian dictionaries.

The university cited reduced external funding from Oxford University Press for the centre and its “limited alignment” with the university’s broader strategic direction as reasons for closing it.

Other research centres facing the chopping block, after the university unveiled plans to shed jobs, include the ANU’s Humanities Research Centre and the ANU Centre for European Studies.

Professor Bronywyn Parry, dean of the university’s college of arts and social sciences, said, “This decision reflects the need to reduce recurrent operating costs and address areas of duplication, while ensuring that core academic activities are sustainably embedded within schools and colleges.”

The cuts come as some of Sydney’s biggest universities are slashing jobs as part of radical cost-cutting measures amid major budget shortfalls caused by uncertainty over international student numbers.

At ANU, management has told staff the need for change has been driven by persistent financial challenges, declining international rankings, an inefficient decentralised operating model as well as increased competition and external uncertainty.

Under the current proposals, 59 jobs in the university’s college of science and medicine, college of arts and social science and its research and innovation portfolio are set to go.

Forty-one additional job cuts from its information security office, information technology services and planning and service performance divisions were proposed last month. Further academic cuts may follow.

An ANU spokesman said it was “on a journey” to financial sustainability and sought to reduce costs by $250 million, including $100 million in salaries. It had already achieved just over $50 million in salary savings.

ANU vice chancellor Professor Genevieve Bell said, “We need to make changes to ensure we can continue to deliver on our national mission to provide world-class teaching and research into the future, and in a way that is responsible in our use of public funds and the fees our students pay.”

Bell has stressed in updates to staff that the proposals are not final and are subject to consultation.

However, there is a perception among staff that the university has already lost a significant portion of its workforce over the past 12 months, National Tertiary Education Union ACT division branch secretary Lachlan Clohesy said.

“We think there is no continuing financial rationale for job cuts at ANU,” Clohesy said.

Workplace Gender Equality agency data submitted by the ANU showed its headcount decreased by 797 in the 12 months to March. ANU has refuted this, telling staff this week that those figures cannot be used to calculate the size of its workforce because it uses “point in time, snapshot reports” and counts casual staff as full-time employees.

“Our view based on the cuts that they have already made is that they have already achieved the target and there is no financial justification for further cuts,” Clohesy said.

In March, more than 800 ANU staff members passed a vote of no-confidence against chancellor Julie Bishop over job cuts and leadership issues.

The vote occurred after it was revealed Bishop used the university’s funds to pay her business partner as a consultant, and that the vice chancellor held a second job at Intel in the US while in her role.

Earlier this year, Western Sydney University unveiled plans to cut up to 400 jobs in a bid to plug an almost $80 million budget black hole.

The University of Technology Sydney has also told staff up to 400 jobs could go under its restructure, while Macquarie University has also announced plans to cut about 50 academic jobs.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9013210/australian-national-dictionary-centre-faces-closure-amid-anu-cuts/

By Steve Evans July 14 2025 - 11:42am

A widely revered national institution known to many for its "word of the year" list is on the chopping block in the Australian National University's big restructuring.

The Australian National Dictionary Centre is set to close as a stand-alone institution under proposals put forward by the ANU leadership as it tries to save $250 million.

The ANDC is the national centre for research into Australian English. It publishes the Australian National Dictionary and also comes up with its much-publicised "word of the year".

The centre's director, Amanda Laugesen, said the proposal was personally devastating but would also be a "devastating loss to the understanding of Australian English".

The Australian National Dictionary, unlike other dictionaries, provides a deep history of words and phrases in Australia, according to the centre's director from 1993 to 2011, Bruce Moore.

"It doesn't just tell you the meaning of words like larrikin or cobber, it provides all the evidence on which those meanings are based. It tries to find the first time the word appeared," he said.

He and Dr Laugesen argued that its role was unique, and without it, an important part of Australian history would be missed.

"It's a very exceptional project, but 40 years of research is going to be lost," the current director said.

"Our language reflects aspects of our history, our culture, how we think about ourselves, what we value, what it says about our identity."

The project was set up in 1988, modelled on the Oxford English Dictionary.

Just as the OED had provided definitive accounts of British English words and their background, the Australian National Dictionary would do the same for Australian English words and phrases.

"I'm shocked," Bruce Moore said. "If someone suggested they were going to shut down the Oxford English Dictionary, you would say they were bonkers.

"The centre collaborated with Oxford University Press to produce Australian dictionaries, but the ANU said, "since 2019/20, OUP's funding has been significantly reduced".

"Given reduced external funding and limited alignment with the College's broader strategic direction, it is proposed that the ANDC be disestablished," the ANU said in its proposal.

There would be consultation, but the people involved could see writing on the wall.

The Centre publishes a "word of the year" which is "a word or expression that has gained prominence over the previous 12 months".

The last one was "Colesworth", a combination of the Coles and Woolworths. Earlier ones have been "Matilda", "teal", and "voice".

When "colesworth" was announced, researcher Mark Gwynn (who still works there and whose job is now on the line) said, "Part of the reason we chose it is because it has a bit of a history. It sums up people's cynical view on these two supermarkets."

He and his boss, Dr Laugesen, had managed to trace the word's use back to 1959, when it was included in the columns of a journalist writing for the Australian Women's Weekly.

The Australian National Dictionary catalogues words and phrases from colonial times but also more modern usages. Under C, for example, it has "cobber" but also "captain's pick" and "chook".

It also cites "checkout chick" which it says was first used in The Canberra Times on June 16, 1976: "The checkout chick is too busy taking money to tell you how to operate your cut-price, multi-purpose, plastic encased kitchen magician."

The Macquarie Dictionary also produces a word of the year, but its choice is more about new words and definitions that have been coined through the previous year.

It said its latest (for 2024) is: "Enshittification" which it defined as: "noun Colloquial the gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking".