Beyond Sheilaspeak: Recovering the hidden histories of women and slang and colloquial language in Australia

Women are notably absent from the national story of Australian English, as well as from the broader history of the use of language by Australians, including slang and colloquial language. The national narrative, especially when it comes to Australians’ use of language, has been largely a masculine one, cultivated early in the pages of periodicals such as The Bulletin, where the bushman, stockman, and bullock driver were the mythic figures who used informal – sometimes racy, even vulgar – language with creative gusto. Our Australian Research Council-funded project aims to place women at the centre of a narrative about language use in Australia, focusing on slang and colloquial language, and considering not only Australian English but also women’s engagement with other varieties of slang and colloquial language, especially American slang. In this paper, we will provide an overview of the aims of our project, as well as discussing two of our case studies: slang and the Australian ‘Modern Girl’ in the interwar period, and professional and literary women writers of the 1930s and 1940s and their use of Australian colloquial language.

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