Talk:Old, declining or expired Australian vocabulary

This is about the most wildly inaccurate page I have yet come across in Wikipedia. Which is a shame. Similarly the list of Australian words is also full of errors. The trouble with this type of page is that contributors tend to rely on personal experience rather than any academic research. The fact that in one's own daily life a certain word is not heard very often does not necessarily mean that it is obsolete. For instance "cooee" is still common used as a call of contact in the bush, by hikers, bushwalkers, rural people, etc. If you don't get out into the bush much (and most Australians are urbanites) then you won't know this. Also the phrase "(not) within cooee" is still in current use in both city and country areas. Certainly the term can be found in literature as well (1989, Adrian McGregor, Wally and the Broncos, xiii. 179; 2001 John `Bluey' Bryant, Real Aussies Drive Utes II, 73) and Google searches, searches of newspaper databases, etc. will reveal more examples. So, "cooee" is not dead by a long shot. But is it declining - well, to determine this would also require some research - the current entry says it was once "ubiquitous" - but what evidence is there to back up this assertion? Does ubitquitous mean it was on the lips of Aussies on a daily basis? When exactly? etc., etc.

The entry for "bodgie" is partly correct. Yes, as a word to describe a type of Australian 1950s hoodlum or teenage deliquent is no longer common (except in historical contexts), but the use as an adjective = falso, phoney, counterfeit, is still current and extremely common in Australia.

Perhaps it would be better for this page (and one's like it) to require the citing of relevant academic or lexicographical publications. For instance, the Australian National Dictionary (OUP), the Macquarie Dictionary (Macqaurie Library), the Macquarie Slang Dictionary (2000 edition), the ABC WordMap database, the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (Routledge, 2005) [the older Partridge Dictionary editions, 1 to 8, are less reliable], all of which are backed by solid lexicographical research, as opposed to anecdotal evidence. Also, the citing of current literary sources containing word or phrases is also a good way to back up some assertion.WikiLambo 10:03, 11 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]