12:00a.m. 12th October 2008

| Julian Drape of AAP

Swimmers, cossies, togs, bathers, sluggos and budgie smugglers are just some of the names Aussies have for swimwear.

But how did these terms make their way into the common lexicon? How long have they been around? And is it significant that former Labor PM Bob Hawke would be happy to use a slang term that Liberal ex-minister Alexander Downer might avoid?

These are the type of questions examined in the new book Speaking our Language: the Story of Australian English.

Launched in Canberra last week, the book charts the development of the Australian accent as well as the origin of popular words and phrases.

Author Bruce Moore doubts any other nation has created as many terms for swimming costumes.

The latest, and perhaps most colourful, has only been around for seven years.

“Around 2001 the term ‘budgie smugglers’ took off in Australia,” he said.

“There’s some evidence overseas for a term ‘grape smugglers’, and it’s possible the Australian budgie smugglers was modelled on that, but it’s such a colourful expression it’s taken off.”

Dr Moore, the director of ANU’s Australian National Dictionary Centre, said the first printed use of the term was in a 2002 Rivers clothing and footwear catalogue.

Later in the year “budgie smugglers” appeared in the pages of Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper.

As well as delving into bathers, Dr Moore provides the first extensive history of the Australian accent.

He predicts the broad Aussie drawl exemplified by Paul Hogan, Steve Irwin and Kath and Kim is almost dead.

As is the cultivated form of Australian English often called the Queen’s English.

Dr Moore says the Australian accent was established in Sydney in the early days of the colony.

“By the 1830s what we recognise as the Australian accent was established among the children of convicts, ex-convicts and free settlers,” he says.

There were at least 100 different British dialects in Sydney at the time and kids picked up pieces of each.

The general accent to emerge “was an accent that got rid of any particular dialect features”.

This foundation accent then spread out from Sydney, which explains the “extraordinary” consistency of Australian speech across the continent.

While there are still extreme accents, like Bob Hawke with his broad accent and Alexander Downer with his cultivated one, the author of Speaking our Language says they are disappearing fast.

“You go out and try and find a cultivated Australian accent or a really broad Australian accent in anyone between 14 and 30...you’re struggling.”

Dr Moore says the middle road is here to stay.

“Ironically, we’re back now as we were in the 1830s and 1840s,” he said.

What hasn’t remained stable is the use of rhyming slang, which has steadily decreased over the years.

One of the earliest examples is from the 1870s.

Pom, used to describe someone from England, began life as “Jimmy Grant”, which rhymed with immigrant and was an insult hurled at new arrivals.

By the late 1890s it had become “pomegranate”, which was then shortened to “Pommy Grant” then “pommy” and “pom”.

The classic Australian expression “she’s apples”, from the 1940s, was rhyming slang for “she’s nice”.

“She’s apples and spice” rhymed with “she’s nice”.

“Once again we’ve lost the rhyme but we’ve kept the expression `she’s apples’,” Dr Moore says.

In the past 30 years rhyming slang has become “very rare” because it’s seen to be dated.

One of few recent example is “Barry Crocker” for a shocker.

Speaking our Language also explores the integration of Aboriginal words into the mainstream vocabulary.

Dr Moore says the 400 words in common usage today came from 80 different indigenous languages and are mostly used to describe flora and fauna or other “things”.

A survey of newspapers in July last year found the most common Aboriginal word is kangaroo, followed by wallaby.