The research behind the dictionaries
None of this is new to linguistics. What is new is putting the published record of three migrant languages in one place, in a form a family can use, with every claim traceable to its source. This page lists the work the dictionaries stand on, says how far each item has been checked, and names the questions still open.
Greek
The research items below have been read in the original and matched to entries in To Booko, except where noted. Many To Booko entries also rest on press lists, community lists and Wikipedia; those are listed on To Booko's Sources page and marked there as not independently checked. The full list with word counts is on To Booko's Sources page.
Tamis, Anastasios M. (1986). The State of Modern Greek Language as Spoken in Victoria. PhD thesis, University of Melbourne. 461 pages. Open
Not yet obtained. Holds the full list of roughly 200 integrated words; the single most valuable document for the Greek dictionary.
Tamis, Anastasios M. (1986 to 1987). The changing structure of Modern Greek: the formation of an ethnolect. Glossologia 5 to 6, pp. 123 to 138. Open
Read in the original; matched to entries.
Tamis, Anastasios M. (2011). Greek in contact with English in Australia. Études helléniques / Hellenic Studies 19 (1), pp. 177 to 202. Open
Read in the original; matched to entries.
Kanarakis, George (2009). Perspectives on cross-linguistic transference: Greek and English in multicultural Australia. Études helléniques / Hellenic Studies 17 (1), pp. 19 to 35. Open
Read in the original; matched to entries.
Alvanoudi, Angeliki (2017). Language contact, borrowing and code switching: a case study of Australian Greek. Journal of Greek Linguistics 18, pp. 3 to 44. Open
Read in the original; matched to entries.
Maniakas, Theodoros (1983). Sociolinguistic features of Modern Greek as it is spoken in Montreal. MA thesis, McGill University. Open
Read in the original; matched to entries.
Ralli, Angela, Makri, Vasiliki and Mouchtouri, Vasiliki (2019). Examining the integration of borrowed nouns in immigrant speech: the case of Canadian Greek. Patras Working Papers in Linguistics 5, pp. 137 to 159. Open
Read in the original; matched to entries.
Matejka-Hanser, Lisa (2011). Greek American Greek: lexical borrowing in the speech of Greek Americans. Wiener Linguistische Gazette 75, pp. 84 to 99. Open
Read in the original; matched to entries.
Karatsareas, Petros and Charalambidou, Anna (2020). Exploring linguistic hybridity and lexical creativity in the UK’s Greek Cypriot diaspora: the Grenglish Project. Cahiers du Centre d’Études Chypriotes 50, pp. 431 to 456. Open
Read in the original; matched to entries.
Seferis, George (1977). Μέρες Δ΄. Athens: Ίκαρος. Diary entry of 16 February 1942, Pretoria, with his glossary of the Greek of the Transvaal. Open
Read through the transcription by Nikos Sarantakos, 2013.
Seaman, P. David (1972). Modern Greek and American English in Contact. The Hague: Mouton.
Known so far only through later writers; original not yet consulted.
Italian
The Italglish dictionary is published, in beta, with 669 entries. Most rest on sources whose pages have been checked and are cited by page, among them Menarini (1947, as reprinted by Pedrotti 2017), Rocchi (2006), Repetti (2006 and 2009), Haller (2010 and 2011), Prifti (2011) and Roda (2024). Some citations were carried over from an earlier catalogue or seen only in a search excerpt, including Haller (1981), Rando (1971), Danesi (1985 and 1991) and Rubino (2014). Each of those citations says on the entry that its page has not yet been checked, and the 81 entries that rest on nothing else carry the mark Original not yet seen.
The list below is the standard scholarship on Italian in Australia and North America that has not yet been read in the original. Where an entry draws on one of these works, it cites the secondary source that quotes it and says so. Reading them is the work of the beta, and Italian speaking linguists who know this literature are invited to join the consultation.
Rando, Gaetano (1968). Influenze dell’inglese sul lessico italo-australiano di Sydney. Lingua Nostra 29, pp. 17 to 22.
Standard reference; to be read in the original during the beta.
Bettoni, Camilla (1981). Italian in North Queensland: Changes in the Speech of First and Second Generation Bilinguals. Townsville: James Cook University.
Standard reference; to be read in the original during the beta.
Clivio, Gianrenzo P. (1986). Competing loanwords and loanshifts in Toronto’s italiese. In Camilla Bettoni (ed.), Altro Polo: Italian Abroad. Sydney: Frederick May Foundation, pp. 129 to 146.
Standard reference; to be read in the original during the beta.
Haller, Hermann W. (1987). Italian speech varieties in the United States and the Italian American lingua franca. Italica 64 (3), pp. 393 to 409.
Standard reference; to be read in the original during the beta.
Clyne, Michael (1991). Community Languages: The Australian Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Standard reference; to be read in the original during the beta.
Vizmuller-Zocco, Jana (1995). The languages of Italian Canadians. Italica 72 (4), pp. 512 to 529.
Standard reference; to be read in the original during the beta.
Bettoni, Camilla and Rubino, Antonia (1996). Emigrazione e comportamento linguistico: un’indagine sul trilinguismo dei siciliani e dei veneti in Australia. Galatina: Congedo.
Standard reference; to be read in the original during the beta.
Spanish
The Spanish scholarship is large for the United States and thin for Australia, which is one reason the Australian record matters. The Spanish dictionary's Australian entries rest so far on two sources, Fernández Marrero (2008) on the Australian Spanish press and Grimaldi Herrera (2009). The works below are background reading, not yet cited by entries, and are to be read page by page before the beta closes.
Silva-Corvalán, Carmen (1994). Language Contact and Change: Spanish in Los Angeles. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Standard reference; to be read in the original during the beta.
Zentella, Ana Celia (1997). Growing Up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in New York. Malden: Blackwell.
Standard reference; to be read in the original during the beta.
Stavans, Ilan (2003). Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language. New York: Rayo.
Standard reference; to be read in the original during the beta.
Lipski, John M. (2008). Varieties of Spanish in the United States. Washington: Georgetown University Press.
Standard reference; to be read in the original during the beta.
Otheguy, Ricardo and Stern, Nancy (2011). On so-called Spanglish. International Journal of Bilingualism 15 (1), pp. 85 to 100.
Standard reference; to be read in the original during the beta.
Clyne, Michael (1991). Community Languages: The Australian Experience, for Spanish in Australia.
Background reading; not yet cited by entries.
Open questions for scholars
- Tamis's 1986 thesis: who holds a copy, and will the author or the University of Melbourne allow the word list to be reproduced with attribution.
- Seaman 1972 and Mencken's 1936 appendix on Greek American words both need to be read in the original before their forms are published.
- Whether a word list for Australian Italian exists in Bettoni's or Rando's published or unpublished material beyond the items above.
- Any recorded study of Spanish speaking communities in Australia beyond census and language maintenance data.
If you have worked on any of these languages, the dictionaries would be better with your corrections than without them. Write to hello@justgold.net.