Comedian Adam Hills - who studied linguistics at university - helps Stephen Fry uncover the history of Australian English, from its beginnings in the early 1700s to the present day. In 1911, Winston Churchill said it "represents the most brutal maltreatment which has ever been inflicted upon the language that is the mother tongue of the great English nations."

Yet the interest felt in Britain in 1770, when Doctor Johnson described a kangaroo to dinner guests for the first time, has never left us. Perhaps because Australian English has been so well documented, from the first exchanges of languages with Aboriginals, explained by Professor Jakelin Troy of Sydney University from the Ngarigu clan of New South Wales.

Stephen learns from Dr Bruce Moore, editor of the Australian Oxford Dictionary, how a convict called James Hardy Vaux helped track the language called Flash among transported criminals. The aim was to make it understandable by government officials. Vaux, a thrice-deported bigamist and petty thief was the first to notice how Australian English might have an entertainment factor. He wrote, "I trust the vocabulary will afford you some amusement from its novelty; and that from the correctness of its definitions, you may occasionally find it useful in your magisterial capacity."

Australian English does seem to have a talent to intrigue and amuse. We learn, for example, where the original Sheila comes from, and examine the school reports of one of Australia's favourite Sheilas, Dame Edna Everage.

Adam Hills agrees that Australian English is entertainingly blunt, which sometimes means words that are totally acceptable in Australia are regarded as taboo in Britain.

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4. Show less