1973, Ryan, John S

"Australia's largest non-British and yet probably least understood - or most misunderstood - minority", W. D. BORRIE, p. vi of the Foreword to J. A. HEMPEL'S 'Italians in Queensland' (I959). It is appropriate to embark upon a survey of this kind at a time when migration to Australia from overseas has lost momentum and the economic recession of 1971, together with changing public attitudes, make it likely that there will be a considerable diminution in immigration from Europe, and that this external source of population increase for Australia may be relatively ignored for many years. It has also been the case, from the late I960s, that with the improvement of the West-European economy and the creation of the Common Market, the source was already running out and that the Italian influence had almost certainly reached its all-time peak. Referring particularly to the post World War II influx Professor BORRIE more than a decade ago asked the following questions, "Where have these people settled, what occupations have they followed, how have they brought their families together, ... have Italians integrated to any degree with Australians, do Australians want or expect them to do so - ?" (op. cit., p. vi). While these questions are demographic and social and the answers belong strickly to spheres other than language, it is the case that the surviving pointers may ultimately be held to be linguistic and to have been fossilized both in speech and literature.

1993, Ryan, John S

This volume, - a collection of some 12 essays, half of which are by the editor, Murdoch University historian Bob Reece, - may be said to have a range of aspects: from striking mélange (several printed earlier) of arduously assembled biographical sketches, to subtle vignettes of a random group of provocative and colourful Irishmen; to a set of correctives to common stereotypes of the transported Irish convict; to important new perspectives on: convict narratives; Irish ballads and broadsides; the transfer of the Anglo-Irish and Gaelic literary traditions to Australia; nationalist heroism; and to oral history and its ability to be fed by popular balladry and folklore. Although, arguably, we should be intrigued by all these facets of the (collected) essays, some of the latter ones are, surely, closer to our purposes.

1993, Ryan, John S

As was requested by Bill Wan nan in correspondence, an attempt has also been made to include certain controversial materials which are now placed at the front of the journal. Otherwise the main sequence of articles is roughly chronological. As in issue No. 7, relevant new poetry from (folk) writers is included, not least because of its emphasis on memory, place and on earlier experience which has often been transmitted orally. It will be obvious that some of the other contents owe their inclusion to discussion at the Fifth National conference (1992) and one piece to the Fourth (1990). Yet others have been sparked off by the contents of Australian Folklore 7 (1992). Pleasingly there is now included material in the areas of contemporary legend, oral history, and children's lore, as well as a number of 'Anglo-Celtic' items, - the last being particularly appropriate in view of the present dynamic scholarship worldwide on the Celtic diaspora. And Joan MacDonald's paper would certainly complement the Scottish sections of Hilda Ellis Davidson (ed.) 'The Seer in Celtic and Other Traditions', Edinburgh (1989).

2014, Ryan, John S

This present work is one by the Rev. Duncan Blair (1815-1893). This stimulating publication is shaped quite elegantly and it comes with a translation by John A. Macpherson and Michael Linkletter. While much of the story is concerned with the settlement of these displaced Celts in Canada, readers will be most / as much interested in the account of their nurture in Scotland, as they will be in the circumstances of the life of Duncan Blair, his studies in Edinburgh, his learning of Gaelic, and the phases of his family's bonding with Scotland, despite the removal to Canada. Equally fascinating is the system of links between the Scottish intellectuals, at their native homes in Scotland, in, and with, their several universities in Scotland, and then in their fine parish work in Nova Scotia. This unexpected and very illuminating work is a product of the Cape Breton University Press in Canada, and is most concerned with the Reverend Doctor Duncan Black Blair. Much, too, is concerned with / treats of aspects of the disruption of the clan system in the 18th century, and the concomitant loss of the native schools in which poetry, medicine, law, and music were formally studied, and it is also / constitutes an illuminating account of the ways in which poetry, folk tales, and other aspects of oral tradition (and indeed written and printed matter in the nineteenth century) were to be communicated, since their exile had removed the obvious easy move to print as could and did occur in Scotland.

1971, Mills, AD, Tralen, M, Smith, EC, Rudnyckyj, JB, Ryan, John S, Raper, PE

A comprehensive Bibliography for the Linguistic Area of English, listing details of -- Reports, Historical Surveys, Organization, Congresses; Methodology, Terminology, Cognate Disciplines; Etymology, Lists of Names, Sources: a) Toponymy, b) Anthroponymy, c) Ethnonymy, Names of Languages, and d) Other Names. Bibliography listing also details -- Orthography, Transcription, Pronunciation, Transliteration; Translation and Grammar: Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, Typology; and Sociology, Psychology of Names.

1997, Ryan, John S

This paper is in two parts, the first is a necessarily skeletal listing derived from local sources largely, of some identified New Englanders who served in the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command in its campaigns over Occupied Europe, 1942-1945. This is followed by some thoughts of a member of Bomber Command. The second, commencing on page 71, is derived more generally from Australian diaries and memoirs and focuses on the life and language of Bomber Command, as those 'sons of Empire' noted their experiences.

1993, Ryan, John S

This present journal can be said to have many more contributors than any of its predecessors. This is the result of a deliberate policy of involving numerous persons, both collectors and analysers, in the task of recording and publishing materials from this vast and largely neglected field of Australian narrative, custom, lexis and behaviour pattern. Thus lore, folk speech, nicknames, multicultural activity and certain religious observances all find their place in this issue. The number of notes and comments, like that of the book reviews, also shows an increase.

1970, Ryan, John S

This novel is often dismissed as "an unimaginative romance largely attractive to adolescents", but both its claims to literary distinction and its value to the linguist derive from its several styles and indicate that its classic status is deserved and likely to increase. Its linguistic value is based on the fact that the book provides us with a text of upwards of 220,000 words, and that, unlike the writer's less accessible diaries and autobiographic pieces, it offers a unique documentation of colloquial English language in Australia in the mid 19th century. It surpasses the prose of Alexander Harris in its use of slang, colloquialisms, popular ecological and occupational terms.

2012, Ryan, John S

Since white incursions into Australia, there have been ever more groups and themes added to the mix which constitutes our relevant/scholarly discipline on this continent Australia. Accordingly, our journal has more and more embraced the lore of all who come, who flee from tyranny, as well as of the nearer neighbours.

2010, Ryan, John Sprott, Goode, Arnold, Haworth, Robert J, O'Donohue, Peter

The early days after the discovery of gold at Rocky River in northern New South Wales would see potential miners of all creeds, whether labourers or more 'cultured' folk, lured to this golden landscape or ours by the 'fever of gold' and by the possibility of making a quick fortune here. The obvious diversity in the character of this fluid population could and did result in confrontations - here as elsewhere - on many occasions, leading often to more violent altercations by day and night. It is not surprising therefore for this environment to encourage rogues and villains to be part of 'our' mining scene. This book is an interlinked companion to both the work and living style of that populace, and to Victorian age gold mining generally. For it tells us much about the skills, technical processes, thoughts, actions and language of those same miners, and many others 'on the fields' in Eastern Australia, as known, observed and written about by one of the nation's most famed colonial novelists.