What is Australian slang? Is it really slang?

This study investigates “Australian slang” with a focus on how useful or apt the term “slang” is for the lexical and social processes that attract this label in Australia. Australian slang is a common topic in popular discourse, but it has received little critical attention from linguists. In the current paper, we first examine whether Australian slang meets the theoretical parameters of slang set out by earlier slang researchers. We then examine how Australian linguists, lexicographers and popular writers discuss “Australian slang” in academic and popular discourse. This sets up a closing discussion that posits that to some degree, scholars and the public do not mean the same thing by “Australian slang” and have different concerns in using the term. For scholars, Australian slang fits some but not all parameters of a slang. For public understandings of slang, we suggest that Australian slang might better be understood as a “semiotic register”. We close by defining the semiotic register and demonstrate the benefits such an approach gives for understanding the social and discursive processes underpinning Australian slang in public discourse.