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The languages of Australia are the major historic and current languages used in Australia and its offshore islands. Over 250 Australian Aboriginal languages are thought to have existed at the time of first European contact. [1] English is the majority language of Australia today.
The language had rapidly disappeared after the settlement of South Australia and the breaking up of local indigenous people. Ivaritji, the last known speaker of the language, died in 1931. However, a substantial number of primary source records existed for the language, from which the language was reconstructed.
Australian Aboriginal Pidgin English language: Few Nearly extinct Pidgin. Developed post-contact. Has been mostly creolized. Australian Kriol language: Creole, Pidgin English, Roper-Bamyili Creole 4,200 Vigorous WA, NT & Qld developed post-contact. 10, 000 second language speakers. Awabakal language: Awabakal 9 Dormant NSW. Being revived.
The Pama–Nyungan languages are the most widespread family of Australian Aboriginal languages, [1] containing 306 out of 400 Aboriginal languages in Australia. [2] The name "Pama–Nyungan" is a merism: it is derived from the two end-points of the range, the Pama languages of northeast Australia (where the word for "man" is pama) and the Nyungan languages of southwest Australia (where the ...
The other indigenous language spoken mainly in the eastern islands is Meriam Mir: a member of the Trans-Fly languages spoken on the nearby south coast of New Guinea and the only Papuan language spoken on Australian territory. Both languages are agglutinative; however Kalaw Lagaw Ya appears to be undergoing a transition into a declensional ...
At the time of European colonisation, more than 250 Indigenous languages, including 800 dialects, were believed to have been spoken continent-wide, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and ...
Aboriginal names of suburbs of Brisbane, derived from the Turrbal language. Place names in Australia have names originating in the Australian Aboriginal languages for three main reasons: [citation needed] Historically, European explorers and surveyors may have asked local Aboriginal people the name of a place, and named it accordingly.
Some elements of Aboriginal languages have been adopted by Australian English—mainly as names for places, flora and fauna (for example dingo) and local culture. Many such are localised, and do not form part of general Australian use, while others, such as kangaroo , boomerang , budgerigar , wallaby and so on have become international.