Content deleted Content added
Ornithoptera (talk | contribs) →Federal: Three, not four. |
Mitch Ames (talk | contribs) →External links: remove item that is not an external link |
||
| (17 intermediate revisions by 12 users not shown) | |||
Line 4:
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox country languages|country=Australia|main=[[Australian English]]|indigenous=120 to 170 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and dialects|sign=[[Auslan]] and several others|official=None at Federal level|minority=Over 300}}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.<ref name=":92">{{Cite book |last=Australian Government, Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications |url=https://www.arts.gov.au/what-we-do/indigenous-arts-and-languages/indigenous-languages-and-arts-program/national-indigenous-languages-report |title=National Indigenous Languages Report |publisher=Commonwealth of Australia |year=2020 |location=Canberra |pages=13}}</ref> English is the majority language of Australia today. Although English has no official legal status, it is the ''[[de facto]]'' official and national language.<ref name="language22">{{Cite web |title=Pluralist Nations: Pluralist Language Policies? |url=http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/multicultural/confer/04/speech18b.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081220020910/http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/multicultural/confer/04/speech18b.htm |archive-date=20 December 2008 |access-date=11 January 2009 |work=1995 Global Cultural Diversity Conference Proceedings, Sydney |publisher=[[Department of Immigration and Citizenship]]}} "English has no de jure status but it is so entrenched as the common language that it is de facto the official language as well as the national language."</ref><ref name=":24">{{Cite journal |last=Ward |first=Rowena |date=2019 |title='National' and 'Official' Languages Across the Independent Asia-Pacific |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/portalv16i1/2.6510 |journal=Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies |volume=16 |issue=1/2 |pages=83–4 |doi=10.5130/portalv16i1/2.6510 |doi-broken-date=15 February 2024 |quote=The use of English in Australia is one example of both a de facto national and official language: it is widely used and is the language of government and the courts, but has never been legally designated as the country's official language.}}</ref> [[Australian English]] is a major variety of the language with a distinctive accent and lexicon,<ref name=":32">{{Cite web |last=Moore |first=Bruce |title=The Vocabulary Of Australian English |url=http://www.nma.gov.au/libraries/attachments/exhibitions/vocabulary_of_australian_english/files/5471/Vocabulary%20of%20Australian%20English.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110320004658/http://www.nma.gov.au/libraries/attachments/exhibitions/vocabulary_of_australian_english/files/5471/Vocabulary%20of%20Australian%20English.pdf |archive-date=20 March 2011 |access-date=5 April 2010 |publisher=National Museum of Australia}}</ref> and differs slightly from other varieties of English in grammar and spelling.<ref name="Fourth Edition 20053">"The Macquarie Dictionary", Fourth Edition. The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, 2005.</ref>
Around 120 to 170 Indigenous languages and dialects are spoken today, but many of these are endangered. [[Creole language|Creole]] languages such [[Australian Kriol|Kriol]] and [[Torres Strait Creole|Yumplatok]] (Torres Strait Creole) are the most widely-spoken Indigenous languages. Other distinctively Australian languages include the Australian sign language [[Auslan]], [[Australian Aboriginal sign languages|Indigenous sign languages]], and [[Norfuk language|Norf'k-Pitcairn]], spoken mostly on Norfolk Island.
Major waves of immigration following the Second World War and in the 21st century considerably increased the number of community languages spoken in Australia. In 2021, 5.8 million people used a language other than English at home. The most common of these languages were Mandarin, Arabic, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Punjabi, Greek, Italian and Hindi.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=28 June 2022 |title=Census of Population and Housing: Cultural diversity data summary, 2021, Table 5. Language used at home by state and territory |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-diversity-census/2021#data-downloads |access-date=29 May 2024 |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}</ref>
==English==
Line 14:
[[File:Australia 2021 English language spoken at home.png|thumb|Population who speaks only English at home in 2021]]
English was introduced into Australia on British settlement in 1788 and in the following decades gradually overtook Indigenous languages to become the majority language of Australia.<ref name=":20">{{Cite book |last=Leitner |first=Gerhard |title=Australia's Many Voices, Australian English the national language |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |year=2004 |isbn=3-11-018194-0 |location=Berlin and New York |pages=5–6}}</ref> Although English is not the official language of Australia in law, it is the ''[[de facto]]'' official and national language.<ref name="language22"/><ref name=":24"/> It is the most widely spoken language in the country, and is used as the only language in the home by 72% of the population.<ref>{{cite web |title=Language spoken at home {{pipe}} Australia {{pipe}} Community profile |url=https://profile.id.com.au/australia/language}}</ref> The increase in the migrant population over the past decade has seen a decline in the number of people speaking only English at home.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=Australia 2021 census community profiles, time series profile |url=https://abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/community-profiles/2021/AUS |access-date=8 May 2023 |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Percentage of population speaking only English at home: 2011, 2016 and 2021
!State/Territory
Line 96:
=== Sign languages ===
The Australian sign language [[Auslan]] was used at home by 16,242 people at the time of the 2021 census.<ref name=":18">{{Cite web |title=Census of Population and Housing: Cultural diversity data summary, 2021, TABLE 5. LANGUAGE USED AT HOME BY STATE AND TERRITORY |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-diversity-census/2021#data-downloads |access-date=7 May 2023 |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics|date=12 January 2022 }}</ref> Over 2,000 people used other sign languages at home in 2021. There is a small community of people who use [[Australian Irish Sign Language]].<ref>{{cite web |title=austririshsign-adam-0376 |url=https://www.elararchive.org/uncategorized/SO_9c3cfc02-f7c0-4571-8e5e-5e5983ebd5a8/ |access-date=24 December 2022 |website=Endangered Languages Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Australian Irish Sign Language: a minority sign language within a larger sign language community |url=https://cultureincrisis.org/projects/australian-irish-sign-language-a-minority-sign-language-within-a-larger-sign-language-community |access-date=24 December 2022 |website=Culture in Crisis}}</ref>
=== Norf'k-Pitcairn ===
Line 102:
=== Other spoken languages ===
The proportion of Australians speaking a language other than English increased after the Second World War due to the immigration of refugees and displaced persons from European countries. In the 21st century, there was another sharp increase in immigration, especially from Asia.<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 September 2022 |title=Cultural diversity of Australia |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/cultural-diversity-australia |access-date=8 May 2023 |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}</ref> In 2021, 5.8 million people (22.8% of the population) reported using a language other than English at home. The ten most common of these were: Mandarin (2.7% of census respondents), Arabic (1.4%), Vietnamese (1.3%), Cantonese (1.2%), Punjabi (0.9%), Greek (0.9%), Italian (0.9%), Hindi (0.8%), Spanish (0.7%) and Nepali (0.5%).<ref name=":0" />
== Language education ==
Line 112:
== Languages in Parliament ==
Although English is the primary language used for addressing any [[legislature]] in Australia, due to Australia's multiculturalism, many politicians have used other languages in parliamentary speeches
=== Federal ===
In 2016, [[Prime Minister of Australia|Prime Minister]] [[Malcolm Turnbull]] spoke [[Ngunnawal language|Ngunnawal]] in a parliamentary speech, becoming the first ever Prime Minister to use an Indigenous language in Parliament.<ref name="aiatsis">{{cite web | url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/blog/indigenous-languages-australian-parliaments | title=Indigenous languages in Australian parliaments | date=9 July 2022 }}</ref>
In 1988, [[Trish Crossin]] became the first [[Australian Senate|Senator]] to give a [[maiden speech]] in an Indigenous language, speaking in [[Gumatj language|Gumatj]], a [[Yolŋu languages|Yolŋu]] dialect.<ref name="aiatsis"/>
Line 129:
In 2016, Senator [[Malarndirri McCarthy]] gave an Acknowledgement of Country in [[Yanyuwa language|Yanyuwa]].<ref name="aiatsis"/>
In 2022, two MPs spoke both [[English language|English]] and [[French language|French]] in their maiden speeches: [[Jerome Laxale]] and [[Zoe McKenzie]], both of whom are of [[French Australians|French]] background.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://thewest.com.au/politics/french-flavour-to-mps-first-speeches-c-8362141.amp | title=French flavour to MPS' first speeches | date=26 September 2022 }}</ref> In the same year, [[Sam Lim]] used three languages in his maiden speech: [[Malay language|Malay]], [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] and English (in that order).<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/terima-kasih-malaysian-born-australian-mp-sam-lim-praised-for-multilingual-inaugural-speech | title=Terima kasih: Malaysian-born Australian MP Sam Lim praised for multilingual inaugural speech | newspaper=The Straits Times | date=7 September 2022 }}</ref>
=== New South Wales ===
Line 137:
=== Northern Territory ===
In 1981, [[Neil Bell (politician)|Neil Bell]] became the first politician to use an Indigenous language in a maiden speech to the [[Northern Territory Legislative Assembly]], speaking in [[Pitjantjatjara dialect|Pitjantjatjara]].<ref name="aiatsis"/>
In 2008, [[Alison Anderson]] spoke in the [[Western Desert language]] during her first speech as [[Minister for Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage]].<ref name="aiatsis"/>
Line 167:
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=AU Ethnologue report for Australia]
* [http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au Census Data (Australian government)]
{{Australia topics}}
Line 176 ⟶ 175:
[[Category:Languages of Australia| ]]
[[Category:
| |||