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{{Short description|
{{Redirect|Australian language|the Polynesian language spoken on the [[Austral Islands]]|Austral language}}
{{Use Australian English|date=February 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
|country = Australia▼
{{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>
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.
The Australian sign language known as [[Auslan]] was used at home by 16,242 people at the time of the 2021 census.<ref>{{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 2021 |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}</ref> Other sign languages include the various [[Australian Aboriginal sign languages|manual Indigenous languages]] like [[Akitiri Sign Language|Eltye eltyarrenke]], [[Warlpiri Sign Language|Rdaka-rdaka]] and [[Yolŋu Sign Language]]. Lastly, there is a small community of people who speak [[Australian Irish Sign Language]] (AISL), a [[French Sign Language family|Francosign]] language related to [[French Sign Language]] rather than being a [[BANZSL|Banzsl]] language like Auslan.<ref>{{cite web |title=austririshsign-adam-0376 |url=https://www.elararchive.org/uncategorized/SO_9c3cfc02-f7c0-4571-8e5e-5e5983ebd5a8/ |website=Endangered Languages Archive |access-date=24 December 2022}}</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 |website=Culture in Crisis |access-date=24 December 2022}}</ref>▼
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==
{{Main
[[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=
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Percentage of population speaking only English at home: 2011, 2016 and 2021
!State/Territory
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|72.0
|}
[[Australian English]] is a major variety of the language with a distinctive accent and lexicon,<ref name=":3">{{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
== Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island languages ==
{{Main|Australian Aboriginal languages}}
Humans arrived in Australia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). ''The Original Australians''. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. p. 217. {{ISBN|9781760527075}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Veth |first1=Peter |title=The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume 1, Indigenous and Colonial Australia |last2=O'Connor |first2=Sue |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=9781107011533 |editor-last=Bashford |editor-first=Alison |location=Cambridge |pages=19 |chapter=The past 50,000 years: an archaeological view |editor-last2=MacIntyre |editor-first2=Stuart}}</ref> but it is possible that the ancestor language of existing Indigenous languages is as recent as 12,000 years old.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marchese |first=David |date=28 March 2018 |title=Indigenous languages come from just one common ancestor, researchers say |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-28/indigenous-language-comes-from-a-single-root-tongue/9594414 |access-date=9 May 2023 |website=ABC news}}</ref> Over 250 [[Australian Aboriginal languages]] are thought to have existed at the time of first European contact.<ref name=":
According to the 2021 census, the classifiable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island languages with the most speakers are Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole) (7,596 speakers), Kriol (7,403), [[Dhuwal language|Djambarrpuyngu]] (3,839), [[Pitjantjatjara dialect|Pitjantjatjara]] (3,399), [[Warlpiri language|Warlpiri]] (2,592), [[Murrinh-patha language|Murrinh Patha]] (2,063) and [[Tiwi language|Tiwi]] (2,053). There were also over 10,000 people who spoke an Indigenous language which could not be further defined or classified.<ref name=":17">{{Cite web |date=25 October 2022 |title=Language Statistics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/language-statistics-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/2021 |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}</ref>
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{{Main|Tasmanian languages}}
Before British colonisation, there were perhaps five to sixteen languages on Tasmania,<ref>Crowley, ''Field Linguistics,'' 2007:3</ref> possibly related to one another in four [[Language family|language families]].<ref name="Bowern">Claire Bowern, September 2012, "The riddle of Tasmanian languages", ''Proc. R. Soc. B'', 279,
=== Indigenous sign languages ===
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Traditional Indigenous languages often incorporated sign systems to aid communication with the hearing impaired, to complement verbal communication, and to replace verbal communication when the spoken language was forbidden for cultural reasons. Many of these sign systems are still in use.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Murphy |first=Fiona |date=19 June 2021 |title=Aboriginal sign languages have been used for thousands of years |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-19/australian-indigenous-sign-languages/100185504 |access-date=8 May 2023 |website=ABC News online}}</ref>
==
=== Sign languages ===
▲The Australian sign language
=== Norf'k-Pitcairn ===
[[Norfuk language|Norf'k-Pitcairn]], a creole of 18th century English and Tahitian, was introduced to Norfolk Island by Pitcairn settlers after 1856. In 2021, it was used at home by 907 people, mostly on Norfolk Island.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 December 2022 |title=Understanding ancestry, language and birthplace of the Norfolk Island population |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/understanding-ancestry-language-and-birthplace-norfolk-island-population |access-date=9 May 2023 |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}</ref>
=== 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 ==
English is the language of school education in Australia and is a key learning area in the Australian curriculum up to Year 10.<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 August 2022 |title=Australian Curriculum |url=https://www.education.gov.au/australian-curriculum |access-date=9 May 2023 |website=Australian Government, Department of Education}}</ref> Languages are also a key learning area up to Year 10 and include Arabic, Auslan, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Modern Greek, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese, as well as the Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages, and Framework for Classical Languages including Classical Greek and Latin.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Australian curriculum, Learning areas |url=https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/f-10-curriculum-overview/learning-areas |access-date=9 May 2023 |website=Australian Curriculum}}</ref> Year 12 enrolments in Languages Other than English declined over the 10 years to 2021 and are the lowest of all subject areas.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hennebry-Leunig |first=Mairin |date=6 May 2021 |title=Is your kid studying a second language at school? How much they learn will depend on where you live |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-06/child-studying-second-language-school-learning-depends-where/100118720 |access-date=9 May 2023 |website=ABC News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Year 12 subject enrolments |url=https://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia-data-portal/year-12-subject-enrolments |access-date=9 May 2023 |website=Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority}}</ref>
There are a number of Indigenous language programs inside and outside the school system. The Australian Government has committed $14.1 million over the four years to 2025-2026 to teach First Nations languages in primary schools across Australia.<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 October 2022 |title=First Nations languages in Australian primary schools |url=https://www.education.gov.au/schooling/announcements/first-nations-languages-australian-primary-schools |access-date=9 May 2023 |website=Australian Government, Department of Education}}</ref> There are also 20 Indigenous Language Centres across Australia which receive funding from the Australian Government and other sources.<ref>National Indigenous Languages Report (2020). p. 21</ref>
Australia is a significant destination for overseas students studying English. Over 79,000 overseas students enrolled in intensive English courses in Australia in 2022. This was below the pre-Covid peak of 156,478 enrolments in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 April 2023 |title=International Student Data – full year data (based on data finalised in December 2022) |url=https://www.education.gov.au/international-education-data-and-research/international-student-monthly-summary-and-data-tables#toc-international-student-data-full-year-data-based-on-data-finalised-in-december-2022- |access-date=9 May 2023 |website=Australian Government, Department of Education}}</ref>
== 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"/>
In 1999, [[Aden Ridgeway]] introduced himself to the Senate in [[Gumbaynggirr language|Gumbaynggirr]].<ref name="aiatsis"/>
In 2008, [[Rob Oakeshott]] became the first politician to use an Indigenous language in the [[Australian House of Representatives|House of Representatives]], after he used three [[Dhanggati language|Dhanggati]] words in his speech. In June 2013, he became the first politician to give a speech to any Australian parliament entirely in an Indigenous language, after giving a speech in Dhanggati with help from a linguist.<ref name="aiatsis"/>
In August 2016, [[Linda Burney]] gave an [[Acknowledgement of Country]] in [[Wiradjuri language|Wiradjuri]].<ref name="aiatsis"/>
In 2016, Senator [[Pat Dodson]] spoke [[Yawuru language|Yawuru]] in the Senate, with the Senate President even responding in Yawuru.<ref name="aiatsis"/>
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 ===
The first politician to use an Indigenous language in the [[Parliament of New South Wales]] was [[Troy Grant]] in 2014, who used Wiradjuri in the closing sentence of the Acknowledgement of Country.<ref name="aiatsis"/>
In 2019, [[Sarah Mitchell]] gave an Acknowledgment of Country in English, which was translated into Dhanggati.<ref name="aiatsis"/>
=== 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"/>
In 2012, [[Bess Price]] spoke [[Warlpiri language|Warlpiri]] in her maiden speech.<ref name="aiatsis"/> In the same sitting of parliament, [[Yingiya Mark Guyula]] spoke Yolŋu in his maiden speech.<ref name="aiatsis"/>
=== Queensland ===
In 2018, [[Cynthia Lui]] became the first politician to address an Australian parliament in a Torres Strait Islander language, addressing the [[Queensland Legislative Assembly]] in [[Kala Lagaw Ya]].<ref name="aiatsis"/>
===
[[Josie Farrer]] was the first politician to use an Indigenous language in the [[Parliament of Western Australia]], speaking in both [[Kija language|Kija]] and [[Australian Kriol|Kriol]].<ref name="aiatsis"/>
== See also ==
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* [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}}
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[[Category:Languages of Australia| ]]
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