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[[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 2005">"The Macquarie Dictionary", Fourth Edition. The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, 2005.</ref> [[General Australian]] serves as the standard dialect.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Lalande |first=Line |date=4 May 2020 |title=Australian English in a nutshell |url=https://www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/en/blogue-blog/australian-english-eng |publisher=Government of Canada}}</ref>
 
== 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.&nbsp;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=":9">{{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> The National Indigenous Languages Survey (NILS) for 2018-19 found that more than 120 Indigenous language varieties were in use or being revived, although 70 of those in use are endangered.<ref name=":12">National Indigenous Language Report (2020). pp. 42, 65</ref> The 2021 census found that 167 Indigenous languages were spoken at home by 76,978 Indigenous Australians.<ref name=":13">{{Cite web |date=28 June 2022 |title=Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: Census |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-people-census/2021 |access-date=7 May 2023 |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}</ref> NILS and the Australian Bureau of Statistics use different classifications for Indigenous Australian languages.<ref name=":16">National Indigenous Languages Report (2020). p. 46</ref>
 
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>
It is believed that there were almost 400 Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait languages at the time of first European contact. Most of these are now either [[language death|extinct or moribund]], with only about fifteen languages still being spoken among all age groups of the relevant tribes.<ref>McConvell, P. & N.Thieberger. 2001. State of Indigenous Language Report. http://www.environment.gov.au/soe/2001/publications/technical/indigenous-languages.html</ref> The ''National Indigenous Languages Report'' is a regular Australia-wide survey of the status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/research/research-themes/languages-and-cultural-expression/national-indigenous-languages-report-nilr|title=National Indigenous Languages Report (NILR)|date=2018-11-06|website=Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies|language=en|access-date=2020-02-06}}</ref> conducted in 2005,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/publications/products/national-indigenous-languages-survey-report-2005|title=National Indigenous Languages Survey Report 2005|date=2016-02-19|website=Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies|language=en|access-date=2020-02-06}}</ref> 2014<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/publications/products/community-identity-wellbeing-report-second-national-indigenous-languages-survey|title=Community, identity, wellbeing: The report of the Second National Indigenous Languages Survey|date=2015-02-16|website=Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies|language=en|access-date=2020-02-06}}</ref> and 2019.<ref name=":0" /> An indigenous language remains the main language for about 50,000 (0.25%) people.
 
=== Torres Strait Island languages ===
[[File:Australian Census 2011 demographic map - Australia by SLA - BCP field 2571 Speaks other language Australian Indigenous Languages Persons.svg|thumb|right|300px|Number of speakers of Australian indigenous languages as a percentage of population according to the 2011 census.]]
{{Main|AustralianTorres AboriginalStrait signIsland languages}}▼
 
TheThree Aboriginallanguages andare spoken on the islands of the [[Torres Strait]], Islandwithin languagesAustralian withterritory, by the mostMelanesian speakersinhabitants todayof arethe [[Upperarea: ArrernteYumplatok (Torres Strait Creole) (7,596 speakers used the language|Upper Arrernte]]at home in 2021), [[Kalaw Lagaw Ya]], [[Tiwi(875 language|Tiwi]],speakers) and [[WalmajarriMeriam language|WalmajarriMeriam Mir]], (256 speakers).<ref name=":17" /> Meriam Mir is a [[WarlpiriPapuan languagelanguages|WarlpiriPapuan language]], andwhile theKalaw [[WesternLagaw DesertYa is an Australian language]].
 
===Sign languagesCreoles ===
TwoA number of English-based [[creoleCreole language|creolecreoles]]s have arisen in Australia after European contact:, [[Australianof Kriolwhich language|Kriol]] and [[Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole]]) are among the strongest and fastest-growing Indigenous languages. Kriol is spoken in the [[Northern Territory]] and [[Western Australia]], and [[Torres Strait Creole]] in Queensland and south-west Papua. It is estimated that there are 20,000 to 30,000 speakers of Indigenous creole languages.<ref>National Indigenous Languages Report (2020). pp. 42, 54-55</ref>▼
▲{{Main|Australian Aboriginal sign languages}}
 
{{empty section|date=June 2020}}
 
===Tasmanian languages===
{{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, 4590&#x2013;4595, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1842</ref> The last speaker of a traditional Tasmanian language died in 1905.<ref>NJB Plomley, 1976b. ''Friendly mission: the Tasmanian journals of George Augustus Robinson 1829–34. Kingsgrove. pp. xiv–xv.''</ref> [[Palawa kani]] is an in-progress constructed language, built from a composite of surviving words from various Tasmanian Aboriginal languages.<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 July 2019 |title=T16: Palawa kani |url=https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/T16}}</ref>
{{empty section|date=January 2021}}
 
===Torres StraitIndigenous sign languages ===
{{Main|TorresAustralian StraitAboriginal Islandsign languages}}
 
Two languages are spoken on the islands of the [[Torres Strait]], within Australian territory, by the Melanesian inhabitants of the area: [[Kalaw Lagaw Ya]] and [[Meriam language|Meriam]]. Meriam Mir is a [[Papuan languages|Papuan language]], while Kalaw Lagaw Ya is an Australian language.
 
===Pidgins and creoles===
▲Two English-based [[creole language|creole]]s have arisen in Australia after European contact: [[Australian Kriol language|Kriol]] and [[Torres Strait Creole]]. Kriol is spoken in the [[Northern Territory]] and [[Western Australia]], and [[Torres Strait Creole]] in Queensland and south-west Papua.
 
[[Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin]] was a [[pidgin]] used as a [[lingua franca]] between [[Malay race|Malays]], Japanese, [[Viet Nam|Vietnamese]], [[Torres Strait Islanders]] and [[Australian Aborigines|Aborigines]] on [[pearl hunting|pearling]] boats.
 
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>
[[Angloromani language|Angloromani]] is a mixture of [[Romani language|Romani]] and [[Australian English]]. It is spoken by the [[Romani people|Romani]] minority in Australia.
 
==Immigrant languages==
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