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Languages of Australia

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"Australian language" redirects here. For the Polynesian language spoken on the Austral Islands, see Austral language.

Languages of Australia
MainAustralian English
IndigenousAustralian Aboriginal languages, Tasmanian languages, Torres Strait Island languages, Norfuk
RegionalAustralian Irish
ImmigrantMandarin (2.7%), Arabic (1.4%), Vietnamese (1.3%), Cantonese (1.2%), Punjabi (0.9%)
ForeignJapanese, Italian, Indonesian, French, German, Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish, Greek, Vietnamese, several others
SignedAustralasian Signed English
Auslan, AISL, various manual Indigenous languages, such as Eltye eltyarrenke, Rdaka-rdaka and Yolŋu Sign Language amongst others

Although English is not the official language of Australia in law, it is the de facto official and national language.[1][2] Australian English is a major variety of the language with a distinctive accent and lexicon,[3] and differs slightly from other varieties of English in grammar and spelling.[4] General Australian serves as the standard dialect.[5]

According to the 2021 census, English is the only language spoken in the home for 72% of the population. The ten next most common languages spoken at home are:[6] Mandarin (2.7%), Arabic (1.4%), Vietnamese (1.3%), Cantonese (1.2%), Punjabi (0.9%), Greek (0.9%), Italian (0.9%), Tagalog (0.9%), Hindi (0.8%) and Spanish (0.7%).

In 2018, it was reported that one million people in Australia could not speak English.[7][8]

Over 250 Australian Aboriginal languages are thought to have existed at the time of first European contact.[9] 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 were endangered.[10] The 2021 census found that 167 Indigenous languages were spoken at home by 76,978 Indigenous Australians.[11] NILS and the Australian Bureau of Statistics use different classifications for Indigenous Australian languages.[12]

The Australian sign language known as Auslan was used at home by 16,242 people at the time of the 2021 census.[13] Other sign languages include the various manual Indigenous languages like Eltye eltyarrenke, Rdaka-rdaka and Yolŋu Sign Language. Lastly, there is a small community of people who speak Australian Irish Sign Language (AISL), a Francosign language related to French Sign Language rather than being a Banzsl language like Auslan.[14][15]

On Norfolk Island, the Norfuk language has official status.[16]

English

Main article: Australian English

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.[17] Although English is not the official language of Australia in law, it is the de facto official and national language.[18][19] 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.[20] The increase in the migrant population over the past decade has seen a decline in the number of people speaking only English at home.[21]

Percentage of population speaking only English at home: 2011, 2016 and 2021
State/Territory 2011 2016 2021
New South Wales[22] 72.5 68.5 67.6
Victoria[23] 72.4 67.9 67.2
Queensland[24] 84.8 81.2 81.2
South Australia[25] 81.6 78.2 77.6
Western Australia[26] 79.3 75.2 75.3
Tasmania[27] 91.7 88.3 86.1
Northern Territory[28] 62.8 58.0 57.3
Australian Capital Territory[29] 77.8 72.7 71.3
Australia[21] 76.8 72.7 72.0

Australian English is a major variety of the language with a distinctive accent and lexicon,[30] and differs slightly from other varieties of English in grammar and spelling.[31] General Australian serves as the standard dialect.[32]

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island languages

Main article: Australian Aboriginal languages

Humans arrived in Australia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago[33][34] but it is possible that the ancestor language of existing Indigenous languages is as recent as 12,000 years old.[35] Over 250 Australian Aboriginal languages are thought to have existed at the time of first European contact.[36] 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.[37] The 2021 census found that 167 Indigenous languages were spoken at home by 76,978 Indigenous Australians.[38] NILS and the Australian Bureau of Statistics use different classifications for Indigenous Australian languages.[39]

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), Djambarrpuyngu (3,839), Pitjantjatjara (3,399), Warlpiri (2,592), Murrinh Patha (2,063) and Tiwi (2,053). There were also over 10,000 people who spoke an Indigenous language which could not be further defined or classified.[40]

Torres Strait Island languages

Main article: Torres Strait Island languages

Three languages are spoken on the islands of the Torres Strait, within Australian territory, by the Melanesian inhabitants of the area: Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole) (7,596 speakers used the language at home in 2021), Kalaw Lagaw Ya (875 speakers) and Meriam Mir (256 speakers).[40] Meriam Mir is a Papuan language, while Kalaw Lagaw Ya is an Australian language.

Creoles

A number of English-based creoles have arisen in Australia after European contact, of which 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.[41]

Tasmanian languages

Main article: Tasmanian languages

Before British colonisation, there were perhaps five to sixteen languages on Tasmania,[42] possibly related to one another in four language families.[43] The last speaker of a traditional Tasmanian language died in 1905.[44] Palawa kani is an in-progress constructed language, built from a composite of surviving words from various Tasmanian Aboriginal languages.[45]

Indigenous sign languages

Main article: Australian Aboriginal sign languages

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.[46]

Immigrant languages

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There has been a steady decline in the percentage of Australians who speak only English at home since at least 2001. According to the 2001 census, English was the only language spoken in the home for around 80% of the population. By the 2006 census it had fallen to close to 79%, while in the 2011 census, that number had fallen to 76.8%. According to the 2021 census, English is the only language spoken at home for 72% of the population. Languages Other Than English (LOTE) is becoming an increasingly popular subject in Australian schools,[47] and English as a Second Language (ESL) is an alternative, less advanced English subject for newly immigrated students.

The next five most common languages spoken at home, as of the 2016 census, are:[48]

A considerable proportion of first- and second-generation migrants are bilingual.

Foreign languages

Main article: Foreign language teaching in Australia

Foreign languages are widely taught in Australia. The most popular languages taught at schools other than English are Japanese, Italian, Indonesian, French, German and Mandarin.[49] However, many other languages are also taught at schools, including other foreign languages, Indigenous Australian languages and Auslan.

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ "Pluralist Nations: Pluralist Language Policies?". 1995 Global Cultural Diversity Conference Proceedings, Sydney. Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Archived from the original on 20 December 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2009. "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."
  2. ^ Ward, Rowena (2019). "'National' and 'Official' Languages Across the Independent Asia-Pacific". Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies. 16 (1/2): 83–4. 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.
  3. ^ Moore, Bruce. "The Vocabulary Of Australian English" (PDF). National Museum of Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 March 2011. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  4. ^ "The Macquarie Dictionary", Fourth Edition. The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, 2005.
  5. ^ Lalande, Line (4 May 2020). "Australian English in a nutshell". Government of Canada.
  6. ^ "Language spoken at home | Australia | Community profile".
  7. ^ "Almost 1m Aussies can't speak English". Daily Telegraph. 13 June 2018.
  8. ^ "Language".
  9. ^ Australian Government, Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications (2020). National Indigenous Languages Report. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. p. 13.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ National Indigenous Language Report (2020). pp. 42, 65
  11. ^ "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: Census". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 28 June 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  12. ^ National Indigenous Languages Report (2020). p. 46
  13. ^ "Census of Population and Housing: Cultural diversity data summary, 2021, TABLE 5. LANGUAGE USED AT HOME BY STATE AND TERRITORY". Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  14. ^ "austririshsign-adam-0376". Endangered Languages Archive. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  15. ^ "Australian Irish Sign Language: a minority sign language within a larger sign language community". Culture in Crisis. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  16. ^ "Archived copy". www.info.gov.nf. Archived from the original on 25 July 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. ^ Leitner, Gerhard (2004). Australia's Many Voices, Australian English the national language. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 5–6. ISBN 3-11-018194-0.
  18. ^ "Pluralist Nations: Pluralist Language Policies?". 1995 Global Cultural Diversity Conference Proceedings, Sydney. Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Archived from the original on 20 December 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2009. "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."
  19. ^ Ward, Rowena (2019). "'National' and 'Official' Languages Across the Independent Asia-Pacific". Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies. 16 (1/2): 83–4. 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.
  20. ^ "Language spoken at home | Australia | Community profile".
  21. ^ a b "Australia 2021 census community profiles, time series profile". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  22. ^ "New South Wales 2021 Census Community Profiles, Time Series Profile". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  23. ^ "Victoria 2021 Census Community Profiles, time series profile". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  24. ^ "Queensland 2021 Census community profiles, time series profile". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  25. ^ "South Australia 2021 census community profiles, time series profile". Australian Bureau of statistice. 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  26. ^ "Western Australia 2021 census community profile, time series profile". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  27. ^ "Tasmania 2021 census community profile, time series profile". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  28. ^ "Northern Territory 2021 census community profiles, time series profile". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  29. ^ "Australian Capital Territory 2021 census community profile, time series profile". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  30. ^ Moore, Bruce. "The Vocabulary Of Australian English" (PDF). National Museum of Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 March 2011. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  31. ^ "The Macquarie Dictionary", Fourth Edition. The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, 2005.
  32. ^ Lalande, Line (4 May 2020). "Australian English in a nutshell". Government of Canada.
  33. ^ Flood, Josephine (2019). The Original Australians. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. p. 217. ISBN 9781760527075.
  34. ^ Veth, Peter; O'Connor, Sue (2013). "The past 50,000 years: an archaeological view". In Bashford, Alison; MacIntyre, Stuart (eds.). The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume 1, Indigenous and Colonial Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 19. ISBN 9781107011533.
  35. ^ Marchese, David (28 March 2018). "Indigenous languages come from just one common ancestor, researchers say". ABC news. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  36. ^ Australian Government, Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications (2020). National Indigenous Languages Report. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. p. 13.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  37. ^ National Indigenous Language Report (2020). pp. 42, 65
  38. ^ "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: Census". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 28 June 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  39. ^ National Indigenous Languages Report (2020). p. 46
  40. ^ a b "Language Statistics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 25 October 2022.
  41. ^ National Indigenous Languages Report (2020). pp. 42, 54-55
  42. ^ Crowley, Field Linguistics, 2007:3
  43. ^ Claire Bowern, September 2012, "The riddle of Tasmanian languages", Proc. R. Soc. B, 279, 4590–4595, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1842
  44. ^ NJB Plomley, 1976b. Friendly mission: the Tasmanian journals of George Augustus Robinson 1829–34. Kingsgrove. pp. xiv–xv.
  45. ^ "T16: Palawa kani". 26 July 2019.
  46. ^ Murphy, Fiona (19 June 2021). "Aboriginal sign languages have been used for thousands of years". ABC News online. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  47. ^ "Draft Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Languages" (PDF). p. 35. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 March 2016.
  48. ^ "Language spoken at home | Australia | Community profile".
  49. ^ "Should learning a second language be compulsory in Australian schools?".

Sources

External links

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