How many languages are spoken in Australia?

A continent of many languages

Before British colonisation, more than 250 First Nations languages were spoken across Australia, along with around 800 dialects. A dialect is a local version of a language, a bit like the way English sounds different in Scotland, the United States and Australia.

These were not small variations on one language. Experts at the Australian National University say many of them were as different from each other as English is from German, Greek or Hindi. Each language belongs to a particular place and its people. In Arnhem Land, many different languages are spoken close together. In the huge Western Desert, people across a very wide area speak dialects of one language.

In the Torres Strait there are three main languages. Kala Lagaw Ya is spoken on western islands such as Mabuiag and Badu, and Meriam Mir on the eastern islands, including Mer (Murray Island). The third, Yumplatok, also called Torres Strait Creole, is spoken across the Torres Strait and in parts of Cape York.

Languages under threat

After colonisation, speaking First Nations languages was often discouraged or even forbidden. The National Archives of Australia explains that colonisation and government policies left most of these languages endangered or lost.

A national survey in 2018 and 2019 found 123 First Nations languages still spoken in Australia, but 109 of those are endangered. That means fewer and fewer people speak them, and children may not be learning them at home.

Many First Nations languages are still spoken every day, though. In the 2021 Census, about 77,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people said they speak a First Nations language, and more than 150 different First Nations languages were reported. The most common was Yumplatok.

Waking languages up

Communities across Australia are working to bring back at least 31 languages. This is called language revival, and it can work even when nobody has spoken a language every day for a long time.

Kaurna, the language of the Adelaide region in South Australia, is a famous example. Kaurna people say their language was never dead, only sleeping. It had almost faded from use, but in the 1830s German missionaries wrote down thousands of Kaurna words. Working from records like these, Kaurna people and language experts have woken the language up, and children now learn Kaurna words at school.

A new English-to-Kaurna dictionary, published in 2022, includes thousands of new words created with Kaurna Elders and speakers. The Kaurna word for computer is mukarntu, made by joining the words for brain and lightning.

Words you already know

You probably use First Nations words every day without noticing. In 1770, James Cook and Joseph Banks recorded the word kangaroo from the Guugu Yimithirr people, near present-day Cooktown in Queensland. It was their name for a large black or grey kangaroo, but English speakers began using it for all kangaroos.

When the First Fleet arrived in Sydney in 1788, the British picked up many words from Dharug, the language of the Sydney area: koala, wombat, dingo, wallaby, boomerang, woomera and waratah. Other languages gave us more. Budgerigar and brolga come from Kamilaroi, galah and bilby from Yuwaalaraay, and kookaburra from Wiradjuri.

Words taken from one language into another are called borrowings. The 2016 edition of the Australian National Dictionary includes more than 500 words from about 100 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.

Languages in Australian homes today

Australia is also home to people whose families came from all over the world. In the 2021 Census, 5.6 million people, or 22 per cent of Australians, said they use a language other than English at home.

The five most common were Mandarin, Arabic, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Punjabi. Look around your classroom and you may hear several of them, along with many others.

Speaking more than one language is a real strength. It connects people to their families, their culture and their Country. As a Warlpiri translator is quoted on the website of AIATSIS, the national First Nations research institute: "Our language keeping us strong."

📚 Words to know

Dialect

A local version of a language, with its own words, sounds or ways of saying things.

Endangered language

A language that fewer and fewer people speak, which may stop being spoken if nothing changes.

Language revival

Bringing a sleeping language back into use, often with the help of old recordings and written records.

Borrowing

A word taken from one language and used in another, like koala in English.

Census

A count of all the people in a country, with questions about their lives. Australia holds one every five years.

🧪 Try this: map the languages around you

1. Look up the AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia online with an adult. It shows the general areas of many language and nation groups. Which ones are near where you live? (The map is not exact, so local Aboriginal organisations are the best people to ask.)
2. Write the borrowed words from this article on cards: kangaroo, koala, wombat, dingo, boomerang, budgerigar, galah, bilby, kookaburra. Sort them into piles by the language each one came from.
3. Run a class survey: how many different languages do people in your class, or their families, speak at home? Make a tally chart or bar graph of the results.
4. Ask a classmate or family member who speaks another language to teach you how to say hello. Practise it until you can say it just right.