Aboriginal Languages of Australia

History
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the native people of Australia. At the time of first contact with European colonists in the late 18th century, most Aboriginal people were hunters-gatherers with a complex oral culture and spiritual values based upon reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime, or Dreamings.

The exact timing of the arrival of the ancestors of Aboriginal people has been a matter of dispute but the most common view is that their ancestors came from southeast Asia around 50,000 years ago.

No clear relationship has been established between the Aboriginal languages and the rest of the world's languages. With no written records, their origin remains a matter of conjecture. It is speculated that there may have been around 600 Aboriginal languages prior to colonization, but many of them became extinct as the Aboriginal people were forced togive up their language and learn English.

Status
It is estimated that there are 170,000 Australians of Aboriginal descent, of whom 47,000 have some knowledge of one of the 263 different Aboriginal languages. Only a handful of these languages have more than 1,000 speakers, and even these are endangered. Population estimates are hampered by the fact that Aboriginal people often live in isolated area and that most of them are bilingual with varying degrees of proficiency in their Aboriginal language.

Aboriginal languages have been grouped into 28 groups, all of which are thought to be related. All but one of these groups are found in the northern parts of Western Australia, Northern Territory, and Queensland. A single family, Pama-Nyungan, covers the remainder of the continent with some 50 surviving languages.

Below is a listing of languages with the largest numbers of speakers. Some of the numbers are based on 1983 data. Thus, the number of speakers for some of them may be even smaller today. Also, please note that most of these languages have several alternate names.

Kala Lagaw Ya Mabuyag Warlpiri	3,000-4,000
Arrarnta (Eastern) Pitjantjatjara	2,000-2,500
Tiwi Gunwinggu Ngaanyatjarra Walmajarri Arrarnta (Western) Anindilyakwa	1,000-1,500
Murrinh-Patha Burarra Anmatyerre Pintupi-Luritja Kuku Yalanji Martu Wangka Yindjibarndi Nyangumarta Dhuwal Nyangumarta	500-900
Gupapuyngu Djambarrpuyngu Meriam Wik-Mungkan Dhangu	300-450
Gumatj Kukatja Nunggubuyu Jaru Gurinji Nangikurrunggurr Pintini Yankunytjatjara Dayi Garawa Kaytetye Maung Warrumungu Ritarungu	200-300
Iwaidja Ngarinman Rembarunga Thayore	150

Click here for a complete listing of Aboriginal languages.

The future of the Aboriginal languages is uncertain, but the good news is that some of them now have a written form, and the Aboriginal people as well as the Australian society are concerned about the loss of these languages. This has provided an incentive for Aboriginal groups across Australia to have their languages taught to children in school.

Aboriginal women

Aboriginal men

Sound system
Aboriginal languages have unusual phonologies that share certain features:

only three vowels;
no voicing contrasts;
fricatives;
several kinds of [r];
plosives, nasals, and laterals at each of several points of articulation:
labial /p/ and /m/a
dental /th/, /nh/, /lh/
alveolar /t/, /n/, /l/
retroflex /rt/, /rn/, /rl/
palatal /ty/, /ny/, /ly/
velar /k/ and /ng/

Vocabulary
The Aboriginal languages share much of their vocabulary. A common feature of many of them is that they have so called mother-in-law languages, i.e., special avoidance languages used only in the presence of certain close relatives. These languages share the sound system and grammar of the standard language, but the vocabulary is different and usually very restricted.

Writing
It is only within the last 100 years that Aboriginal languages have been written down. Computer Assisted Language Learning has great potential to assist indigenous peoples in becoming print-literate in their own languages. For instance, talking books in Ndjebbana (Djeebbana) are used in a remote indigenous community to promote literacy among its speakers.
Click here to learn more.

boomerang

kangaroo

Aboriginal words in English
Did you know that these English words came from the Aboriginal languages of Australia?

boomerang	adapted from an extinct Aboriginal language of New South Wales, Australia. Another variant, perhaps, was womurrang.
kangaroo	probably from the Aboriginal language Guugu Yimidhirr ganurru "large black kangaroo."
koala	from the Aboriginal name of the animal, variously given as koola, kulla, kula.
wallaby	kind of small kangaroo, from Aboriginal wolaba.
wombat	marsupial mammal, from Aboriginal word variously given as womback, wombar.

The Dreamtime
The Dreamtime is the Aboriginal understanding of the world and its creation. It is the beginning of knowledge, from which came the laws of existence which must be observed to ensure survival. The Dreamtime continues as the "Dreaming" in the spiritual lives of Aboriginal people today. The events of the ancient era of creation are enacted in ceremonies and danced in mime form and chanted to the accompaniment of the didgeridoo or clap sticks.

Didgeridoo - the sound of Australia
It is probably the world's oldest wind instrument originally found in Arnhem Land in Northern Australia. Made from limbs and tree trunks hollowed out by insects and cut to an average length of about 4 feet, the instrument produces a low-pitch, resonant sound with complex rhythmic patterns.

Click here to listen to Didgeridoo music from Down Under.

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