English, as our national language, connects us together and is an important unifying element of Australian society.
While English is the dominant language in Australia, many people speak a language other than English within their families and communities.
There is a misconception in Australia that Tamil was one of Australia's national languages. Most people who know much about Australia will know that the country has no national language as such, but English has since the time of European settlement been adopted as the de facto national language.
It is the country's common language and de facto national language; while Australia has no official language, English is the first language of the majority of the population, and has been entrenched as the de facto national language since British settlement, being the only language spoken in the home for 72% of ...
In Australia there are more than 250 Indigenous languages including 800 dialects. Each language is specific to a particular place and people. In some areas like Arnhem Land, many different languages are spoken over a small area. In other areas, like the huge Western Desert, dialects of one language are spoken.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island languages
Over 250 Australian Aboriginal languages are thought to have existed at the time of first European contact.
There are more than 20 'healthy' languages being spoken in the NT, meaning they are being learnt by children. More traditional languages are being replaced by new Aboriginal languages; Aboriginal English, Pidgin, and Kriol. Aboriginal English is a form of English that reflects Aboriginal languages.
Australian English can be described as a new dialect that developed as a result of contact between people who spoke different, mutually intelligible, varieties of English. The very early form of Australian English would have been first spoken by the children of the colonists born into the early colony in Sydney.
G'day (guh-day) / Hello.
What does it mean? Another word for friend. Common in Britain as well, but used even more enthusiastically by Aussies, who pepper the ends of their sentences with a longer, stretched out “maaaaate” that conveys friendliness and establishes a relaxed bond between the speakers.
In Australia, 22.3% of people used a language other than English at home in 2021. Australia's language statistics show the proportion of the population who use a language at home other than English.
Some countries, such as the United States, have no official national language but do have areas where an official language has been adopted. Still other countries have no official languages at all. These include Australia, Eritrea, Luxembourg, Sweden and Tuvalu.
The Australian accent is similar wherever you are in the country. Differences in Australian English are subtle and are generally divided into three broad categories – broad, general, and cultivated. In some cases, the accent type is associated with socioeconomic status.
In England and Australia, you'll often hear Happy Christmas, but in the US and Canada, Merry is the star of the show.
Certainly if you're in the US, your mother is your “mom” – short for “mommy” and in the UK, Australia and New Zealand it's “mum” – shortened from “mummy”.
Australian goodbye is “Hooroo”; sometimes they even “cheerio” like British people, a UK slang word.
"Barbie" is Australian slang for barbecue and the phrase "slip a shrimp on the barbie" often evokes images of a fun social gathering under the sun. Australians, however, invariably use the word prawn rather than shrimp.
Early European settlers to Australia — many of whom were convicts — were from all over Great Britain and Ireland, and their speech patterns blended to form the new Australian accent.
Unlike some of the strong accents and dialects used back in England, the Australian accent was clear and easy to understand, because it was developed by people trying to understand each other!
'Aborigine' is generally perceived as insensitive, because it has racist connotations from Australia's colonial past, and lumps people with diverse backgrounds into a single group. You're more likely to make friends by saying 'Aboriginal person', 'Aboriginal' or 'Torres Strait Islander'.
There is no one Aboriginal word that all Aborigines use for Australia; however, today they call Australia, ""Australia"" because that is what it is called today. There are more than 250 aboriginal tribes in Australia. Most of them didn't have a word for ""Australia""; they just named places around them.
Paakantyi. This Australian Aboriginal language is still spoken in regions alongside the Darling River, but only by a few people.
After Dutch navigators charted the northern, western and southern coasts of Australia during the 17th Century this newly found continent became known as 'New Holland'.