Languages of Australia facts for kids
Australia does not have an official language. However, the main language spoken across the country is English. Many languages are also spoken by Indigenous Australians and by different ethnic groups who have moved to Australia.
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English Language in Australia
The English language came to Australia with the British colonists in the 18th and 19th centuries. They used it in the colonies they established. Today, most people living in Australia speak English. In 2016, about 72.7 percent of Australians spoke only English at home. Australia has its own special way of speaking English, called Australian English.
Indigenous Languages of Australia
Indigenous Australians have lived on this land for at least 50,000 years. They developed between 290 and 363 different languages. These languages belong to about 28 language families or are language isolates (meaning they are not related to any other known language). Sadly, many of these languages are no longer spoken, or only a few people still speak them, mainly because English became so common. The largest group of these languages is the Pama-Nyungan family, which includes 248 languages.
In the Torres Strait Islands, three Indigenous languages are spoken. These are Kalaw Lagaw Ya, Meriam Mir, and Yumplatok. Yumplatok is a creole language, which means it developed from a mix of languages, in this case, Pacific English. It is spoken more often on the islands than the other two languages.
Languages Spoken by Migrants
Australia is a country with many people from all over the world. Because of this, many different languages are spoken by migrant communities. In 2016, about 22.2 percent of people in Australia spoke a language other than English at home. In that same year, these were the languages spoken most often at home:
- Mandarin Chinese (by 596,711 people, 2.5% of the population)
- Arabic (by 321,728 people, 1.4% of the population)
- Cantonese (by 280,943 people, 1.2% of the population)
- Vietnamese (by 277,400 people, 1.2% of the population)
- Italian (by 271,597 people, 1.2% of the population)
Images for kids
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Percentage of people who speak English at home in 2016
See also
In Spanish: Lenguas de Australia para niños
