Today, Australia is renowned for its acceptance of immigrants. Whilst not only making the country ethnically diverse, it also makes the country linguistically diverse too, with the languages of Australia being more interesting than you’d probably think…
Indeed, many think that the languages of Australia are just English and maybe a few other languages. Yet, it’s more than that, with there being hundreds of weird and unknown languages spoken in the country, as well as the ones you’d have thought of…
Official Language of Australia
Although there had been minor European contact with Australia beforehand (notably by the Dutch), the majority of European contact with Australia would begin after James Cook “rediscovered” Australia in 1770.
From here, the first English-speaking immigrants would arrive in Australia in 1781 which soon established English as not only the official language of the colony, but also as the language of everyday life too.
Due to this, when Australia became independent from Britain in 1901, almost the entire population spoke English as their first language. As a result, English remained as the main language of the country, however, was never actually made official.
Despite speaking “English”, the English they speak in Australia isn’t like British or American English.
Instead, it has a British English base, whilst borrowing words from indigenous languages, as well as words from other English dialects, namely Scots and Irish English. Hence, the dialect of English they speak in Australia is known as “Australian English“.
Owing to its position as the official language, Australian English is the language of government, business, education, healthcare and everyday life, being nigh on impossible to survive in Australia without speaking English!
As of the time of writing, Australian English (or at least, some dialect of English) is spoken or understood by 99% – or around 25.1 million people – making it the most spoken language in the country.
Indigenous Languages of Australia
Despite Australian English being the official language of Australia, there were a number of indigenous languages spoken in the country before Europeans arrived in Australia.
Although many have since died out (due to plague, assimilation etc.), the most spoken indigenous languages in Australia are:
Wati
Otherwise known as the Western Desert Language, Wati isn’t actually one language, but rather a cluster of highly mutually intelligible dialects of the same language that was spoken centuries before the arrival of Europeans.
Unlike the other aboriginal languages of Australia, Wati isn’t spoken by just one group of people, but instead is the language of the Western Desert cultural bloc – those aboriginal peoples originally from the Western Desert area.
Before the arrival of Europeans, Wati was the language these people used in everyday life, with it serving as the common language (or lingua franca) they could all use with one another.
Once Europeans came however, the aboriginals who spoke Wati scattered. Today, Wati is spoken literally everywhere.
Whilst most prevalent in the small towns in the old Western Desert bloc, you can also find it spoken in smaller numbers in the major cities along the Australian coast, being most spoken in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.
According to the latest Australian government numbers, there are an estimated 7,500 people who can fluently speak one of the many dialects of Wati, making it the most spoken Australian aboriginal language.
Upper Aranda
Otherwise known as Arrernte or Upper Arrernte (due to how the name of the language has been transliterated), Upper Aranda isn’t actually one language, but rather a cluster of closely related languages that are by ethnic Aranda peoples.
Prior to contact with Europeans, Upper Aranda was spoken throughout the Aranda Lands in the Central Australia region of the Northern Territory. After European contact, however, disease and war caused the Aranda people to scatter.
Eventually, they’d settle down. Some would settle in small towns and villages in the former Aranda Lands, whilst most would settle in Australia’s major cities, continuing to speak Upper Aranda at home, and English at work/school.
Much like Wati (and indeed, other aboriginal languages too!) the number of Upper Aranda speakers has declined significantly over the last 300 years, particularly in the last 50 years, with many young Aranda choosing not to speak their ancestral language.
As of the time of writing, the latest Australian censuses indicate that there are a little over 4,500 native speakers of Upper Aranda at the minute.
Interestingly, Upper Aranda is actually one of the few indigenous languages that have developed their own sign language, known as Arrernte/Aranda Sign Language. More intriguingly, no one actually uses it!
Warlpiri
Much like Wati and Upper Aranda, the Warlpiri language (and by extension, people) were prosperous before they came into contact with Europeans. After being in contact with Europeans, disease and war soon killed off many Warlpiri.
Thanks to this, they’d scatter all throughout the modern-day Warlpiri county (whose borders were drawn to represent the land that the Warlpiri once controlled) in the Northern Territory.
Today, ethnic Warlpiri are scattered throughout the various towns and villages in the county, having been separated from one another for decades.
Whilst not making up a significant minority in many of these towns, some stores do choose to advertise in both English and Warlpiri, especially if the store owner is Warlpiri themselves.
As with the other indigenous languages still spoken in Australia, fewer and fewer people are speaking Warlpiri each year, which is especially so with younger Warlpiri who believe that English is more useful.
Currently, the most recent census indicates that only 2,300 people speak Warlpiri to a competent level, almost all of whom are ethnic Warlpiri. Of a group of around 3000 people, only 77% of them can speak their ancestral language.
In an attempt to revitalize the language, linguists have merged Warlpiri with another dying language – Australian Kriol – to make Light Warlpiri, which has a mere 350 speakers to date, being a language that’s less than 50 years old.
Tiwi
Spoken by the Tiwi people of the Tiwi Islands, the Tiwi language is considered to be a language isolate – meaning that there are no known languages that are linguistically similar to Tiwi.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Tiwi was spoken by tens of thousands of Tiwi people on the Tiwi Islands. Yet, as with the other aboriginal languages, the arrival of Europeans decimated the Tiwi people and their language.
However, it wasn’t as instant as the other aboriginal groups/languages. Due to the Tiwi’s geographical isolation, it wouldn’t be until the 1910’s when the Australian government would begin taking mixed-raced Tiwi children and raising them as westerners.
Thanks to it being more gradual, Tiwi is less spread out than other aboriginal languages, instead remaining on the Tiwi islands as well as being spoken in the very north of the Northern Territory state.
To date, the Australian government estimates that there are a total of 2000 people who can speak Tiwi scattered throughout Australia.
As with many of the other aboriginal languages of Australia, many young Tiwi have begun to stop learning their ancestral tongue, believing English is more useful. However, most do have at a basic understanding of the language.
Immigrant Languages of Australia
Beyond Australian English and the various indigenous languages spoken in Australia, there are also a number of immigrant languages spoken in the country too – as Australia has become quite a popular destination for immigrants.
Whilst not an exhaustive list by any means, the most spoken immigrant languages in Australia include:
Mandarin
The first mass migration of Mandarin-speaking Chinese people from China to Australia would occur during the Australian gold rushes of the 1850’s. However, these would mostly be Cantonese speakers from the southeast of China.
Here, tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants would live in slums the size of only a few square blocks.
Despite eventually morphing into the various Chinatowns that are scattered throughout Australia today, the poor living conditions and anti-Chinese laws in Australia would put off many Mandarin-speaking Chinese people from moving to Australia.
Once these anti-Chinese laws were repealed in the 1970’s, thousands of Mandarin-speaking Chinese immigrants would make the move from China to Australia for a chance at a better life.
Moving to these Chinatowns, Australia soon had a rather large Mandarin-speaking population, coalescing around major cities like Sydney and Melbourne.
The first generation – those who moved to Australia in the 1970’s, worked stereotypical immigrant jobs – running news agencies, convenience stores, restaurants etc.
The second generation, have worked higher paying jobs primarily in the financial sector, but also in the medical sector too, spreading out where Chinese Australians work across the city.
Currently, Australian government statistics estimate that there are 634,000 native Mandarin speakers in Australia, or a little over 2.5% of the country’s entire population.
Cantonese
Speaking of Chinese immigrants, many of the original Chinese immigrants – those who came in the 1850’s during the gold rushes – didn’t speak Mandarin, but rather Cantonese as stated earlier.
Moving to Australia from Macau and Guangzhou (then called Canton), these Chinese immigrants would live in the precursors to today’s Chinatowns and work in the gold fields.
However, almost all of Australia’s Cantonese-speaking immigrants were men. As such, when it came time to start a family, many Chinese immigrants went back to China to find a wife, whilst others married white Australians.
In the latter case, these Chinese-Australian couples would have children who were native speakers of both English and Cantonese.
Despite anti-Chinese acts being passed in Australia curtailing the number of Cantonese-speaking immigrants coming to Australia, once these acts were repealed, many more Cantonese-speaking immigrants moved to Australia.
As of the time of writing, the Australian government estimates that there are a little over 300,000 native Cantonese speakers in Australia, most of whom are second-generation immigrants still living in Australia’s various Chinatowns.
Vietnamese
When the US officially joined the Vietnam War in 1965, they would back the pro-Western South Vietnamese against the communist-aligned North Vietnam.
Over the course of the war, both sides fielded millions of soldiers, many of whom died (especially so if you were American), eventually resulting in the US withdrawal from the Vietnam in 1973 and the collapse of the South in 1975.
Not wanting to live under a communist regime, or fearing that they’d be executed for their role in the war, millions of Vietnamese citizens attempted to flee the country, with many doing so by boat.
As refugees, the Australian government signed an agreement taking in over 90,000 Vietnamese refugees. Arriving in the country, most would move to the states of Victoria or New South Wales, working a wide range of jobs.
Due to having different jobs that paid different amounts, Australia’s Vietnamese community wouldn’t live in “mini-Vietnams” if you will, instead being close in other ways like Vietnamese language schools or gettogethers.
Many of these Vietnamese refugees would also have children with other Vietnamese refugees, and even some white Australians, with these children growing up to speak both English and Vietnamese at school and at home respectively.
Currently, Australian government statistics claim that there are a little over 300,000 native Vietnamese speakers in Australia, most of whom are either refugees from the Vietnam War, or their children or grandchildren.
Arabic
In search of a better life, hundreds of thousands of people from the Islamic World have left their home countries with their families and have resettled in Australia, owing to its high standard of living and acceptance of immigrants.
Coming from the Islamic World (those countries where Islam is the official state religion), most of these immigrants speak Arabic as their native language, whilst others only speak it as a religious (liturgical) language.
You see, unlike the other immigrant languages of Australia, Arabic is spoken by immigrants from one country in particular, but rather every country in North Africa, the Middle East and the parts of Asia that are majority Muslim.
Due to this, it’s not just Standard Arabic dialect of Arabic that’s spoken in Australia, but also Levantine, Maghrebi, Gulf, Jordanian and Mashriqi Arabic to name but a few.
As with most other immigrant communities, Australia’s Arabic-speaking population is mostly located in the states of New South Wales and Victoria, mostly living in and around the major cities, namely Melbourne and Sydney.
Currently, Australian government surveys suggest that there are around 355,000 native Arabic speakers in Australia, speaking almost ever dialect of Arabic currently spoken!
Italian
The first mass migration of Italians to Australia occurred in the early 1840’s, when Italians from the states of Naples, Lombardy and Milan fled poverty in modern-day Italy for a new life.
Quite famously, many of these impoverished Italians would move to the US, eventually leading to the famed Italian-American mafia (among other things). Whilst the US was the main choice for most Italian, Australia was a close second.
Arriving in Australia, many of these Italian immigrants would make their own “mini-Italys” where Italian was the de facto language. Over time, many second, third and fourth-generation immigrants would marry into white Australian families.
Following WWII, even more Italians would migrate from Italy to Australia. Much like the Italians that came before them, this was for a better life, with many of these Italian Australians soon establishing themselves as proud members of the community.
In the early 1990’s, the postwar migration boom would begin to subside.
However, another boom would occur after the 2008 Global Recession, with young Italians moving to Australia en masse as Australia didn’t suffer the recession as bad as most other countries did.
Even today, many of these Italian immigrants still live in the “mini-Italys” established centuries prior.
According to the most recent Australian government surveys, there are an estimated 300,000 native Italian speakers in Australia, most of whom are first and second-generation Italian immigrants, most of whom live in Australia’s major cities.
Greek
Following WWII, the Greek Civil War would break out between the democratically elected Greek government and the military arm of the Communist Party of Greece.
Whilst not the deadliest civil war to have ever happened, thousands of civilians were executed or caught in the crossfire, resulting in millions of Greek nationals fleeing to Australia as refugees.
Over the course of the civil war, almost 100,000 Greek refugees would arrive in Australia, giving the country one of the largest Greek-speaking populations outside of Greece.
Although the Greek government would eventually win the civil war, Greece experienced several coups and counter-coups, resulting in sporadic fighting throughout the Cold War. In turn, this saw a steady stream of Greek immigrants to Australia.
The stream of Greek immigrants to Australia would be fairly consistent until the late 1990’s/early 2000’s. Here, migration from Greece to Australia declined, before surging again after the Greek government debt crisis and rising unemployment.
Currently, there are an estimated 250,000 Greek speakers in Australia, most of whom are first or second-generation immigrants.
As with many immigrant groups, Greek Australians moved to the same areas, primarily the states of Victoria and New South Wales.
What do you think of the languages of Australia? Do you speak any of them (besides English of course)? Tell me in the Comments!