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Languages Of Australia
The languages of Australia are the major historic and current languages used in Australia and its offshore islands. Over 250 Australian Aboriginal languages are thought to have existed at the time of first European contact. English is the majority language of Australia today. Although English has no official legal status, it is the '' de facto'' official and national language. "English has no de jure status but it is so entrenched as the common language that it is de facto the official language as well as the national language." Australian English is a major variety of the language with a distinctive accent and lexicon, and differs slightly from other varieties of English in grammar and spelling."The Macquarie Dictionary", Fourth Edition. The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, 2005. Around 120 to 170 Indigenous languages and dialects are spoken today, but many of these are endangered. Creole languages such Kriol and Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole) are the most widely-spoken Indige ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Auslan
Auslan (; an abbreviation of Australian Sign Language) is the sign language used by the majority of the Australian Deaf community. Auslan is related to British Sign Language (BSL) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL); the three have descended from the same proto-language, parent language, and together comprise the BANZSL language family. As with other sign languages, Auslan's grammar and vocabulary is quite different from spoken English language, English. Its origin cannot be attributed to any individual; rather, it is a natural language that emerged spontaneously and has changed over time. Recognition and status Auslan was Recognition of sign languages, recognised by the Australian government as a "community language other than English" and the preferred language of the Deaf community in policy statements in 1987 and 1991. However, this recognition has yet to filter through to many institutions, government departments, and professionals who work with deaf people. The emerging ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Austral Islands
The Austral Islands ( officially ''Archipel des Australes;'' ) are the southernmost group of islands in French Polynesia, an overseas country of France, overseas country of the France, French Republic in the Oceania, South Pacific. Geographically, they consist of two separate archipelagos, namely in the northwest the Tupua'i islands () consisting of the Îles Maria, Rimatara, Rūrutu, Tupua'i Island proper and Ra'ivāvae, and in the southeast the Bass Islands (French Polynesia), Bass Islands () composed of the main island of Rapa Iti and the small Marotiri (Austral Islands), Marotiri (also known as Bass Rocks or Îlots de Bass). Inhabitants of the islands are known for their pandanus fiber weaving skills. The islands of Maria and Marotiri are not suitable for sustained habitation. Several of the islands have uninhabited islets or rocks off their coastlines. Austral Islands' population is 6,965 on almost . The capital of the Austral Islands administrative subdivision is Tupua'i. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pitjantjatjara Dialect
Pitjantjatjara ( ; or ) is a dialect of the Western Desert language traditionally spoken by the Pitjantjatjara people of Central Australia. It is mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible with other varieties of the Western Desert language, and is particularly closely related to the Yankunytjatjara dialect. The names for the two groups are based on their respective words for 'come/go.' Pitjantjatjara is a relatively healthy Australian Aboriginal languages, Aboriginal language, with children learning it. It is taught in some Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal schools. The literacy rate for first language speakers is 50–70%; and is 10–15% for second language, second-language learners. There is a Pitjantjatjara dictionary, and the New Testament of the Bible has been translated into the language, a project started at the Pukatja, Ernabella Mission in the early 1940s and completed in 2002. Work continues on the Old Testament. History since European settlement The Ernabe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Irish Sign Language
Australian Irish Sign Language or AISL is a minority sign language in Australia. As a Francosign language, it is related to French Sign Language as opposed to Auslan which is a Banzsl language which is related to British Sign Language. AISL was brought to Australia from Ireland in 1875 by a group of Dominican nuns (including a Deaf nun) where three schools were established and used AISL as a language of instruction. Due to oralist policies, the use of AISL was discontinued as a language of instruction in the early 1950s. There are now around 100 signers of this language, most of who are in their early seventies and onwards, though there may be younger CODAs. History According to the Irish Deaf Society, Irish Sign Language (or ISL) "arose from within Deaf communities," "was developed by Deaf people themselves," and "has been in existence for hundreds of years." In 1875, a group of Dominican nuns (including a Deaf nun named Sister Gabriel Hogan) came to Australia from Ireland, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palawa Kani
Palawa kani is a constructed language created by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre as a composite Tasmanian languages, Tasmanian language, based on reconstructed vocabulary from the limited accounts of the various languages once spoken by the Aboriginal Tasmanians, Aboriginal people of what is now Tasmania (palawa kani: ). The centre wishes to restrict the availability of the language until it is established in the Aboriginal Tasmanian community and claims copyright. The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is used to support this claim to copyright as it declares that indigenous people have the right to control their "cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions" and that states must "recognise and protect the exercise of these rights". However, the declaration is legally non-binding and languages cannot receive copyright protection in many countries, including Au ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fanny Cochrane Smith
Fanny Cochrane Smith (; December 1834 – 24 February 1905) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian considered to be the last fluent speaker of the Flinders Island lingua franca and thus the Tasmanian languages. Her wax cylinder recordings of songs are the only audio recordings of any of Tasmania's indigenous languages. Her recordings were inducted into the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register in 2017. Early life Fanny Cochrane's mother Tanganutura and a man named Nicremeric (or Nicermenic), sometimes reported as her father, were two of the Aboriginal Tasmanian people settled on Flinders Island in the 1830s by George Augustus Robinson. According to Norman Tindale, her legal father was Cottrel Cochrane, due to his European descent, and Nicremeric was her stepfather. She was born at Settlement Point (or Wybalenna, meaning Black Man's House) on Flinders Island. It is not known whether she was given an Aboriginal name by her parents; Robinson renamed all the Indigenous Tasmanian p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Language Family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics analogous to a family tree, or to phylogenetic trees of taxa used in evolutionary taxonomy. Linguists thus describe the ''daughter languages'' within a language family as being ''genetically related''. The divergence of a proto-language into daughter languages typically occurs through geographical separation, with different regional dialects of the proto-language undergoing different language changes and thus becoming distinct languages over time. One well-known example of a language family is the Romance languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, and many others, all of which are descended from Vulgar Latin.Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.)''Ethnologue: Languages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Australia
Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Australia is Australia's largest state, with a land area of , and is also the List of country subdivisions by area, second-largest subdivision of any country on Earth. Western Australia has a diverse range of climates, including tropical conditions in the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley, deserts in the interior (including the Great Sandy Desert, Little Sandy Desert, Gibson Desert, and Great Victoria Desert) and a Mediterranean climate on the south-west and southern coastal areas. the state has 2.965 million inhabitants—10.9 percent of the national total. Over 90 percent of the state's population live in the South-West Land Division, south-west corner and around 80 percent live in the state capital Perth, leaving the remainder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Australia to the west (129th meridian east), South Australia to the south (26th parallel south), and Queensland to the east (138th meridian east). To the north, the Northern Territory looks out to the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea, and the Gulf of Carpentaria, including Western New Guinea and various other islands of the Indonesian archipelago. The NT covers , making it the third-largest Australian federal division, and List of country subdivisions by area, the 11th-largest country subdivision in the world. It is sparsely populated, with a population of only 249,000 – fewer than half the population of Tasmania. The largest population centre is the capital city of Darw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Papuan Languages
The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a genetic relationship. New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse region in the world. Besides the Austronesian languages, there arguably are some 800 languages divided into perhaps sixty small language families, with unclear relationships to each other or to any other languages, plus many language isolates. The majority of the Papuan languages are spoken on the island of New Guinea, with a number spoken in the Bismarck Archipelago, Bougainville Island and the Solomon Islands to the east, and in Halmahera, Timor and the Alor archipelago to the west. The westernmost language, Tambora in Sumbawa, is extinct. One Papuan language, Meriam, is spoken within the national borders of Australia, in the eastern Torres Strait. Several ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meriam Language
Meriam (; also ''Miriam, Meryam, Mer, Mir, Miriam-Mir'', etc. and ''Eastern, Isten, Esten'' and ''Able Able'') or the Eastern Torres Strait language is the language of the people of the small islands of ''Mer'' ( Murray Island), ''Waier'' and ''Dauar'', ''Erub'' ( Darnley Island), and ''Ugar'' ( Stephens Island) in the eastern Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia. In the Western Torres Strait language, Kalaw Lagaw Ya, it is called ''Mœyam'' or ''Mœyamau Ya''. It is the only Papuan language in Australian territory. Classification Meriam was classified in the Eastern Trans-Fly family of the Trans–New Guinea Phylum by Stephen Wurm, who however felt that these have retained remnants of pre-Trans–New Guinea languages; this is followed by Ethnologue (2005). In 2005 Malcolm Ross concluded that the Eastern Trans-Fly languages were not part of the Trans–New Guinea phylum. R. M. W. Dixon (2002) regards claims of a relationship between the Fly River languages and Meriam as u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalaw Lagaw Ya
Kalau Lagau Ya, Kalaw Lagaw Ya, Kala Lagaw Ya (), or the Western Torres Strait language (also several other names, see below) is the language indigenous to the central and western Torres Strait Islands, Queensland, Australia. On some islands, it has now largely been replaced by Torres Strait Creole. Before colonization in the 1870s–1880s, the language was the major lingua franca of the Torres Strait cultural area of Northern Cape York Australia, Torres Strait and along the coast of the Western Province/Papua New Guinea. It is still fairly widely spoken by neighbouring Papuans and by some Aboriginal Australians. How many non-first language speakers it has is unknown. It also has a 'light' (simplified/foreigner) form, as well as a pidginised form. The simplified form is fairly prevalent on Badu and neighbouring Moa. Names The language is known by several names besides ''Kalaw Lagaw Ya'', most of which (including ''Kalaw Lagaw Ya'') are names of dialects, spelling variants, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
