What is the Aboriginal language?
There is no one Aboriginal language. At the time of European arrival around 300 distinct languages existed in Australia with between 500 and 800 dialects. Today some 90 languages survive, several with some thousands of speakers. In some areas - northern Australia for instance - it is the norm for Aboriginal people to be multilingual. In other areas - for example - some of the central desert regions, the same language is spoken and understood over large distances. Very often though, Aboriginal languages are mutually unintelligible and people from different areas will not understand each other.

Aboriginal languages are modern languages
Aboriginal languages are fully fledged and modern languages of the world. They are not primitive. The sound and grammatical systems are as sophisticated as those of any other language. All of the Australian languages are capable of sophisticated and abstract expression and intellectual conceptualisation.

Creolised language
Most Aboriginal people, even where they speak their own language, will also speak and understand English. In many parts of Australia, this takes the form of creolised language (a kind of lingua franca that is a mix of languages, predominantly English and with regular grammatical rules).

Written materials
Aboriginal languages were originally used within an exclusively oral tradition. There was no written form. Today, many of the major languages have dictionaries, written grammars and a great deal of written materials (often used in school language programs). These materials mainly use the Latin-derived alphabet found on keyboards.

Recommended reading available in the shop.

• ‘Aboriginal Languages in Education’ by Henderson, J and Hartman, D.
• ‘Australia’s Indigenous Languages’ by SSABSA
• ‘Australian Aboriginal Words in English’ by Dixon, R. Ramson, W and Thomas, M.

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