AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES

group of approximately 260 interrelated languages whose speakers once occupied the entire Australian continent as well as the western islands of Torres Strait, but apparently not Tasmania. Virtually all are believed to have originated from a single proto-Australian language. These languages are not known to be related to any outside language. The great majority of them were either extinct or nearing extinction in the late 20th century. Still-vigorous languages have, for the most part, only a few hundred speakers each. The languages with the most speakers are Mabuiag, the language of the Western Torres Strait islands, and the Western Desert language. The Australian Aboriginal languages are characterized by great similarities in their sound systems and considerable agreement in grammar but often by markedly few similarities in vocabulary. Intelligibility between neighbouring forms of speech is common, and dialect chains stretching over amazing distances occur, though the two extremes of such a chain seem to be quite distinct languages. Every tribe speaks at least one distinct dialect, but bilingualism and multilingualism are common in many areas. Many individual languages have parallel forms, characterized by special vocabularies and sometimes by special sounds that are used in cultural avoidance situations (e.g., to mothers-in-law) or as secret languages among initiated men on certain occasions. No genetic link is known to exist between the Australian languages and any outside language. It is believed that languages ancestral to the present-day ones were introduced into Australia by peoples that crossed Arnhem Land in northern Australia many millennia ago. With the apparent exception of the influence of Papuan languages on the languages of the Cape York Peninsula, the Australian languages remained free from outside influence until the arrival of European settlers late in the 18th century. The great majority of the Australian languages were nearing extinction by the third quarter of the 20th century, with about 50 or more extinct, predominantly in the east, south, and west of the continent. Speakers of languages believed extinct for decades are, however, occasionally discovered. Most languages have very few surviving speakers; still-vigorous languages have, for the most part, only a few hundred speakers each, though Mabuiag (the language of the western Torres Strait islands) and the Western Desert language have 8,000 and 4,000 speakers, respectively. About 45,000 Aborigines may still have some knowledge of an Australian language, but accurate figures of the speakers of individual languages are almost impossible to obtain. Extensive research on the Australian languages has been carried out since 1960, largely through the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in Canberra. The results of this and earlier research have shown the Australian languages to be interrelated and have made it possible to explain their structural differences in terms of a typological development from a simple to a complex structure. In addition, a considerable amount of detailed information on the grammar of numerous Australian languages has been recorded. Additional reading A concise discussion of all aspects of the study of Australian Aboriginal languages, with extensive bibliography, is provided in S.A. Wurm, Languages of Australia and Tasmania (1972); extensive information may be found in three essays in Thomas A. Sebeok (ed.), Current Trends in Linguistics, vol. 8, part 1 (1971): A. Capell, History of Research in Australian and Tasmanian Languages, pp. 661720; Stephen A. Wurm, Classifications of Australian Languages, Including Tasmanian, pp. 721778; and Geoffrey N. O'Grady, Lexicographic Research in Aboriginal Australia, pp. 779803; and in Geoffrey N. O'Grady and C.F. and F.M. Voegelin, Classification and Index of the World's Languages (1977). Numerous articles and monographs on Australian languages appear in the serials Australian Aboriginal Studies, Canberra; Pacific Linguistics, Canberra; Oceania, Sydney; Oceania Linguistic Monographs, Sydney. See also the overview in Barry J. Blake, Australian Aboriginal Languages (1981). Stephen A. Wurm