TASMANIAN LANGUAGES

extinct languages spoken before 1877 by the indigenous people of Tasmania, who are also now extinct. No relationship between the Tasmanian languages and any other languages of the world has been discovered. Scholars originally divided the Tasmanian languages, all of which were related to each other, into two groups, a western group, spoken in western Tasmania and northern Tasmania, and an eastern group, containing the three languages of eastern Tasmania. More recent studies suggest that there may have been eight or more languages.