Languages
English, a West Germanic language, is the de facto national language of Australia and is spoken by the majority of the population, regardless of other languages spoken. Most Australians speak Australian English, however Australian Aboriginal English and Torres Strait English, along with various creoles and pidgins, are spoken by some Indigenous Australians. Australia is home to a great number of unique but endangered Indigenous Australian languages, as well as Australian Aboriginal sign languages. Australia's hearing-impaired community primarily uses Auslan, a member of the BANZSL language family.
The diverse backgrounds of Australians lead to a great number of community languages being spoken:
| Language | Speakers | Language | Speakers | Language | Speakers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English only | 15,581,333 | Korean | 54,623 | Portuguese | 25,779 |
| Italian | 316,895 | Turkish | 53,857 | Assyrian | 23,526 |
| Greek | 252,226 | Serbian | 52,534 | Indonesian | 23,164 |
| Arabic | 243,662 | French | 43,216 | Persian | 22,841 |
| Mandarin | 220,600 | Danish | 42,036 | Hungarian | 21,565 |
| Vietnamese | 194,863 | Maltese | 36,514 | Hindi | 20,223 |
| Spanish | 98,001 | Russian | 36,502 | Urdu | 19,288 |
| Filipino (Tagalog) | 92,331 | Dutch | 36,183 | Bengali | 15,743 |
| German | 75,634 | Japanese | 35,111 | Punjabi | 13,164 |
| Cantonese | 70,011 | Tamil | 32,700 | ||
| Macedonian | 67,836 | Hebrew | 67,835 | ||
| Croatian | 63,612 | Romanian | 29,055 | ||
| Polish | 53,389 | Khmer | 24,715 |
Read more about this topic: Australian
Other articles related to "languages, language":
... Languages spoken at home primary are of the Visayan languages continuum which contains several different languages sometimes identified as dialects of ... Major languages include Hiligaynon or Ilonggo in much of Western Visayas, Cebuano in Central Visayas, and Waray in Eastern Visayas ... Other dominant languages are Aklanon, Kinaray-a and Capiznon ...
... Like many Austronesian languages, the verbs of the Philippine languages follow a complex system of affixes in order to express subtle changes in meaning ... However, the verbs in this family of languages are conjugated to express the aspects and not the tenses ... Though many of the Philippine languages do not have a fully codified grammar, most of them follow the verb aspects that are demonstrated by Filipino or Tagalog ...
... In some languages, aspect and time are very clearly separated, making them much more distinct to their speakers ... There are a number of languages that mark aspect much more saliently than time ... Prominent in this category are Chinese and American Sign Language, which both differentiate many aspects but rely exclusively on optional time-indicating ...
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... Arabic is the official and national language of the UAE ... Apart from Arabic, English is widely used as a second language ... Other languages spoken in the UAE, due to immigration, include Persian, Urdu, Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Pashto, Tamil, Bengali and Balochi ...
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Wealth is so much the greatest good that Fortune has to bestow that in the Latin and English languages it has usurped her name.”
—William Lamb Melbourne, 2nd Viscount (1779–1848)