Languages aboriginals of Australia

The languages aboriginals of Australia gather many families of Langue S and isolates originating in Australia and islands around, except the Tasmanie. The relations between these languages are not very clear, but to many studies endeavor to improve our knowledge in these fields.

Classification

Situation

These languages, several hundreds 300 years ago, for the majority are disappeared or in the process of disappearance.

Tasmanie

The aboriginals of Tasmanie were exterminated very early by the colonists, and their languages only were partially observed. Separated from Australia, the inhabitants of Tasmanie would not have had a contact external to the island during close to 10 000 years. One knows not enough things about the languages which they spoke to be able to classify them or compare them with their neighbors, in spite of the phonological similarities that one can find.

Australia

When the British joined the Australian continent, there existed between 250 and 750 distinct languages aboriginals. Among the Australian languages still used, very little (less than one ten) are spoken by more than one thousand of speakers:

the will alyawarra (1500) in the Territoire of North and the Queensland
the anindilyakwa (1000) in the Territoire of North and the gulf of Carpenterie
the arunta of the West (1000) and the arunta of the East (1500-2000) in the Territoire of North
the kala lagaw (3000-4000) in the islands of the strait of Torres and in the Queensland
the murrinbata (1000) in the Territoire of North
the will pitjantjara (2500) in the southernmost Australia
the warlpiri (3000) in the Territory of North
the wik-mungkan (1000) in the Queensland

Many languages aboriginals are spoken more today only by one very small number of speakers and are likely to fall into the lapse of memory in an imminent way. Others do not count already any more any speaker. Many communities aboriginals begin today in programs of safeguard or restoration of their own language.

Common points

The languages of Australia, in spite of their differences, share part of their Vocabulaire and their Phonologie. One generally finds for example 3 Voyelle S, an absence of distinction between the consonants deaf and voiced, an absence of fricative, several R , plosives, the nasal ones, the side ones, each one being able to be Labiale (p, m), Dentale (HT, nh, lh), Alvéolaire (T, N, L), Rétroflexe (rt, RN, rl), Palatale (ty, ny, ly) or velar (K, ng).

Among the morpho-syntactic features common to these languages there is inter alia the frequent use of the reduplication, the presence of a duel and a plural, like for some of them of inclusive and exclusive. It is for example the case of the Kala Lagaw Ya (islands of the Strait of Torres and Queensland) which according to the sources is classified like pertaining to the family of the languages aboriginals or according to others with the family of the Langues papoues with an indigenous substrate.

On the socio-linguistics plan, number of the languages of Australia are characterized by the existence of " languages cérémonielles" , particular register reserved for the initiated such as for example Damin, used by the Aboriginals of the Gulf of Carpentarie and the island Mornington

External bonds

Languages aboriginals of Australia
indigenous Languages of Australia
Dictionary Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay

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