The Indigenous Australian languages comprise several language families and isolates native to Australia and a few nearby islands, but by convention excluding Tasmania. The relationships between these languages are not clear at present, although substantial progress has been made in recent decades. In the late 18th century, there were between 350 and 750 distinct Aboriginal social groupings, and a similar number of languages or dialects. At the start of the 21st century, fewer than 200 indigenous languages remain and all except roughly 20 are highly endangered. Of those that survive, only 10%, usually located in the most isolated areas, are…

There are more than 200 Australian Indigenous languages. Less than 20 languages are strong, and even these are endangered: the others have been destroyed, live in the memories of the elderly, or are being revived by their communities. This site has annotated links to 231 resources for about 80 languages. About 35% of these resources are produced or published by Indigenous people. Site information Major update 25 February 2007. This update includes 36 new items, has removed about 25 permanently dead links, and re-found about 20 sites that had moved. One new phenomenon is the emergence of blogs. The previous…

Aboriginal language is a fundamental expression of the longest continuous living culture in the world. For Aboriginal people, their language is critical to maintaining, strengthening and asserting Aboriginal cultural identity. Before 1788, there were more than 70 Aboriginal languages that were spoken across New South Wales. Today, most Aboriginal languages in New South Wales do not have enough speakers to function properly and only ten languages are being significantly revitalised. Arakwal Djirringany Malyangapa Walbanga Awabakal Eora Marawara Walgalu Baanbay Galibal Minjungbal Wandandian Bandjigali Gamilaraay Muruwari Wandjiwalgu Baraba Baraba Garanggaba Nari Nari Wangaaybuwan Barranbinya Gawambaray Nawalgu Wemba Wemba Bidawal Geawegal Ngaku…

An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the world’s 6,912 known living languages View the Australian Language Family Tree http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=27-16

AusAnthrop is an on-line database on Australian Aboriginal tribes, nations, languages, and dialectal groups. It is a reference database that should help to find a tribe or language from the many alternative names and spellings used in the literature. The database contains alternative names, some places of location, bibliogrpahic references, a links to archival files at the South Australian Museum, linguistic classifications such as those by the SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) and the AIATSIS (Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies), as well as the name given in EAA (Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia). User can leave comments…

This thesaurus has been set up in a way that allows automatic searching of the AIATSIS catalogue, Mura®. This means that you should be able to check the resources on your language in the database without having to know every single spelling that any person has used since the Language began to be written, and or written about. The AIATSIS thesaurus contains headings for language group and people, subjects relating to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies, and place names. These headings are used to describe all items held in Mura®, the AIATSIS Collections Catalogue. The thesaurus has been…