Languages
Native
English
73%
Secondary languages
Mandarin
22%
Arabic
14%
Cantonese
12%
Vietnamese
11%
Language Samples
Hello, how are you?
Hello, how are you?
I am very well, thanks.
I am very well, thanks.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Linguistic History
Australian English evolved from the convergence of diverse British and Irish dialects brought by convicts and free settlers from 1788 onward. Contact with Aboriginal Australian languages contributed place names and fauna terms — boomerang, kangaroo, wombat, billabong — that have since entered global English. A distinctive accent and vocabulary (arvo for afternoon, servo for service station) emerged within a few generations. Australia has no official language at the federal level but English functions as the de facto national language. There are an estimated 250–500 distinct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages; of these, around 120–150 are still spoken, though many are critically endangered.
Similar Languages
Dutch
67%
German
60%
Swedish
55%
Norwegian
55%
Media
The Sydney Opera House, an icon of Australia, sits in a city where over 250 languages are spoken by its diverse population.
Photo: Adam.J.W.C. · CC BY-SA 2.5
Did You Know
01
Australia has the longest continuous cultural history of any nation on Earth — Aboriginal Australians have inhabited the continent for at least 65,000 years, with their languages reflecting that deep heritage.
02
Australian English is notable for its heavy use of diminutives: 'afternoon' becomes arvo, 'biscuit' becomes biccy, and 'sunglasses' becomes sunnies.
03
The word 'kangaroo' is believed to come from the Guugu Yimithirr word 'gangurru', recorded by Joseph Banks during Captain Cook's 1770 voyage — one of the first documented Aboriginal loanwords in English.