The official language of Australia, like many other modern countries that were colonies of England in the past, is English. The inhabitants of the continent speak Australian English.
History of the language in Australia
Before the arrival of the British in Australian lands, Aboriginal people used different languages and dialects to communicate. An expedition led by British Lieutenant James Cook in 1770 declared Australia fit for settlement. After the formation of the British colony on January 26, 1788, the English language began to spread across the continent.
The Australian version of English began to develop in parallel with the British, taking it as a basis. The rules for spelling words, composing phrases and sentences were regulated by the British Empire, and the lexical composition of the language has undergone some changes.
Australia has become a place of exile for convicted prisoners from Great Britain. Together with them, officials who supervise criminals moved to the new continent. Naturally, such a contingent brought with them their own special dialect. Many jargon subsequently became the norm of speech.
The colonization of Australia was accompanied by a significant extermination of the indigenous population. Accordingly, the number of speakers of the original Australian languages has decreased many times. Today in Australia they are freely owned by no more than 60 thousand people of the older generation.
After the Second World War, in which Australia voluntarily took part as an ally of Great Britain, the government began to encourage immigration to the country by residents of European states. The settlers brought their culture and language with them, forming diasporas.
Modern features of the languages of Australia
The Australian version of the English language in Australia today is spoken by 15.5 million people (the entire population of the country is 23 million people). Although the official speeches of high-ranking officials, television news and radio broadcasts are broadcast in British English, in ordinary life, locals use the Australian version. It has some peculiarities in spelling (the words labor, favor, thru are written in the American manner) and grammar (the future tense is formed using the auxiliary verb will for all persons). In the Australian version, there are words that are not in the British: embus, debus, entrain, detrain. In addition, there are many loanwords in the language, some of which have become internationalisms: kanguroo, dingo, boomerang, koala.
In addition, such languages as Italian (317 thousand speakers), Greek (252 thousand), Arabic (244 thousand), Cantonese (245 thousand), Mandarin (220 thousand), Spanish (98 thousand) Vietnamese (195 thousand).
