Australia. Guide to Australia

By the beginning of European colonization, there were approximately. 300 тыс. Australians, More than 260 languages. In 19 – the early. 20 Centuries. Aboriginal population is constantly declining, in the 2nd polovine20 in. there were approximately. 160 тыс. people. (with the Métis), Australian languages ​​but possess no more than 50% of them.Thd

Of 200 avctraliyskih languages ​​large part on the verge of extinction. Only in the «language of the Western Desert»they say 4 Thd. people., number of speakers of other languages – from a few to several hundred people. Many Australian languages ​​have many dialects, because of the significant lexical differences between the native understanding of some of them can not be. It is difficult to distinguish languages ​​and dialects,bringing the total number of Australian languages ​​are sometimes estimated to be 500-600.

Australian languages ​​include 12 individual languages – andilyaugva, varrai, gunavidi, какадю, кунгаракань, mangaray, Minkin, make, gnevin, nunggubuyu, tivi, yanyula- and 16 families (in parentheses – the number of languages ​​in the family) – bunaba (2), bureran (2),vorora (3), Garam (2), gunvinggu (11), family p. Daly (12), deraga (5), Ding Wambach(3), dyamindyung (4), ivaidi (5), карава (2), larakia (2), Mangere (2), Mara (3),nyulnyul (4), PAMA-nung (ca. 180).

The most numerous family Pama-nyunga (25groups and 16 individual languages) held 7/8 mainland territory (except land Dampirai Kimberley Plateau in north-west Australia, most of the Arnhem Land, South zapadnogopoberezhya the Gulf of Carpentaria and adjacent territory).