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Being a multi-cultural continent,
Australia does not have one particular official language.
Indigenous Australians used to have around 250 languages
prior to the arrival of the Europeans. After having been
colonized by the British and immigrated to by too many
nations from all over the world, these native languages died
one by one. Only a handful of them remains and still spoken
to this day.
Some of these are the Western Desert
language, Warlpiri, Kala Lagaw Ya, Walmajarri, Arrernte, and
Fufu.
Now, the land is composed of people speaking different
languages from their home countries. Languages that can be
heard in Australia include, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin &
Cantonese), English, Filipino, French, German, Greek,
Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Maltese, Spanish Turkish, and
Vietnamese among the many.
Actually, almost all languages of the
world can be heard every now and then in Australia because a
lot of people from all over the world come and go all the
time.
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Even less popular language are
spoken by some minorities in some parts of this
continent such as Afrikaans, Hebrew, Scottish
Gaelic, Basque, Cham, Western Cham, Indo-Portuguese,
Estonian, Latvian and Northern Kurdish.
Of all these foreign languages though, English is
the predominant and hence, the de facto language in
use. It is safe to safe that almost 90% of the total
number of families in Australia speaks English at
home.
Most of them are natural
English speakers or it is really their second mother
language; while the others are just practicing so
they can converse fluently with other people outside
their homes. |
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Although they are they use the same
English words, Australian English is different from the
American English and can cause some confusion with foreign
people who only know common, or by the book, English.
Australian people have unique terms and phrases, and
idiomatic expressions that is very different from American
English. For example, Aussies refer to the
drugstore as the chemist; the liquor store as the bottle
shop; the candy as lolly; the comfort room or toilet as the
loo; the hood of a car as bonnet; the trunk of a car as boot
and so on and so forth.
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Or if an Australian friend tells you
to shout in a bar, it doesn’t mean you are to yell or
literally shout. He’s actually telling you to pay for the
next round of drinks.
And don’t get offended if someone
tells you, “Half your luck!”, because he’s actually
congratulating you.
So be careful with your English when
you’re in Australia. The English phrase you know may mean
completely different and put you in an embarrassing
situation. It’s best to use simple English terms and phrases
that are sure common to both American and Australian
English. |
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