ABSTRACT
When Australia’s original inhabitants encountered the English-speaking newcomers in 1788 it was, although this was not known at the time, a land of around 250 languages – an estimate that depends on the reliability of the records on which any language determination might be made (Dixon 2002: 5). The overwhelming of the Aboriginal people that subsequently took place has resulted in only 20 or so of these languages still being passed on to new generations today (Evans 2007: 362). As the number of people migrating to Australia has increased exponentially in the past two centuries, so have the non-Aboriginal languages spoken here increased to around 300. In recent years there have been numerous attempts to recover what remains of the lost Aboriginal languages, including that of Sydney, the first to fall by the wayside. Language loss, language change and the Sydney language revival attempt are the subject of this chapter.
