ABSTRACT
In Australia, a nation with a population of approximately 18 million, English is accepted as the common national language. Nonetheless, this is a nation of immigrants, rich in the language resources of a multiplicity of ethnic groups. Not only are there more than 150 languages other than English (LOTEs) spoken in Australia today but also there are some 120 Aboriginal languages still extant, of which perhaps 25 are spoken “right through” (used regularly for the full range of communicative purposes). The history of European settlement in Australia has always been one of migration. Whereas many of the first settlers came from an “Anglo-Celtic” background, the more recent waves of migrants have come from polities as diverse as Greece and Macedonia (1960s), the former Yugoslavia, Turkey, and Lebanon (1960s and early 1970s), and Hong Kong, Korea, Vietnam, India, and Central America (in the 1980s and 1990s). These successive waves of immigration during the best part of two centuries have added to the already rich mosaic of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and Creoles.
