ABSTRACT
Group of languages which includes all the languages of Australia, numbering approx. 170 languages, many nearly extinct, with about 30,000 speakers. The largest language family, Pama-Nyungan, covers nearly the whole continent; twenty-eight smaller and typologically divergent languages are concentrated on the northern coast. The most important language, Pitjantjatjara (Western Desert), is the trade language of West Australia.
