Australian Aboriginal languages

Australian Aboriginal languages are those languages spoken by Australian Aboriginal people. There are more than 250 distinct languages.

Australian languages have historically been classified into numerous language families. The largest single language family is the Pama-Nyungan family, which covers approximately seven eighths of the continent; the remaining languages sometimes called "non-Pama-Nyungan" as a term of convenience, are clustered together in the north-west, and have been classified into over twenty separate families.

Despite the diversity of Australian languages, many linguists have considered for decades that most languages of the Australian continent, including Pama-Nyungan, are members of one higher-level family. A proto-language, Proto-Australian, was reconstructed for the first time in 2024. Proto-Australian is dated to approximately 6,000 years before the present, much later than human habitation of Australia; how it spread across the continent, replacing earlier languages, is as yet unclear.

There have always been some Australian languages excluded from larger groupings as language isolates; currently, Tiwi and the Tasmanian languages are considered unrelated to Proto-Australian.

Of the languages of the Torres Strait, Kala Lagaw Ya is a Pama-Nyungan language, while Meriam Mer is a Papuan language.

At the start of the 21st century, fewer than 150 Aboriginal languages remained in daily use, with the majority being highly endangered. In 2020, 90 per cent of the barely more than 100 languages still spoken are considered endangered. Thirteen languages are still being acquired by children. The surviving languages are located in the most isolated areas. Of the five least endangered Western Australian Aboriginal languages, four belong to the Western Desert grouping of the Central and Great Victoria Desert.

In 2026 the most widely-spoken languages by Australian Aboriginal people are those whose origins post-date the colonisation of Australia; these languages include Australian Kriol, Australian Aboriginal English, and Light Warlpiri.