English is the national language. Australian English is the form of the English language spoken in Australia. It has a unique accent and a small number of peculiar terms, some of which have found their way into other dialects of the English-speaking world. Australian English has less internal dialectal variation than either British English or American English. Grammar and spelling are largely based on those of British English.
According to the 2001 census, English is the only language spoken in the home for around 80% of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home are Chinese (2.1%), Italian (1.9%), and Greek (1.4%).
A considerable proportion of first and second generation migrants are bilingual. It is believed that there were between 200 and 300 Indigenous Australian languages at the time of first European contact. Only about 70 of these languages have survived, and many are only spoken by older people; only 18 Indigenous languages are still spoken by all age groups.
An indigenous language remains the main language for about 50,000 (0.25%) people. Australia has a sign language known as Auslan, which is the main language of about 6,500 deaf people.
Wellington