replaced not Just by the mi.in languages of European ... one language group among speakers of other languages, all lead ... Melbourne. Korean, Tamil, Sinhala,.
Lo Bianco, Joseph (1999) You're not speaking my language. Amida: The Asia Magazine 5(1), 29.
You're Not Speaking My Language by Joseph Lo Bianco IN FEBRUARY 1992, a group of experts concerned with preserving the 'cultural heritage of the world' met at the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Paris. At the end of their meeting they issued a call for global "solidarity� to preserve the "non-physical cultural her itage of world", that Is, endangered lan guages. There are probably as many as 6,000 languages spoken in the World, and UNESCO calculated that 90 per cent of them are In danger of extlrtction within one or two generations.
Endangered languages are being replaced not Just by the mi.in languages of European colonialism (Engl!sh, Spanish, Portuguese and French in Africa, Latin America and Asia) but also by Indonesian, Chinese, Hindi, Swahili, Arabic, Russian and other major lan guages.
few creoles, the most widespread being Kriol spoken from the no11h of Western Australia to the north-west of Queensland.
Community languages are spoken everywhere in Australia, but the large cities are especially multilingual. Although there have been minority communities since the First Fleet (with vibrant German, Chinese, Greek, Italian, French and Irish speaking settlemenis throughout last century) Australia's post war immigration program radically transformed the population mix. The program started ln 1947 with displaced persons from Eastern Europe and has moved geographically, to the north of Europe, the south, then the Middle East, Asia and Latin America and more recently with arrivals from Africa. Australia's large cities have changed rad ically as a result.
The present rate of extinction of lan guages (and the unique worldviews that these languages �mbody and express) Is the greatest it has been in human history.
For most of Australia's long history of human occupation some 250 languages (incorpornting some 600 dialects) co existed. However, in the 200 years 5inl·e British settlement at the end of the 20th century, most of Australia's Indigenous languages have become extinct languages both die and are killed. Kil)ing the speakers, separating children frOm adults, forcibly relocating one language group among speakers of other languages, all lead to Interrup tion of the intergenerational transmis sion process. Eventually, the language dies.
Today, only about 20 Australian indige nous· languages are still passed on to children as the primary language of a community'. About 50,000 Aborigines and Tories. Strait _Islanders. spe?-k a _tradi tional language. Sonie of the strong�r ones are the languages of the Yolnu peoples - of north east Arnhem Land, the Western Desert languages (across parts of the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia including Pitjantjatjara, Pintup! and Majiljarra), the Arrente group In the southern parts of the Northern Territory and Tiwi on an island off the NT. After Erigllsh, (includ ing varieties of Aboriginal English) most indigenous Austrnlians speak one of a
In recent years, Asian ·languages have , grown in prominence in Sydney and Melbourne. Korean, Tamil, Sinhala, 1bai, Indonesian, Chinese and Vietnamese are vibrant additions Lo the Greek, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Maltese, Turkish and Arable of earlier immigration flows.
L'lnguage policy has been a site of struggle and tension in Australia. Since the setting up of compulsory education in the 1880s and Federation in 1901, much language po!icy has been nega tive. Education· systems and other public institutions worked against minority Ian-
guages and in favour of monolingualism in English. Australia was becoming a •nation state, and like most nation states it demanded a uniform national culture expressed through a single language. The first policy responses to mass immi gration were to stress assimilation to a narrow definition of Australianness.
l lowever, by the mid 1970s the Australian community was well ahead of public policy, having already realised that bilingualism is a publlc resource and a private asset rather than a prob lem. By then there was a great interes! in languages and many people were recognising the post-war migration pro . gram as having changed Australia deeply and permanently.
In 1987, Australia adopted a multilin gual and multlculturally oriented National Policy on Languages, achieving International recognition for its change of direction in favour of the comple mentary development of English and other languages, indigenous, community and foreign. English remains the com mon form of national communication • with other languages for a whole variety of purposes: cultural maintenance, group identity, economic and trade rela tions, the intellectual rigour of bilingual ism and so on.
Apart from the cul!ural arguments, the globalising economic environment adds commercial interest to language learning relevant to Australia's Asian context, and its ongoing connections with Europe and � rowing connections with other parts of the world.
It is a social and personal gain for Australians to sustain multiple lan guages. Australia could be one of the few nation states that sees in diversity opportunity and strength rather than division. Languages are a community, economic and cultural resource that improve and enhance the whole of soci ety by opening us up to other ways of seeing eXperience and human relation ships.
Joseph Lo Blanco is head of Language Australia in Canberra
Regrellably, the progress of the 1970s and 1980s of advancing pluralism in hmguage policy has received a set bKk · in the late 1990s. There is now more stress on mastery in English over the balanced development of English and other languages. Since 1997, concern for standatds of English literacy has pro duced a negative effe_ct On language policy; and in 1998, the Northern Territory Government :inn�unced that funding for AbcirigimiJ bilill8Ual edllca lion would be removed over time and put towards emphasising English litera cy. In recent years the. empha.Sis on ecO:: nomics as the fil:lin focus of govern ments has led .to a more narrow approach to _languages pollcy.
Australia needs multilingualis_m , v,rith English as the common language, fot many reasons. We need to support the efforts of Aboriginal people to conserve their traditional cultures and to pass on Australian langiiages to future genera tions. We need a language ecology in which foreign, community and tradition: al languages develop alongside English in a stable and mutually reinforcing manner.
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