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Language families in Oceania
Among the languages of Oceania, the Austronesian language family is the largest in number of speakers. These languages are spoken in south-east Asia, as well as in many Pacific Islands and all the way to Madagascar.
Papua New Guinea itself is one of the territories with the largest linguistic diversity in the world. It is estimated that over 800 languages are spoken there, spread across a large number of distinct families. And Indonesia is not far behind with about 700 languages …
As for the aboriginal languages of Australia, they belong to several other families. It is estimated that only a hundred of these native languages are still alive, out of the 700 that the country would have held before colonization. The vast majority of them are extremely threatened.
- Arnhem Land languages
- Austronesian language family
- Baining-Taulil languages
- Border languages
- Bougainville languages
- Bunaban languages
- Daly languages
- Central Solomon languages
- Eastern Trans Fly languages
- Gunwinyguan language family
- Jarrakan languages
- Kwomtari languages
- Lakes Plain Languages
- Left May Languages
- Limilngan languages
- Macro-Pama-Nyungan languages
- Marind languages
- Mindi languages
- Nimboran languages
- Nyulnyulan languages
- Ramu-Lower Sepik languages
- Sepik languages
- Sko (or Skou) languages
- Torricelli languages
- Trans-New-Guinea languages
- Worrorran languages
- Yuat languages
- East Bird’s Head languages
- English-based Creole languages
- French-based Creole languages
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