Australian language

Australian
Australian Malay Kasanaan
Basang Astrelya
Pronunciation	[bɐˈsaŋ ɐsˈt͡ʃeljə]
Native to	Australia
Ethnicity	Kasanaan Australians
Native speakers	5.2 million (2025)
Language family	Australian Malayo-Polynesian Kasanaan Eastern Kasanaan Southeastern Kasanaan Australian
Early form	Old Australian
Standard forms	Standard Australian
Official status
Official language in	Australia

Australian (basang Astrelya), also known as Australian Malay or Kasanaan, is an Austronesian language spoken in Australia, used by the ethnic Kasanaan in the Commonwealth of Australia, a nation comprised of Australia, the mainland of the Oceanic continent, as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous other islands. Australian itself is a standardized form of the Kasanaan language spoken around Sydney and Canberra, and is co-official with English and Chinese.

History

Austronesian is thought to have dispersed out of Taiwan between 3000 and 1500 BCE, though the settlement of Australia by Austronesian peoples has less certain dating. Australia was likely peopled by Austronesians in multiple waves, either displacing or mixing with Aboriginal Australians, between 1000 BCE and 500 CE. Some linguistic evidence suggests Australian to be more closely linked to Bornean and Barito, though, this link is tentative, and linguists today do not classify Australian as in the same subbranch as Bornean and Barito languages, instead as part of a separate Kasanaan branch.

Before European contact, Australian lacks both an internal and external a written history, due to the relatively isolated nature of Australian Austronesians from other major ethnic groups and trade routes. Kasanaan languages largely evolved in isolation until the 18th century, after the establishment of the first European settlement in 1788 in New South Wales. As the Colony of New South Wales largely overlapped with territory populated primarily by Southeastern Kasanaans, the subbranch from which Australian derives, the people and language were exposed to European contact early in the process of colonization. Subsequent gold rushes brought Southeastern Kasanaans into further contact with European and Chinese settlers, who established colonies throughout the continent.

After the federation of the Australian colonies into the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, and under the White Australia policy, the Australian language was suppressed and largely absent from government until the 1970s and 1980s, during a wave of revived interest in the Kasanaan nationalist movement. During this time, a revived interest in pangkekeritang kasanaan (the invented native script for Australian) and pakakariang wukat (use of the Australian language which avoids foreign loanwords) were incorporated into the Kasanaan nationalist movement, often with the aim of legitimizing the language. In 1998, the Australian language was made co-official with English and Chinese.

Modern Australia incorporates what is referred to as the WCKO (White-Chinese-Kasanaan-Other) model as a primary framework for race and language in education and administration, wherein English is the primary language of politics and administration, and wherein white Australians are educated in English, Chinese Australians in Mandarin, and Kasanaan Australians in Australian. However, the state's management of race and language, as well as the relevance of the WCKO model, has been a point of contention since its introduction.

Phonological evolution

The following diagram shows the consonants of Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, along with their outcomes in the modern Australian language:

Proto-Malayo-Polynesian consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Retroflex	Palatalized velar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Voiceless obstruent	*p > p	*t > t, s	*c /c͡ç/ > c			*k > k	*q > h, y
Voiced obstruent	*b > b, w, p	*d > d, y	*z /ɟ͡ʝ/ > j, c	*D /ɖ/ > d, y	*j /ɡʲ/ > y	*g > g, k
Nasal	*m > m	*n > n	*ñ /ɲ/ > y			*ŋ > ng
Fricative		*s > s						*h > ', Ø
Lateral		*l > l, w, h
Tap or trill		*r > r					*R /ʀ/ > r
Approximant	*w > w		*y /j/ > y

The vowels of Proto-Malayo-Polynesian are largely unchanged, however, the diphthongs *aw and *uy have been reduced to /u/ and /e/.

Initial assibilation

The Proto-Malayo-Polynesian phonemes *t yields the sibilant s in the modern language:

• PMP *takut > AUS sakut "to be sick"
• PMP *taŋis > AUS sangis "to cry"
• PMP *tubuq, *tumbuq > AUS suwu' "body"

Medial lenition

Oh my fucking god who cares

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants that occur in Australian are shown below in the international phonetic alphabet, with their orthographic equivalents in parentheses:

Australian consonant phonemes

		Bilabial	Dental/ Alveolar	Post‑alv./ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m (m)	n (n)		ŋ (ng)
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	p (p)	t (t)	t͡ʃ (c, tiy, ty, tr)	k (k)	ʔ
	voiced	ᵐb (b)	ⁿd (d)	d͡ʒ (j, diy, dy, dr)	ᵑg (g)
Fricative	voiceless		s (s)	ʃ (siy, sy)		h (h)
Approximant	semivowel	w (w)		j (y)
	lateral		l (l)
Trill			r (r)

Vowels

Standard Australian has between four and five vowel phonemes, with the inclusion of /o/ being variable.

Australian vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i (i)		u (u)
Mid		ə (e)	o (o)
Open		a (a)

Grammar

Main article: Australian grammar