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
Writing system	Latin Pangkekeritang kasanaan (marginal)
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 various parts 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, t	*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/.

Assibilation

The Proto-Malayo-Polynesian phoneme *t in initial positions 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"

Further, *q yields h, except in initial environments where it yields y-.

• PMP *baqəʀu > AUS baheru "new"
• PMP *laqin > AUS lahin "different"

Lenition

Medial *b and *d, as well as medial *mp/*mb and *nt/*nt, yield -w- and -y- respectively in the modern language:

• PMP *babuy > AUS babe "pig"
• PMP *ampu > AUS awu "grandparent"
• PMP *ləmbut > AUS lewut "soft, tender"
• PMP *wada > AUS aya "there is/are; to exist"
• PMP *punti > AUS puyi "banana"
• PMP *landak > AUS layak "porcupine"

The lateral *l is palatalized around front vowels and semivowels to -j-, and velarized to -w- around back vowels and semivowels:

• PMP *iliŋ₁ > AUS iying "to pour"
• PMP *bəli > AUS beyi "to buy"
• PMP *lutuq > AUS wutu' "to cook"
• PMP *tuluŋ > AUS suwung "to help"

Elsewhere, *l is simply elided to -h-:

• PMP *alap > AUS ahap "to take; to fetch"
• PMP *balay > AUS bahay "house" (dialectal)
• PMP *halas > AUS ahas "forest"

Medial *h is elided entirely:

• PMP *bahi > AUS bay "woman"
• PMP *bahu > AUS bau "smell, odor"
• PMP *tuhud > AUS suut "knee"

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, ter, tr)	k (k)	ʔ
	voiced	ᵐb (b)	ⁿd (d)	d͡ʒ (j, diy, dy, der, dr)	ᵑg (g)
Fricative	voiceless		s (s)	ʃ (siy, sy)		h (h)
Approximant	semivowel	w (w)		j (y)
	lateral		l (l)
Trill			r (r)

Notes

• Coda /n/ and /ŋ/ may undergo assimilation before bilabials, where they are realized as [n͡m] and [ŋ͡m] respectively (e.g., sawangan mu [sɐˈwaŋən͡m mʊ] "your (pl.) help").
• The stop /k/ is sometimes realized as [ç] before /i/ and /j/, and as [x] elsewhere by some rural and working-class speakers.
• The stops /b/, /d/, and /g/ are prenasalized as [ᵐb], [ⁿd], and [ᵑg]. Medially, some speakers denasalize them as [b], [d], and [g], whereas other speakers (particularly in western and northern dialects), fully nasalize them medially as [m], [n], [ŋ].
• /n/, /t/, /d/, and /s/ are dental [n̪], [t̪], [d̪], and [s̪] in most varieties. Some speakers also realize /l/ as dental [l̪].
• Many speakers realize /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ as /ʃʃ/ and /ʒʒ/ in medial environments (e.g., sijek [sɪʒˈʒek̚] "to stand").
• /ʃ/, /t͡ʃ/, and /d͡ʒ/ are realized by some speakers as either [ɕ], [t͡ɕ], and [d͡ʑ] or as [ʂ], [t͡ʂ], and [d͡ʐ] by some younger speakers around Canberra and Sydney.
• Fricatives are often voiced medially (e.g., aseng [ɐˈzeŋ] "foreign").
• /h/ may be voiced or elided medially, or be realized as [w] following or preceding /u/ (e.g., uhar [uɦar~uwar~uar] "snake").
• The rhotic /r/ is typically an alveolar trill [r], however, some variation exists wherein it may be realized as [ɹ], [ɻ͡ʐ], [ɹ̝], or [ʐ] in more informal, rapid speech.
• In normal, rapid speech, instances of onset /j/ or /w/ may be elided, when they occur before or after /i/ or /u/, respectively (e.g., yicu' [ɪˈt͡ʃuʔ] "closet, wardrobe"; huwan [ˈhwan] "end, finish")

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

Vocabulary

Numbers

Number	English	Australian	IPA
1	one	isa	[ɪˈsa]
2	two	duwa	[dʊˈwa]
3	three	sehu	[səˈhu]
4	four	epat	[əˈpat̚]
5	five	yima	[jɪˈma]
6	six	anem	[ɐˈnem]
7	seven	pitu	[pɪˈtu]
8	eight	duwing	[dʊˈwiŋ]
9	nine	sawing	[ˈsawɪŋ]
10	ten	sangapu'	[sɐŋɐˈpuʔ]
11	eleven	ngisa	[ŋɪˈsa]
12	twelve	ngiyuwa	[ŋɪjʊˈwa]
13	thirteen	ngisehu	[ŋɪsəˈhu]
14	fourteen	ngisepat	[ŋɪsəˈpat̚]
15	fifteen	ngiyima	[ŋɪjɪˈma]
16	sixteen	ngisanem	[ŋɪsɐˈnem]
17	seventeen	ngipitu	[ŋɪpɪˈtu]
18	eighteen	ngiyuwing	[ŋɪjʊˈwiŋ]
19	nineteen	ngisawing	[ŋɪˈsawɪŋ]
20	twenty	duwapu'	[dʊˈwapʊʔ]
30	thirty	sehupu'	[səˈhupʊʔ]
40	forty	epatpu'	[əˈpat̚pʊʔ]
50	fifty	yimapu'	[jɪˈmapʊʔ]
60	sixty	anewu'	[ɐˈnewʊʔ]
70	seventy	pitupu'	[pɪˈtupʊʔ]
80	eighty	awupu'	[ɐˈwupʊʔ]
90	ninety	siwapu'	[sɪˈwapʊʔ]
98	ninety-eight	ngiyuwing-awupu'	[ŋɪjʊˈwiŋ ɐˈwupʊʔ]
100	hundred	sarus	[sɐˈrus]
1,000	thousand	riwu	[rɪˈwu]
10,000	ten-thousand	sangapu'-riwu	[sɐŋɐˈpuʔ rɪˈwu]
100,000	hundred-thousand	sarus-riwu	[sɐˈrus rɪˈwu]
1,000,000	million	miliyen	[mɪˈlijən]
1,000,000,000	billion	biliyen	[bɪˈlijən]