Language contact

Abstract

Abstract This chapter provides comprehensive background information about past and present language contact and contact languages in Australia. It focuses on the historical language contact and shift processes, underway since imposition of settler-colonial society from 1788, which have profoundly altered modern Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language ecologies. It describes the vibrant contemporary contexts of the resulting contact languages, such as the creoles, mixed languages, restructured traditional languages and Englishes, and their rich and significant roles in Indigenous social and cultural settings. It addresses equity issues that arise when contact languages spoken by Indigenous people are unrecognized and unserviced. The chapter examines the various constructions of ‘Aboriginal English’ and why dialects of Standard Australian English should be differentiated from other contact languages in policies and some on-the-ground services. It includes Indigenous second language learning of Standard Australian English.