Australian languages

According to Saturday's paper, after English, the most-spoken languages are (in descending order): Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic, Vietnames, Mandarin, Spaish, Tagalog (Filipino), and German (source: Roly Sussex's "Word Limit" column in the "Etc." section of the Courier-Mail, 5/21/11, p. 25). That's an interesting profile of the recent immigration patterns of Australia.

Indigenous languages aren't included, as there's (as I recall) about 250 different language groups within Australia. And each of these has two to fifteen dialects.

On a stream-of-consciousness-related notes: Here's Dan Bern's song "New American Language." (It's related because of the lyrics "I have a dream of a New American Language // One with a little bit more Spanish...")




Catchy song; good lyrics. "Yay" for YouTube. :)


--GG