Reconciliation and Social Justice Library
Reconciliation and Social Justice Library
The loss of language that occurred soon after European settlement was largely due to the reduction in speaker populations from the ravages of introduced diseases, to displacement and in some instances to massacres. The healthiest Aboriginal languages today are those in areas least settled by Europeans or where settlement has occurred comparatively recently.
Fragmentation of language groups and forced relocation into mixed language groups did considerable damage to these languages by limiting the opportunities for their
use.
On missions and government run settlements the use of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages was frequently banned and in most cases discouraged. Children were severely affected where they were separated from parents at an early age and placed in boys or girls dormitories and the use of their language prohibited. The most crucial factor in language loss is the failure in the language link from parents to children.
At some stage a language loses its "critical mass" as a language. It ceases to be the main vehicle of communication. In the final stages of loss, only a handful of elderly speakers remain and the language as a fully spoken living language will die with these people.