Australian Language Families

A language family or family-level group whose member languages are indigenous to mainland Australia or Tasmania: the continent-spanning Pama-Nyungan family, the many non-Pama-Nyungan families and isolates concentrated across northern Australia in Arnhem Land, the Kimberley, Cape York and the Daly and Darwin regions, and the extinct language families once spoken in Tasmania. Belongs here: any language-family entity whose constituent languages are documented as indigenous to the Australian mainland or Tasmania. Does not belong here: a family whose members are documented in New Guinea or the wider Pacific, grouped instead under New Guinea and Pacific Language Families even where the two regions lie close together geographically and share some historical contact.