Adrianslont wrote:I am not "pretending" anything with regards to Australia's cultural and linguistic diversity. Your sarcasm laden first paragraph is just inaccurate. I had mentioned Sydney because I live here and Peter had mentioned Melbourne because he works there but there is a high level of diversity in all of the capital cities and larger non capital cities so now we are approaching 70-80% of the population.
No matter how many immigrants there are in these cities English still dominates. You can claim that that's
normal but not that it's not true.
The fact that immigrant languages exist in limited spheres does not mean that English doesn't dominate.
(As an aside, did you know that the largest group of immigrants in Australia are English-speaking whites?).
Indigenous languages are certainly declining and
Declining is an understatement. Most of them are moribund.
the governments may be doing too little
On the contrary -- they've done quite a lot. The only problem is that what they've done has been to systematically eliminate them.
And no, I don't mean the colonial period. I'm talking about living memory.
but that is not unique to Australia. It is pretty much the norm worldwide.
We have 150 languages, around 20 of which are still spoken by children. I'll give you that all modern states are essentially ethnocidal with varying levels of concessions to diversity; that said, due to the sheer quantity of languages involved we are capable of destroying a great deal more than most countries, with some exceptions like Papua New Guinea and Nigeria. For that reason I think we need to feel a greater sense of responsability (this goes for environmental conservation as well).
And there are many more places than the ones you mention where they are spoken, starting with Alice Springs and surrounding areas.
Those were two examples that came to mind but yes there are indigenous communities throughout the continent.