Australia: future positive for Aboriginal languages?</tile> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="description" content="Australia: future positive for Aboriginal languages?"> <meta http-equiv="keywords" content="Australia,future,positive,for,Aboriginal,languages?"> </head> <body> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="10" height="39"> </td> <td width="99%" height="39"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="16%"><a href="http://inttranews.inttra.net"><img src="http://inttranews.inttra.net/images/inttranews_grey_2.jpg" width="192" height="37" border="0"></a></td> <td width="50%" valign="middle"> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><b><font color="#CCCCCC" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">KNOW.<br> HOW.</font></b></font> </p> </td> <td width="34%" align="right" valign="top"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1" color="#666666">05-09-2007</font></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="10"> </td> <td width="99%" > </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="10"> </td> <td width="99%" > <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="100%"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> <b>Australia: future positive for Aboriginal languages?</b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Sydney, Australia (Herald): Linguists believe there were about 70 Aboriginal languages spoken in NSW when the First Fleet arrived in 1788. Many of those are almost lost, especially as older Aboriginal people, who learnt the languages as children, die. In 2002 the Australian Bureau of Statistics found there were fewer than 3000 people who spoke an indigenous language in NSW. Last year that figure had dropped to 800. Even languages that were widely spoken in living memory may be only partially remembered or documented. Yet the future looks positive. <br> <br>For more information, please visit: <br><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/tragedy-of-nations-dying-languages-lost-in-translation/2007/09/04/1188783233947.html" target="blank">www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/tragedy-of-nations-dying-languages-lost-in-translation/2007/09/04/1188783233947.html</a> <br></font></td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> </table> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="<http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show