ABC 612am. DRIVE. 10 April 2012 , 4:08 PM by Peter Gooch

It’s not a record to be proud of, but Australia appears to be world champions at linguicide, the killing of languages. Out of an estimated 250 spoken by indigenous people only 20 are now in common usage. Linguistics professor GHIL’AD ZUCKERMANN is urging Australians to join a global movement designed to revive endangered tongues.

612 Drive reporter TERRI BEGLEY is talking with indigenous language expert, Des Crump.