... Terms that were previously used include those of Antipodean English, Austral English and Australasian English, relecting the language of Australasia as a whole. Prior to the European settlement in around 1788 there were long periods of indigenous settlement, that is, Aboriginal. It is estimated that at the time of the British colonisation around 250 distinct indigenous languages were in use and well over half of these are no longer in use today, as noted at, file://A:\FATSILAustralian languages.htm. It is true to say that the accents of Australian English are stigmatized, even today, especially by middle-class British English speakers. If one were to research the origins of Australian English they would probably discover the underlying reasons for this. When Australia was colonized 200 years ago it was regarded as a convict colony for Britain which saw the transportation of British convicts who had, in almost all cases, committed only minor crimes. ...

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