Researchers in Australia say they have traced our indigenous languages back to a single common tongue known as Proto-Australian that was spoken about 10,000 years ago.
Associate Professor Mark Harvey from the University of Newcastle said until now, it was speculated that Australia was significantly more linguistically diverse than somewhere like Europe, because it had not been proven that all Australian languages actually stemmed from the same lineage.
The research, published in the Diachronica linguistics journal is the first to prove this common language source after years of speculation and debate by linguists Australia wide.