Mapping Aboriginal Languages

The 50 Words Project is a new interactive online map which allows you to listen to and learn words in more than 60 Australian Aboriginal languages. The map, created by the University of Melbourne's Research Unit for Indigenous Language, includes sound recordings of First Nations languages from across the Australian continent.

On the 50 Words Project interactive map the 60 First Nations languages for which the project has sound recordings are labelled in brown. Click on a brown labelled language and you can listen to actual sound recordings of 50 different words spoken in the selected language.

As you can see from the many uncolored labels on the map there are still numerous First Nations languages which the project does not have recordings for. The map includes contact details to get in touch with the project if you can speak any of the currently unrecorded languages.

If you are interested in Aboriginal languages then you might also like the Weemala map. This interactive map uses data from historical surveys undertaken by the Royal Anthropological Society of Australasia to map First Nations place-names. This 100 year-old survey data includes information on Aboriginal place-names their locations and their meaning.

The Weemala map allows you to browse the surveys and letters of the Anthropological Society of Australasia Survey. Each time you open a survey page or letter in Weemala any indigenous place-names in the text are also geo-located on a Leaflet map. If you click on any of the locations marked on the map you can find out the aboriginal place-name's meaning in English.