ACQ Vol 13 no 3 2011

Table 1. Primary and secondary languages spoken by Australian 4- to 5-year-old children and their parents (n = 4983)* Child’s primary Additional language(s) Parent 1’s Parent 2’s language other than English primary language primary language spoken or understood by the child n % n % n % n % 1. African languages 7 0.1 – – 8 0.2 7 0.1 2. Afrikaans – – – – 6 0.1 7 0.1 3. Arabic 78 1.6 102 2.0 89 1.8 87 1.7 4. Australian Aboriginal – – 22 0.4 – – – – 5. Assyrian 10 0.2 12 0.2 13 0.3 10 0.2 6. Bengali 11 0.2 – – 12 0.2 11 0.2 7. Cantonese 64 1.3 69 1.4 66 1.3 54 1.1 8. Croatian 6 0.1 – – 6 0.1 5 0.1 9. Dutch – – – – 7 0.2 8 0.2 10. English 4285 86.0 n/a n/a 4113 82.5 3480 69.8 11. French 18 0.4 – – 19 0.4 19 0.4 12. German 12 0.2 – – 18 0.4 18 0.4 13. Greek 40 0.8 69 1.4 52 1 47 0.9 14. Gujarati – – – – 6 0.1 5 0.1 15. Hakka 8 0.2 – – 8 0.2 7 0.1 16. Hindi 21 0.4 – – 22 0.4 23 0.5 17. Indonesian 8 0.2 – – 8 0.2 7 0.1 18. Italian 36 0.7 143 2.9 59 1.2 56 1.1 19. Japanese 8 0.2 24 0.5 7 0.1 6 0.1 20. Khmer – – 2 0.0 – – – – 21. Korean – – 6 0.1 5 0.1 6 0.1 22. Macedonian 6 0.1 – – 9 0.2 8 0.2 23. Maltese – – – – – – 6 0.1 24. Mandarin 42 0.8 70 1.4 51 1 45 0.9 25. Maori (New Zealand) 5 0.1 – – 9 0.2 – – 26. Oceanian Pidgins and Creoles – – – – – – 5 0.1 27. Persian – – 1 0.0 – – – – 28. Polish 6 0.1 – – 10 0.2 8 0.2 29. Portuguese 9 0.2 – – 11 0.2 11 0.2 30. Punjabi 6 0.1 – – 7 0.1 7 0.1 31. Romanian – – – – 5 0.1 – – 32. Russian 4 0.1 – – 5 0.1 5 0.1 33. Samoan 23 0.5 – – 28 0.6 23 0.5 34. Serbian 12 0.2 16 0.3 11 0.2 12 0.2 35. Sinhalese 8 0.2 – – 11 0.2 11 0.2 36. Somali 11 0.2 – – 10 0.2 7 0.1 37. Spanish 23 0.5 50 1.0 36 0.7 24 0.5 38. Tagalog 13 0.3 – – 31 0.6 21 0.4 39. Tamil 15 0.3 – – 19 0.4 19 0.4 40. Thai 8 0.2 – – 9 0.2 5 0.1 41. Tongan 5 0.1 – – 8 0.2 10 0.2 42. Turkish 17 0.3 22 0.4 22 0.5 20 0.4 43. Urdu 7 0.1 – – 7 0.1 8 0.2 44. Vietnamese 50 1 58 1.2 54 1.1 40 0.8 45. Other 11 0.2 477 9.6 12 0.3 6 0.1 Confidentialised 90 1.8 – – 90 1.8 71 1.4 Missing data 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 745 15.0 Note. * Dashes indicate that this language may either have not been used by anyone, or may have been used by a few participants, and these data may have been amalgamated under “other”.

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ACQ Volume 13, Number 3 2011

ACQ uiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing