Indigenous languages are quickly disappearing as dialects vanish in Australia at a world-leading rate.
Only 40 First Nations languages are still spoken in Australia — down from more than 250 pre-colonisation — with only 12 being taught to children.
The findings, in a study by Australian National University and the University of Queensland, also found half of the world's 7,000 recognised languages are endangered, with about 1,500 at risk of not being spoken by the end of the century.
University of Queensland's Professor Felicity Meakins said the "dubious distinction" of having one of the world's highest language loss rates comes amid growing consensus that First Nations languages are vital for health and well-being within communities.
One finding was that language endangerment was increased by more years of schooling.
Ms Meakins, who said Indigenous Australian languages were silenced due to brutal colonial policies, said schooling had a role to play in preserving them.
"This is an absolute plug for bilingual schooling ... we need to foster both First Nations language proficiency as well as English proficiency," she said.
Increased funding, Ms Meakin said, could be used to document languages via dictionaries and to support projects embedding languages in school curriculums and other programs.
Co-author Professor Lindell Bromham found issues such as road density were factors in language loss rates.
The more roads connecting country to a city and villages to towns, the higher risk of a language being endangered, according to the study.
"It's as if roads are helping dominant languages steamroll smaller languages," Ms Bromham said.
"Contact with other local languages is not the problem. In fact, languages in contact with many other Indigenous languages tend to be less endangered."
