Tasmanian languages are attested by three dozen word lists, the most extensive being those of Joseph Milligan[2] and George Augustus Robinson.

All these show a poor grasp of the sounds of Tasmanian, which appear to have been fairly typical of Australian languages in this parameter[clarification needed].

Robert M. W. Dixon, who interviewed them as part of his research with Terry Crowley, concluded that "there is virtually no data on the grammar and no running text so that it is impossible to say very much of linguistic interest about the Tasmanian languages".

It appears that there were several language families on Tasmania, which would be in keeping with the long period of human habitation on the island.

In the 1970s Joseph Greenberg proposed an Indo-Pacific superfamily which includes Tasmanian along with Andamanese and Papuan (but not Australian).

[8] There are historical records as well that indicate the languages were not mutually intelligible and that a lingua franca was necessary for communication after resettlement on Flinders' Island.

J.B. Walker, who visited the island in 1832 and 1834, reported: Robert Clark, the catechist, states that on his arrival at the Flinders' Settlement in 1834, eight or ten different languages or dialects were spoken amongst the 200 natives then at the establishment, and that the blacks were 'instructing each other to speak their respective tongues'.Reports from the subsequent settlement at Oyster Cove were similar: The Aboriginal dialects made it difficult for the members of one family to understand that of another; "now however they all seem to have merged into one"Schmidt (1952)[11] distinguished five languages in the word lists: The Eastern languages seem to share a common vocabulary, and use the nominal particle na.

Listed here (clockwise from the northwest) with their Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) codes,[12] they are: The two western varieties are South-western (T10*) and Macquarie Harbour (T6) [southern and northern ends of SW region on map] One of the difficulties in interpreting Tasmanian data is the fact that some of the 35 word lists mix data from various locations, and even for the rest, in some cases the location is not recorded.

Two of the lists reported to be from Oyster Bay contain substantial northeastern admixture, which Bowern believes to be responsible for classifications linking the languages of the east coast.

The only words found in all regions that are not obvious candidates for borrowing and which do not have serious problems with attestation are *pene- 'laugh', *taway 'go', *liya 'water', *wii 'wood', and perhaps *tina 'belly'.

Schmidt (1952) reconstructed the following for East-central and South-east Tasmanian, as well as parts from Blake; Dixon (1981): There may have also been a lamino-dental nasal [n̪], as well as a glottal stop.

Possession was indicated by the possessor (noun) dropping the nominal particle: Postpositions, or perhaps case endings, include le/li 'behind', ra 'without', to/ta (change in direction): There is also an adverbial suffix -re in lene-re 'backwards'.