Languages of the United Kingdom

Languages of the United Kingdom
Main languages English (98%; national and de facto official)[a][1][2][3][4]
Minority languages Scots (2.5%),[5] Welsh (1%),[6] Ulster Scots (0.05%),[7] Cornish (<0.01%), Scottish Gaelic (0.1%), Irish (0.1%)[a]
Main immigrant languages Polish (1%), Punjabi (0.5%), Hindi language (0.5%), Urdu (0.5%), Bengali (0.4%), Gujarati (0.4%), Arabic (0.3%), French (0.3%), Portuguese (0.2%), Spanish (0.2%), Tamil (0.2%)
Main foreign languages French (23%), German (9%), Spanish (8%)[b][8]
Sign languages British Sign Language, Irish Sign Language, Northern Ireland Sign Language
Common keyboard layouts
British QWERTY
a.^ Statistics indicate respondents who can speak at least "well".
b.^ Statistics indicate respondents with at least basic ability.

The de facto official language of the United Kingdom is English, which is spoken by 98% of the country's population.[1][2][9][10][11] In 2011, the second-most spoken language in the United Kingdom was Scots,[5] followed by Polish, an immigrant language. The fourth most-spoken language—Welsh—is an official language in Wales,[12] the only de jure official language in any part of the UK. 125,000 people are estimated to have the ability to communicate using British Sign Language.[13] There are three other living languages indigenous to the country, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, and Cornish, various regional dialects, and numerous languages spoken by recent immigrant populations and those who have learnt them as second languages.

Native languages and dialects

Living

The table below outlines living indigenous languages of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). Languages of the Crown Dependencies (the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) are not included as they are not part of the United Kingdom.[14]

Language: English Type Spoken in Rank: no. of speakers in the UK
English West Germanic Throughout the United Kingdom 1: 59,824,194; 98% (2011 census)[1]
Scots (Ulster Scots in Northern Ireland) West Germanic Scotland (Scottish Lowlands, Caithness, Northern Isles)
Northern Ireland (counties Down, Antrim, Londonderry), Berwick-on-Tweed		 2: 2.6% (2011 census)
Welsh Celtic (Brythonic) Wales (especially west) and parts of England near the Welsh–English border; Welsh communities in major English cities such as London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. 3: 1% (2011 census)
British Sign Language BANZSL Throughout the United Kingdom 4: 125,000[13] (2010 data)
Irish Celtic (Goidelic) Northern Ireland, with communities in Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, London etc. 5: 95,000[19] (2004 data)
Angloromani Mixed England, Scotland, Wales 6: 90,000[20] (1990 data)
Scottish Gaelic Celtic (Goidelic) Scotland (Scottish Highlands and Hebrides with substantial minorities in various Scottish cities; a small community in London) 7: 65,674 total,[4] (Scotland's 2001 Census) though those who have fluency in all three skills is 31,235[21]
Cornish Celtic (Brythonic) Cornwall (small minorities of speakers in Plymouth, London, and South Wales) 8: 557[22] (2011 data)
Shelta Mixed Throughout the United Kingdom ?: Fewer than 86,000 worldwide, exact numbers in UK unknown.[23]

Anglic

Further information: English languages
Street sign in Ballywalter, Northern Ireland, in English and Ulster Scots.

Insular Celtic

Further information: Insular Celtic languages

Mixed

Sign languages

Extinct

Statistics

Distribution of languages of the United Kingdom
English
  
 98%
Scots
  
 2.5%
Welsh
  
 1%
Scottish Gaelic
  
 0.1%
Irish
  
 0.1%
Cornish
  
 0.01%
English language proficiency in England and Wales in 2011. The 'English' category included Welsh for usual residents of Wales.

Wales

Bilingual road markings near Cardiff Airport, Vale of Glamorgan

The Welsh language is officially protected by the Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998, and since 1998 it has been common, for example, for almost all British Government Departments to provide both printed documentation and official websites in both English and Welsh. Both the English and Welsh languages have equal status in Wales according to law. On 7 December 2010, the National Assembly for Wales unanimously approved a set of measures to develop the use of the Welsh language within Wales.[26][27] On 9 February 2011, this measure received Royal Assent and was passed, thus making the Welsh language an officially recognised language within Wales.[28]

The Welsh Language Board[29] indicated in 2004 that 553,000 people (19.7% of the population of Wales in households or communal establishments) were able to speak Welsh. Based on an alternative definition, there has been a 0.9 percentage point increase when compared with the 2001 census, and an increase of approximately 35,000 in absolute numbers within Wales. Welsh is therefore a growing language within Wales.[29] Of those 553,000 Welsh speakers, 57% (315,000) were considered by others to be fluent, and 477,000 people consider themselves fluent or "fair" speakers. 62% of speakers (340,000) claimed to speak the language daily, including 88% of fluent speakers.[29]

However, there is some controversy over the actual number who speak Welsh: some statistics include people who have studied Welsh to GCSE standard, not all of whom could be regarded as fluent speakers of the language. Conversely, some first-language speakers may choose not to report themselves as such. These phenomena, also seen with other minority languages outside the UK, make it harder to establish an accurate and unbiased figure for how many people speak it fluently. Furthermore, no question about Welsh language ability was asked in the 2001 census outside Wales, thereby ignoring a considerable population of Welsh speakers – particularly concentrated in neighbouring English counties and in London and other large cities.

Nevertheless, the 2011 census recorded a drop of Welsh speakers overall, from 582,000 in 2001 to 562,000 in 2011, despite an increase in the size of the population. This represents a two percentage point drop—from 21% to 19%—in the proportion of Welsh speakers.[30]

Scotland

Bilingual sign (Scottish Gaelic and English) at Partick railway station, Glasgow
Main article: Languages of Scotland

According to the 2001 census, Scottish Gaelic had 58,652 speakers (roughly 1% of the population of Scotland at the time). In total, 92,400 people aged three and over in Scotland had some Gaelic language ability in 2001.[31] According to a 1996 estimate of the General Register Office for Scotland, 30% of the Scottish population speak Scots (approximately 1.5 million speakers).

The Gaelic language was given official recognition for the first time in Scotland in 2005, by the Scottish Parliament's Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, which aims to promote the Gaelic language to a status "commanding equal respect" with English. However, this wording has no clear meaning in law, and was chosen to prevent the assumption that the Gaelic language is in any way considered to have "equal validity or parity of esteem with English".[32] A major limitation of the act, though, is that it does not constitute any form of recognition for the Gaelic language by the UK government, and UK public bodies operating in Scotland, as reserved bodies, are explicitly exempted from its provisions.[33]

The 2011 census was the first in which respondents were specifically asked about their Scots language ability, and "over 1.5 million people" self-reported the ability to speak Scots.[34] The 2011 census also revealed a slight drop in the number of people self-reporting Gaelic language ability, with numbers remaining just below 59,000 speakers; although this represented a smaller decline from 2001 than that recorded between any two previous consecutive Scottish censuses. This slight decline was reflected across all age groups except those under the age of 20, where there was a 0.1% rise in speakers.[34]

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, about 7% of the population are able to speak Irish according to the 2001 census (around 110,000 speakers) and 2% speak Ulster Scots, seen by some as a language distinct from English and by some as a dialect of English, according to the 1999 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey (around 30,000 speakers). Alongside British Sign Language, Irish Sign Language is also used.

Cornwall

Cornish, a Brythonic Celtic language closely related to Welsh, was the dominant language of Cornwall throughout the Middle Ages but began to decline after the 14th century, especially after the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549. It appears to have died out as a community language in the far west of Cornwall in the late 18th century. Today it is spoken to some extent by roughly 3500 people as a result of a revival initiated by Henry Jenner in 1903. Since 2002 the Cornish language has been recognised by the United Kingdom government as a UK official minority language under the Council of Europe's European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.[35]

British Sign Language

Main article: British Sign Language

British Sign Language, often abbreviated to BSL, is the language of 125,000 Deaf adults, about 0.3%[13] of the total population of the United Kingdom. It is not exclusively the language of Deaf people; many relatives of Deaf people and others can communicate in it fluently. Recognised to be a language by the UK Government on 18 March 2003,[36] BSL has the highest number of monolingual users of any indigenous minority language in the UK.

Second or additional languages

Throughout the UK, many citizens can speak, or at least understand (to a degree where they could have a conversation with someone who speaks that language), a second or even a third language from secondary school education, primary school education or from private classes. 23% of the UK population can speak/understand French, 9% can speak/understand German and 8% can speak/understand Spanish.[8]

In general, 38% of UK citizens report that they can speak (well enough to have a conversation) at least one language other than their mother tongue, 18% at least two languages and 6% at least three languages. 62% of UK citizens cannot speak any foreign language.[8] These figures include those who describe their level of ability in the foreign language as "basic".

UK census

Abilities in the regional languages of the UK (other than Cornish) for those aged three and above were recorded in the UK census 2011 as follows.[37][38][39]

Ability Wales Scotland Northern Ireland
Welsh Scottish Gaelic Scots Irish Ulster-Scots
Number % Number % Number % Number % Number %
Understands but does not speak, read or write 157,792 5.15% 23,357 0.46% 267,412 5.22% 70,501 4.06% 92,040 5.30%
Speaks, reads and writes 430,717 14.06% 32,191 0.63% 1,225,622 23.95% 71,996 4.15% 17,228 0.99%
Speaks but does not read or write 80,429 2.63% 18,966 0.37% 179,295 3.50% 24,677 1.42% 10,265 0.59%
Speaks and reads but does not write 45,524 1.49% 6,218 0.12% 132,709 2.59% 7,414 0.43% 7,801 0.45%
Reads but does not speak or write 44,327 1.45% 4,646 0.09% 107,025 2.09% 5,659 0.33% 11,911 0.69%
Other combination of skills 40,692 1.33% 1,678 0.03% 17,381 0.34% 4,651 0.27% 959 0.06%
No skills 2,263,975 73.90% 5,031,167 98.30% 3,188,779 62.30% 1,550,813 89.35% 1,595,507 91.92%
Total 3,063,456 100.00% 5,118,223 100.00% 5,118,223 100.00% 1,735,711 100.00% 1,735,711 100.00%
Can speak 562,016 18.35% 57,602 1.13% 1,541,693 30.12% 104,943 6.05% 35,404 2.04%
Has some ability 799,481 26.10% 87,056 1.70% 1,929,444 37.70% 184,898 10.65% 140,204 8.08%
Distribution of those who stated they could speak a regional language in the 2011 census.

Note: Scale used varies for each map.

Welsh 
Scots 
Scottish Gaelic 
Irish 
Ulster-Scots 
Distribution of those who stated Cornish was their main language in the 2011 census.
Cornish 

Status

Certain nations and regions of the UK have frameworks for the promotion of their autochthonous languages.

The UK government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of:

Under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (which is not legally enforceable, but which requires states to adopt appropriate legal provision for the use of regional and minority languages) the UK government has committed itself to the recognition of certain regional languages and the promotion of certain linguistic traditions. The UK has ratified[42] for the higher level of protection (Section III) provided for by the Charter in respect of Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish. Cornish, Scots in Scotland and Northern Ireland (in the latter territory officially known as Ulster Scots or Ullans, but in the speech of users simply as Scottish or Scots) are protected by the lower level only (Section II). The UK government has also recognised British Sign Language as a language in its own right[36] of the United Kingdom.

In Northern Ireland, the department responsible for culture displays official administrative identity in English, Irish and Ulster Scots

A number of bodies have been established to oversee the promotion of the regional languages: in Scotland, Bòrd na Gàidhlig oversees Scottish Gaelic. Foras na Gaeilge has an all-Ireland remit as a cross-border language body, and Tha Boord o Ulstèr-Scotch is intended to fulfil a similar function for Ulster Scots, although hitherto it has mainly concerned itself with culture. In Wales, the Welsh Language Board (Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg) has a statutory role in agreeing Welsh language plans with official bodies. The Cornish Language Partnership is a body that represents the major Cornish language and cultural groups and local government's language needs. It receives funding from the UK government and the European Union, and is the regulator of the language's Standard Written Form, agreed in 2008.

Controversies

Language vs dialect

There are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects, although a number of paradigms exist, which give sometimes contradictory results. The distinction is therefore a subjective one, dependent on the user's frame of reference.

Scottish Gaelic and Irish are generally viewed as being languages in their own right rather than dialects of a single tongue, but they are sometimes mutually intelligible to a limited degree – especially between southern dialects of Scottish and northern dialects of Irish (programmes in these two forms of Gaelic are broadcast respectively on BBC Radio nan Gaidheal and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta), but the relationship between Scots and English is less clear, since there is usually partial mutual intelligibility.

Since there is a very high level of mutual intelligibility between contemporary speakers of Scots in Scotland and in Ulster (Ulster Scots), and a common written form was current well into the 20th century, the two varieties have usually been considered as dialects of a single tongue rather than languages in their own right; the written forms have diverged in the 21st century. The government of the United Kingdom "recognises that Scots and Ulster Scots meet the Charter's definition of a regional or minority language".[42] Whether this implies recognition of one regional or minority language or two is a question of interpretation. Ulster Scots is defined in legislation (The North/South Co-operation (Implementation Bodies) Northern Ireland Order 1999) as: the variety of the Scots language which has traditionally been used in parts of Northern Ireland and in Donegal in Ireland.[43]

While in continental Europe closely related languages and dialects may get official recognition and support, in the UK there is a tendency to view closely related vernaculars as a single language. Even British Sign Language is mistakenly thought of as a form of 'English' by some, rather than as a language in its own right, with a distinct grammar and vocabulary. The boundaries are not always clear cut, which makes it hard to estimate numbers of speakers.

Hostility

In Northern Ireland, the use of Irish and Ulster Scots is sometimes viewed as politically loaded, despite both having been used by all communities in the past. According to the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey 1999, the ratio of Unionist to Nationalist users of Ulster Scots is 2:1. About 1% of Catholics claim to speak it, while 2% of Protestants claim to speak it. The disparity in the ratios as determined by political and faith community, despite the very large overlap between the two, reflects the very low numbers of respondents.[44] Across the two communities 0% speak it as their main language at home.[45] A 2:1 ratio would not differ markedly from that among the general population in those areas of Northern Ireland where Scots is spoken.

Often the use of the Irish language in Northern Ireland has met with the considerable suspicion of Unionists, who have associated it with the largely Catholic Republic of Ireland, and more recently, with the republican movement in Northern Ireland itself. Catholic areas of Belfast have street signs in Irish similar to those in the Republic. However, Protestants who view the Irish language as having high symbolic value but low communicative value may feel that they are not welcome in those areas as a result. Approximately 14% of the population speak Irish,[46] however only 1% speak it as their main language at home.[45] Under the St Andrews Agreement, the British government committed itself to introducing an Irish Language Act, and it was hoped that a consultation period ending on 2 March 2007 could see Irish becoming an official language, having equal validity with English, recognised as an indigenous language, or aspire to become an official language in the future.[47] However, with the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly in May 2007, responsibility for this was passed to the Assembly, and the commitment was promptly broken. In October 2007, the then Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Edwin Poots MLA, announced to the assembly that no Irish Language Act would be brought forward. As of April 2016, no Irish Language Act applying to Northern Ireland has been passed, and none is currently planned.

Some resent Scottish Gaelic being promoted in the Lowlands, although it was once spoken almost everywhere in Scotland. Gaelic placenames are relatively rare in the extreme south-east (that part of Scotland which had previously been under Northumbrian rule)[48] and the extreme north-east (part of Caithness, where Norse was previously spoken).

Two areas with mostly Norse-derived placenames (and some Pictish), the Northern Isles (Shetland and Orkney) were ceded to Scotland in lieu of an unpaid dowry in 1472, and never spoke Gaelic; its traditional vernacular Norn, a derivative of Old Norse mutually intelligible with Icelandic and Faroese, died out in the 18th century after large-scale immigration by Lowland Scots speakers. To this day, many Shetlanders and Orcadians maintain a separate identity, albeit through the Shetlandic and Orcadian dialects of Lowland Scots, rather than their former tongue. Norn was also spoken at one point in Caithness, apparently dying out much earlier than Shetland and Orkney. However, the Norse speaking population were entirely assimilated by the Gaelic speaking population in the Western Isles; to what degree this happened in Caithness is a matter of controversy, although Gaelic was spoken in parts of the county until the 20th century.

Non-recognition

Scots within Scotland and the regional varieties of English within England receive little or no official recognition. The dialects of northern England share some features with Scots that those of southern England do not. The regional dialects of England were once extremely varied, as is recorded in Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary and the Survey of English Dialects, but they have died out over time so that regional differences are now largely in pronunciation rather than in grammar or vocabulary.

Public funding of minority languages continues to produce mixed reactions, and there is sometimes resistance to their teaching in schools. Partly as a result, proficiency in languages other than "Standard" English can vary widely.

Immigrant languages

Sign in English and Punjabi at Southall railway station, Southall, London
Bilingual street signs in Chinatown, Liverpool, Merseyside
'Brick Lane' street sign in English and Bengali, Tower Hamlets, London

Communities migrating to the UK in recent decades have brought many more languages to the country. Surveys started in 1979 by the Inner London Education Authority discovered over 100 languages being spoken domestically by the families of the inner city's school children.

South Asians in the United Kingdom speak dozens of different languages, and it is difficult to determine how many people speak each language alongside English. The largest subgroup of British Asians are those of Punjabi origin (representing approximately two thirds of direct migrants from South Asia to the UK), from both India and Pakistan, they number over 2 million in the UK and are the largest Punjabi community outside of South Asia.[49] The Punjabi language is currently the third most spoken language in the UK. Many Black Britons speak English as their first language. Their ancestors mostly came from the West Indies, particularly Jamaica, and generally also spoke English-based creole languages,[50] hence there are significant numbers of Caribbean creole speakers (see below for Ethnologue figures). With over 300,000 French-born people in the UK, plus the general popularity of the language, French is understood by 23% of the country's population. A large proportion of the Black British population, especially African-born immigrants speak French as a first or second language.

The Bengali speaking community in the UK consists of those largely of Bangladeshi origin mainly from the Sylhet region (predominantly Muslim), and small numbers of Indians from the West Bengal region (mainly Hindu). There are around 700,000 Bengali speakers, 550,000 of whom speak Sylheti,[51] which is either considered a dialect of Bengali or as a separate language. West Bengalis mainly speak the standard Bengali language, whereas Bangladeshis mainly speak Sylheti, which is generally not written, although children may receive some education in standard Bengali at school. Sylheti is not recognised as a language in Bangladesh, and there some debate to whether it should be recognised as a language separate from Bengali. The Bengali speaking community in the UK is highly concentrated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.[52]

Most common immigrant languages

According to the 2011 census, English or Welsh was the main language of 92.3% of the residents of England and Wales. Among other languages, the most common were as follows.[53]

  1. Polish 546,000 or 1.0%
  2. Punjabi 273,000 or 0.5%
  3. Urdu 269,000 or 0.5%
  4. Bengali (with Sylheti and Chatgaya) 221,000 or 0.4%
  5. Gujarati 213,000 or 0.4%
  6. Yoruba 190,000 or 0.4%
  7. Arabic 159,000 or 0.3%
  8. French 147,000 or 0.3%
  9. Chinese/Sinitic languages (excludes Mandarin and Cantonese) 141,000 or 0.3%
  10. Portuguese 133,000 or 0.2%
  11. Spanish 120,000 or 0.2%
  12. Tamil 101,000 or 0.2%
  13. Turkish 99,000 or 0.2%
  14. Italian 92,000 or 0.2%
  15. Somali 86,000 or 0.2%
  16. Lithuanian 85,000 or 0.2%
  17. German 77,000 or 0.1%
  18. Persian 76,000 or 0.1%
  19. Languages of the Philippines 70,000 or 0.1%
  20. Romanian 68,000 or 0.1%

Norman French and Latin

The signs at Wallsend Metro station are in English and Latin as a tribute to Wallsend's role as one of the outposts of the Roman empire.

Norman French is still used in the Houses of Parliament for certain official business between the clerks of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and on other official occasions such as the dissolution of Parliament.

Latin is also used to a limited degree in certain official mottoes, for example Nemo me impune lacessit, legal terminology (habeas corpus), and various ceremonial contexts. Latin abbreviations can also be seen on British coins. The use of Latin has declined greatly in recent years. At one time, Latin and Greek were commonly taught in British schools (and were required for entrance to the ancient universities until 1919, for Greek, and the 1960s, for Latin[54] ), and A-Levels and Highers are still available in both subjects.

Languages of the Channel Islands and Isle of Man

The Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey are not part of the UK, but are closely associated with it, being British Crown Dependencies.

For the insular forms of English, see Manx English (Anglo-Manx), Guernsey English and Jersey English. Forms of French are, or have been, used as an official language in the Channel Islands, e.g. Jersey Legal French.

The indigenous languages of the Crown dependencies are recognised as regional languages by the British and Irish governments within the framework of the British-Irish Council.

The UK government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages on behalf of the Manx government.

The Sercquiais dialect of Sark is descended from Jèrriais, but is not recognised under this framework and the last native speaker died in 2004. Auregnais, the Norman dialect of Alderney, is now extinct.

Languages of British Overseas Territories

British Overseas Territories are possessions of the United Kingdom, but do not form part of the United Kingdom itself. Most of these contain a large degree of English, either as a root language, or in codeswitching, e.g. Llanito. Languages of these territories include:

Forms of English:

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 According to the 2011 census, 53,098,301 people in England and Wales, 5,044,683 people in Scotland, and 1,681,210 people in Northern Ireland can speak English "well" or "very well"; totalling 59,824,194. Therefore, out of the 60,815,385 residents of the UK over the age of three, 98% can speak English "well" or "very well".
  2. 1 2 "United Kingdom". Languages Across Europe. BBC. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  3. ↑ "United Kingdom; Key Facts". Commonwealth Secretariat. Retrieved 23 April 2008.
  4. 1 2 "English language". Directgov. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  5. 1 2 Scotland's Census 2011 – Language, All people aged 3 and over. Out of the 60,815,385 residents of the UK over the age of three, 1,541,693 (2.5%) can speak Scots.
  6. ↑ QS206WA – Welsh language skills, ONS 2011 census. Out of the 60,815,385 residents of the UK over the age of three, 562,016 (1%) can speak Welsh. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  7. 1 2 Anorak, Scots. "Ulster Scots in the Northern Ireland Census". Scots Language Centre. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 Europeans and their languages (PDF), European Commission, 2006, p. 13, retrieved 5 July 2008
  9. ↑ Scotland's Census 2011 – Proficiency in English, All people aged 3 and over.
  10. ↑ Northern Ireland Census 2011 – Main language and Proficiency in English, All usual residents aged 3 and over.
  11. ↑ ONS census, QS205EW – Proficiency in English. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  12. ↑ "Welsh Language Measure receives Royal Assent". Welsh Government. 11 February 2011. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  13. 1 2 3 "The GP Patient Survey in Northern Ireland 2009/10 Summary Report" (PDF). Department of Health, Social Services, and Public Safety. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  14. ↑ "Channel Islands". The British Monarchy. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  15. ↑ Scotland's Census 2011 – Language, All people aged 3 and over. Out of the 5,118,223 residents of Scotland over the age of three, 1,541,693 (30%) can speak Scots.
  16. ↑ QS206WA - Welsh language skills, ONS 2011 census. Out of the 2,955,841 residents of Wales over the age of three, 562,016 (19%) can speak Welsh. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  17. ↑ "2011 Census: Key Statistics for Wales, March 2011". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  18. ↑ "2011 Census, Key Statistics and Quick Statistics for Wards and Output Areas in England and Wales". Office for National Statistics. 30 January 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  19. ↑ "United Kingdom". Ethnologue. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  20. ↑ "Angloromani". Ethnologue. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  21. ↑ "UV12 Knowledge of Gaelic". Scotland's Census Results Online. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  22. ↑ "South West". TeachingEnglish (BBC British Council). 2010. Archived from the original on 8 January 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2010.
  23. ↑ "Shelta". Ethnologue. 1999-02-19. Retrieved 2013-08-18.
  24. 1 2 "List of declarations made with respect to treaty No. 148". European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Council of Europe. Retrieved 21 November 2013. The United Kingdom declares, in accordance with Article 2, paragraph 1 of the Charter that it recognises that Scots and Ulster Scots meet the Charter's definition of a regional or minority language for the purposes of Part II of the Charter.
  25. 1 2 3 "List of declarations made with respect to treaty No. 148". European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Council of Europe. Retrieved 21 November 2013. The United Kingdom declares, in accordance with Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Charter that it recognises that Cornish meets the Charter's definition of a regional or minority language for the purposes of Part II of the Charter.
  26. ↑ "Policy and legislation". Welsh Language. Welsh Government. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  27. ↑ "'Historic' assembly vote for new Welsh language law". BBC News. 7 December 2010. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  28. ↑ "Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011". National Assembly for Wales. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  29. 1 2 3 "2004 Welsh Language Use Survey: the report" (PDF). Retrieved 23 May 2010.
  30. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-20677528
  31. ↑ "Scotland's Census 2001 – Gaelic Report". General Register Office for Scotland. 10 October 2005. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  32. ↑ McLeod, Wilson. "Gaelic in contemporary Scotland: contradictions, challenges and strategies". University of Edinburgh: 7.
  33. ↑ "Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 (s.10)". Office of Public Sector Information. 1 June 2005. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
  34. 1 2 "Scotland's Census: Shaping Our Future - Ethnicity, Identity, Language and Religion". National Records of Scotland. 26 September 2013. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  35. ↑ "Cornish gains official recognition". BBC News. 6 November 2002. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  36. 1 2 "Written Ministerial Statements". Bound Volume Hansard – Written Ministerial Statements. House of Commons. 18 March 2003. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  37. ↑ "NOMIS – Census 2011". Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  38. ↑ "Scotland's Census 2011 – Standard Outputs". Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  39. ↑ "Northern Ireland Neighbourhood Information Service". Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  40. ↑ "Mesur y Gymraeg (Cymru) 2011" (in Welsh). UK Legislation. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  41. ↑ "Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011". UK Legislation. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  42. 1 2 List of declarations made with respect to treaty No. 148, European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Status as of: 17/3/2011
  43. ↑ "Initial Periodical Report by the United Kingdom presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 15 of the Charter". European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Council of Europe. 1 July 2002. Archived from the original on 14 May 2005. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  44. ↑ "1999 Community Relations". Northern Ireland Life & Times. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  45. 1 2 "1999 Community Relations MAINLANG". Northern Ireland Life & Times. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  46. ↑ "1990 Community Relations USPKIRSH". Northern Ireland Life & Times. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  47. ↑ "Irish language future is raised". BBC News. 13 December 2006. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  48. ↑ Michael Lynch, ed. (2001). The Oxford Companion to Scottish History. Oxford University Press. (p.482)
  49. ↑ Ballard, Roger (1994). Desh Pardesh: The South Asian Presence in Britain. C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd. ISBN 1850650918.
  50. ↑ Bagley, Christopher (1979). "A Comparative Perspective on the Education of Black Children in Britain" (PDF). Comparative Education 15 (1): 63–81. doi:10.1080/0305006790150107. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 January 2012.
  51. ↑ "United Kingdom". Ethnologue. SIL International. 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  52. ↑ Price, Glanville, ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 91–92. ISBN 978-0631220398.
  53. ↑ "2011 Census: Quick Statistics". Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  54. ↑ "Bryn Mawr Classical Review 98.6.16". Retrieved 21 November 2013.

External links

Further reading

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