Languages in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has no official language. English is the main language and the de facto official language, spoken monolingually by an estimated 95% of the UK population. It should be noted that Norman French is still used in the Houses of Parliament for 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.

However, some nations and regions of the UK have frameworks for the promotion of autochthonous languages. In Wales, English and Welsh are both widely used by officialdom, and Irish and Ulster Scots enjoy limited use alongside English in Northern Ireland, mainly in publicly commissioned translations. Since 2005, the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act has placed the status of Scottish Gaelic in Scotland on a statutory basis. Additionally, the Western Isles region of Scotland has a policy to promote the language.

Under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which is not legally enforceable, the UK Government has committed itself to the promotion of certain linguistic traditions. Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Cornish are to be developed in Wales, Scotland and Cornwall respectively. Other native languages afforded such protection include Irish in Northern Ireland, 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 "Scotch" or "Scots", and British Sign Language.

Contents

1 Statistics

2 Status

2.1 Controversies

2.1.1 "Language vs Dialect"
2.1.2 Hostility
2.1.3 Non-recognition
2.1.4 Cornish

3 Languages in the United Kingdom

3.1 Native
3.2 Immigrant
3.3 Historic

4 Languages of Channel Islands and Isle of Man

5 See also

Statistics

According to the most recent census, Welsh is spoken by about 20% of the population of Wales, giving it around 600,000 speakers. However, there is some controversy over the actual number who speak Welsh. Some statistics choose to include people who have studied Welsh to at least GCSE standard, not all of whom could be regarded as fluent speakers of the language. Unlike Scottish Gaelic, which is sometimes viewed as a regional language even in Scotland itself, but like many other minoritised languages, Welsh has for a long time been strongly associated with nationalism, making it harder to get an accurate and unbiased figure for how many people speak it fluently.

Scottish Gaelic has about 60,000 speakers according to the 2001 census (roughly 1% of the population of Scotland). In Northern Ireland, about 7% of the population speak Irish Gaelic according to the 2001 census (around 110,000 speakers) and 2% regional forms of Scots according to the 1999 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey (around 30,000 speakers). Alongside British Sign Language, Irish Sign Language is also used. Cornish is spoken by roughly 3,500 people (about 0.6% of the population of Cornwall). Scots is spoken by 30% of the Scottish population according to the 1996 estimate of the General Register Office for Scotland (approximately 1.5 million speakers). British Sign Language is understood by less than 0.1% of the total population of the UK.

Further complication arises from language ability. Some low ability learners/users record themselves as speakers of various languages, while some who are (near-)fluent may choose not to, due to the stigma attached to some minority languages.

Status

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 has a statutory role in agreeing Welsh language plans with official bodies.

Kesva an Taves Kernewek, the Cornish Language Board, has local government involvement but does not enjoy statutory status.

Controversies

"Language vs Dialect"

The main subject of debate is what constitutes language and dialect; for some this is clear, but public perception is still very much divided. The criteria, even amongst linguists vary widely.

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

Recently the same has been true of Ulster Scots and Lowland Scots in Scotland, though in the political rather than the linguistic sphere, since there is almost absolute mutual intelligibility between contemporary speakers, and a common written form was current well into the 20th century.

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 being language in its own right, with a distinct grammar and vocabulary. The boundaries not always being clear cut can lead to problems in estimating numbers of speakers.

Hostility

In Northern Ireland, the use of Irish Gaelic and Ulster Scots is sometimes politically loaded, despite both having been used by all communities in the past. Also, some resent Scottish Gaelic being promoted in the Lowlands, although it was once spoken almost everywhere, an exception being the extreme south-east of the country, which was annexed from the Northumbrian earldom.

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 the 1471, 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 national tongue. Norn was also spoken at one point in Caithness, and possibly the Western Isles, apparently dying out much earlier than Shetland and Orkney. However, Gaelic replaced Norn entirely in the Western Isles; to what degree this happened in Caithness is a matter of controversy, although it was spoken in parts of the county until the 20th century.

Non-recognition

Lowland Scots within Scotland and the regional varieties of English within England receive little or no public support, and are often used for comedy purposes in British media. The dialects of Northern England share some features with Lowland Scots that those of Southern England do not.

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.

Cornish

The status of Cornish is also highly controversial. For example, it is commonly claimed in literature to be dead. Or that the entire body of speakers are 'learners', or are mostly of low proficiency.

Certainly, a number of children are being brought up to speak the language, and their Cornish may be viewed as being analogous to the position of speakers of the revived form of Hebrew. Cornish has also had problems with factionalism, which has led to some infighting.

There is some public resistance to Cornish as a 'dead language', something which also affects minority languages in areas they are no longer commonly spoken.