United Kingdom

Extensive List of Languages of United Kingdom: Spoken and Extinct Languages

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 60,270,708. National or official languages: English, Welsh, French (regional). Literacy rate: 97% to 99%. Also includes Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (5,000), Bengali (400,000), Eastern Panjabi (471,000), Estonian (14,000), Greek (200,000), Gujarati (140,000), Hakka Chinese (10,000), Hebrew (8,000), Hindi (243), Italian (200,000), Japanese (12,000), Judeo-Iraqi Arabic, Kashmiri (115,000), Kirmanjki, Latvian (12,000), Leeward Caribbean Creole English, Lithuanian, Malayalam (21,000), Maltese (40,900), Mandarin Chinese (12,000), Mirpur Panjabi (20,000), Moroccan Spoken Arabic (5,800), Northern Kurdish (23,766), Northern Pashto, Parsi (75,000), Portuguese (17,000), Seraiki, Shelta (30,000), Sindhi (25,000), Somali (1,600), Southern Pashto (87,000), Southwestern Caribbean Creole English (170,000), Sylheti (300,000), Tagalog (74,000), Ta’izzi-Adeni Spoken Arabic (29,000), Tamil, Turkish (60,000), Urdu (400,000), Vietnamese (22,000), Western Farsi (12,000), Western Panjabi (102,500), Yoruba (12,000), Yue Chinese (300,000), people from Ghana, Nigeria, Guyana, West Indies. Information mainly from I. Hancock 1974, 1984, 1986; M. Stephens 1976; R. McCrum, W. Cran, R. MacNeil 1986; B. Comrie 1987. Blind population: 116,414. Deaf population: 909,000 to 3,524,725 (1998). Deaf institutions: 468 in England, 2 in Northern Ireland, 14 in Scotland, 34 in Wales. The number of languages listed for United Kingdom is 18. Of those, 12 are living languages, 2 are second language without mother-tongue speakers, and 4 are extinct.

:: List of Languages ::

Angloromani [rme] 90,000 in Britain (1990 I. Hancock). Population total all countries: 195,000. England, Wales, Scotland. Also spoken in Australia, South Africa, USA. Alternate names: English Romani, Romani English, Romanichal, Pogadi Chib, Posh ‘N’ Posh. Dialects: Angloromani not inherently intelligible with Welsh Romani, Traveller Swedish, Traveller Norwegian, or Traveller Danish. The grammar is basically English with heavy Romani lexical borrowing. Many dialects. Classification: Mixed Language, English-Romani.

British Sign Language [bfi] 40,000 first-language users (1984 Deuchar), out of 909,000 deaf, of which the majority probably have some degree of sign language competence (1977 Deuchar). United Kingdom including Northern Ireland, Scotland. Alternate names: BSL. Dialects: Not inherently intelligible to users of American Sign Language. The deaf community is cohesive, so communication is good despite regional differences. Classification: Deaf sign language.

Cornish [cor] A number of people under 20 years of age are first-language speakers. There are 500 speakers who use Cornish, and about 100 others who speak it fluently (2003). Ethnic population: 468,425 (1991 census). Duchy of Cornwall, southwest England. A few in Canada and Australia. Alternate names: Kernowek, Kernewek, Curnoack. Dialects: Related to Breton, Welsh, Gaulish (extinct), Irish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Scots Gaelic. Classification: Indo-European, Celtic, Insular, Brythonic.

English [eng] 55,000,000 in United Kingdom (1984). 508,000,000 including second-language speakers (1999 WA). Population total all countries: 309,352,280. Also spoken in American Samoa, Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Botswana, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Cook Islands, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Finland, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guyana, Honduras, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Malaysia (Peninsular), Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Montserrat, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Pitcairn, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, USA, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Dialects: Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, West Country, East Anglia, Birmingham (Brummy, Brummie), South Wales, Edinburgh, Belfast, Cornwall, Cumberland, Central Cumberland, Devonshire, East Devonshire, Dorset, Durham, Bolton Lancashire, North Lancashire, Radcliffe Lancashire, Northumberland, Norfolk, Newcastle Northumberland, Tyneside Northumberland, Lowland Scottish, Somerset, Sussex, Westmorland, North Wiltshire, Craven Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, Sheffield Yorkshire, West Yorkshire. Lexical similarity 60% with German, 27% with French, 24% with Russian. Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, West, English.

French [fra] 14,000 in England (1976 Stephens). Channel Islands. Dialects: Jerriais, Dgernesiais. Classification: Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Gallo-Romance, Gallo-Rhaetian, Oïl, French.

Gaelic, Irish [gle] 95,000 in United Kingdom (2004). Belfast and counties of Fermanagh and Armagh, Northern Ireland. Alternate names: Irish, Erse, Gaeilge. Classification: Indo-European, Celtic, Insular, Goidelic.

Gaelic, Scottish [gla] 58,650 in United Kingdom (2003 census). Population total all countries: 62,175. North and central counties of Ross, islands of Hebrides and Skye, Glasgow. Also spoken in Australia, Canada, USA. Alternate names: Gàidhlig, Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, Albannach Gaidhlig, Erse. Dialects: East Sutherlandshire. Church Gaelic is based on the Perthshire dialect of 200 years ago, and is at a distance from spoken dialects. East Sutherlandshire dialect is so different from other spoken dialects as to be a barrier to communication. Classification: Indo-European, Celtic, Insular, Goidelic.

Polari [pld] Alternate names: Parlare, Parlary, Palarie, Palari, Parlyaree. Classification: Unclassified.

Romani, Vlax [rmy] 4,100 in United Kingdom (2004). Alternate names: Romenes, Rom, Tsigane. Dialects: Kalderash, Lovari. Classification: Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Central zone, Romani, Vlax.

Romani, Welsh [rmw] England and Wales. Dialects: Not inherently intelligible with Angloromani. Classification: Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Central zone, Romani, Northern.

Scots [sco] 100,000 in United Kingdom (1999 Billy Kay). Some population estimates are much higher. Population total all countries: 200,000. All of Scotland except highlands: lowlands: Aberdeen to Ayrshire. Northern Ireland. Also spoken in Ireland. Dialects: Insular, Northern Scots, Southern Scots, Ulster. Difficult intelligibility among dialects. Northern Scots on the Scottish Islands is considered by some to be a different language (Shetlandic or Orcadian). Lallans is the main literary dialect. Ulster Scots has its own development group. Scots is closest to English and Frisian. Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, West, English.

Traveller Scottish [trl] 4,000 in Scotland. Also spoken in Australia, USA. Alternate names: Scottish Cant, Scottish Traveller Cant. Classification: Unclassified.

Welsh [cym] 508,098 in United Kingdom (1991 census). Out of 575,102 speakers in 1971, it included 32,700 monolinguals, 542,402 bilinguals (1971 census). Population total all countries: 536,258. Northern, western, and southern Wales. Also spoken in Argentina, Canada. Alternate names: Cymraeg. Dialects: Northern Welsh, Southern Welsh, Patagonian Welsh. Classification: Indo-European, Celtic, Insular, Brythonic.

Yinglish [yib] Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, West, English.

:: List of Extinct Languages ::

Gaelic, Hiberno-Scottish [ghc] Extinct. Ireland and Scotland. Alternate names: Gaoidhealg, Hiberno-Scottish Classical Common Gaelic. Classification: Indo-European, Celtic, Insular, Goidelic.

Manx [glv] Extinct. Ethnic population: On the Isle of Man: 77,000 residents (1998 UN). Isle of Man, part of the British Isles, a Crown Dependency, with its own Parliament, laws, currency, and taxation. The United Kingdom represents the Isle of Man at the United Nations. Alternate names: Gaelg, Gailck, Manx Gaelic. Dialects: Close to Scottish Gaelic. Classification: Indo-European, Celtic, Insular, Goidelic.

Norn [nrn] Extinct. Shetland and Orkney Islands. Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, North, West Scandinavian.

Old Kentish Sign Language [okl] Extinct. Kent. Classification: Deaf sign language.

:: Reference ::

Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/