Languages

The United Kingdom does not have a constitutionally defined official language. English is the main language (being spoken monolingually by more than 70% of the UK population) and is thus the de facto official language.

The other indigenous languages are Scots (which is closely related to English) and the Insular Celtic languages (which are not). The latter fall into two groups: the P-Celtic languages (Welsh and the Cornish language); and the Q-Celtic languages (Irish and Scottish Gaelic).

Welsh is spoken by about 20% of the population of Wales, giving it around 600,000 speakers. Welsh speakers - particularly concentrated in neighbouring English counties and in London and other large cities.

Scottish Gaelic is spoken by roughly 1% of the population of Scotland. Lowland Scots is spoken by 30% of the Scottish population (approximately 1.5 million speakers).

In Northern Ireland, about 7% of the population speaks Irish and 2% regional forms of Scots. Alongside British Sign Language, Irish Sign Language is also used.

Cornish is spoken by roughly 3,500 people.

Recent immigrants, especially from the Commonwealth, speak many other languages. The United Kingdom has the largest number of Gujarati, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, and Punjabi speakers outside of Asia.

Vocabulary notes

British Sign Language - Британский язык жестов (кинетическая речь)

Celtic language – кельтский язык

Cornish language - корнуоллский, корнийский язык

Indigenous – местный, туземный

Insular – островной; мягкий (об островном типе климата); замкнутый, сдержанный; ограниченный

Monolingual – одноязычный

Scots - шотландский диалект; шотландский; относящийся к шотландскому диалект

Scottish Gaelic – шотландский гаэльский язык (язык шотландских кельтов)

Welsh language - валлийский язык