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<html><head><title>BBC - Languages - Languages</title><style type="text/css"> #archive-mothballed-message a:hover span { text-decoration:underline; } #blq-container #archived-mothball-message a { padding-left:250px; padding-top:17px; background-position: 180px 10px; } #ttd-masthead #archived-mothball-message a { padding-left:250px; padding-top:17px; background-position: 180px 10px; } #k-masthead-container #archived-mothball-message a { padding-left:250px; padding-top:17px; background-position: 180px 10px; } #archived-mothball-message a { display:block; height:56px; background:url(/globalresources/mothball-images/i.gif) 100px 10px no-repeat; color:#666; text-decoration:none; padding-left:160px; padding-top:12px; font-size:20px; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; } </style><style type="text/css"> .bbcpageTopleftlink,a.bbcpageTopleftlink,a:link.bbcpageTopleftlink,a:hover.bbcpageTopleftlink,a:visited.bbcpageTopleftlink 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accesskey="1"><img src="/staticarchive/4ce2251c28db82aa892a105b718dba4d6a74c327.gif" width="77" height="22" alt="BBC" border="0" hspace="2" vspace="0"> Home</a></font></td><td width="295" align="right"><input type="text" id="bbcpageSearch" name="q" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" title="BBC Search" accesskey="4"></td><td width="105"><input type="submit" name="Search" value="Search" id="bbcpageSearchButton"><input type="hidden" name="uri" value="/languages/european_languages/countries/uk.shtml"></td><td width="170" align="right" class="bbcpageblue"><font size="2" id="bbcpageExplore"><a href="/go/toolbar/wlm/-/a-z/">Explore the BBC</a></font></td></tr></table></form></div><div id="archived-mothball-message" style=" background:url(/globalresources/mothball-images/bg.jpg) 0 0 repeat-x #fbfbfb; "> <a href="/globalresources/mothballing" style=" "> This page has been archived and is no longer updated. <span style=" display:block; font-size:0.5em; padding:10px 0 0 70px; font-weight:bold; "> <span style=" color:#1A75BB; margin-left:100px; ">Find out more about page archiving.</span> </span> </a> </div><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" width="100%" id="bbcpageTableTop"><tr><td class="bbcpageToplefttd" width="110"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tr><td width="8"><img src="/staticarchive/5ea3e7590d674d9be4582cc6f6c8e86070157686.gif" width="8" height="1" alt=""></td><td width="102"><img src="/staticarchive/5ea3e7590d674d9be4582cc6f6c8e86070157686.gif" width="102" height="1" alt=""><br clear="all"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="1" class="bbcpageToplefttd">14 October 2014<br></font></td></tr></table></td><td width="100%" valign="top"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="645" bgcolor="#72b8be"><tr><td><img src="/staticarchive/317496a096d6c86486a71d4521994bcd171a6bb3.gif" height="1" width="10" alt="" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0"></td> <td valign="middle"><a href="/languages/european_languages/"><img src="/staticarchive/55f40afae61117cbe2197cd6a87151b1346139a5.gif" width="500" height="70" alt="Other languages" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" align="left"></a> <a href="/languages/"><img src="/staticarchive/e2902f1b6425cacaa8b17b6d0f32e9fde39dc8a9.gif" height="70" width="120" align="right" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" alt="Languages"></a></td> </tr></table></td></tr></table><table style="margin:0px;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" align="left" id="bbcpageTableNav" width="110"><tr><td class="bbcpageCrumb" width="8"><img src="/staticarchive/5ea3e7590d674d9be4582cc6f6c8e86070157686.gif" width="8" height="1" alt=""></td><td class="bbcpageCrumb" width="100"><img src="/staticarchive/5ea3e7590d674d9be4582cc6f6c8e86070157686.gif" width="100" height="1" alt=""><br clear="all"><font face="arial, helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"><a class="bbcpageCrumb" href="/" lang="en">BBC Homepage</a><br><a href="/languages/">Languages</a><br></font></td><td width="2" class="bbcpageCrumb"><img src="/staticarchive/5ea3e7590d674d9be4582cc6f6c8e86070157686.gif" width="2" height="1" alt=""></td><td class="bbcpageGutter" valign="top" width="10" rowspan="4"><img src="/staticarchive/5ea3e7590d674d9be4582cc6f6c8e86070157686.gif" width="10" height="1" vspace="0" hspace="0" alt="" align="left"></td></tr><tr><td class="bbcpageLocal" colspan="3"><img src="/staticarchive/5ea3e7590d674d9be4582cc6f6c8e86070157686.gif" width="1" height="7" alt=""></td></tr><tr><td class="bbcpageLocal" width="8" valign="top" align="right"><font size="1">禄</font></td><td class="bbcpageLocal" valign="top"><font face="arial, helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">  <a href="/languages/european_languages/index.shtml"><b>European Languages</b></a>  <br><font face="Arial,Helvetica" size="2"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr><td><img src="/staticarchive/317496a096d6c86486a71d4521994bcd171a6bb3.gif" width="3" height="8" hspace="2" vspace="5" alt="" border="0" align="left"></td><td><font face="Arial,Helvetica" size="2"><a href="/languages/european_languages/languages/index.shtml">Languages</a></font></td></tr><tr><td><img src="/staticarchive/317496a096d6c86486a71d4521994bcd171a6bb3.gif" width="3" height="8" hspace="2" vspace="5" alt="" border="0" align="left"></td><td><font face="Arial,Helvetica" size="2"><a href="/languages/european_languages/countries/index.shtml">Countries</a></font></td></tr><tr><td><img src="/staticarchive/317496a096d6c86486a71d4521994bcd171a6bb3.gif" width="3" height="8" hspace="2" vspace="5" alt="" border="0" align="left"></td><td><font face="Arial,Helvetica" size="2"><a href="/languages/european_languages/familytree.shtml">Family Tree</a></font></td></tr><tr><td><img src="/staticarchive/317496a096d6c86486a71d4521994bcd171a6bb3.gif" width="3" height="8" hspace="2" vspace="5" alt="" border="0" align="left"></td><td><font face="Arial,Helvetica" size="2"><a href="/languages/european_languages/definitions.shtml">Definitions</a></font></td></tr><tr><td><img src="/staticarchive/317496a096d6c86486a71d4521994bcd171a6bb3.gif" width="3" height="8" hspace="2" vspace="5" alt="" border="0" align="left"></td><td><font face="Arial,Helvetica" size="2"><a href="/languages/european_languages/definitions.shtml">Sources</a></font></td></tr><tr><td><img src="/staticarchive/317496a096d6c86486a71d4521994bcd171a6bb3.gif" width="3" height="8" hspace="2" vspace="5" alt="" border="0" align="left"></td><td><font face="Arial,Helvetica" size="2"><a href="/languages/european_languages/definitions.shtml">Credits</a></font></td></tr></table></font> 聽</font></td><td class="bbcpageLocal" width="2"><img src="/staticarchive/5ea3e7590d674d9be4582cc6f6c8e86070157686.gif" width="1" height="1" alt=""></td></tr><tr><td class="bbcpageServices"><img src="/staticarchive/5ea3e7590d674d9be4582cc6f6c8e86070157686.gif" width="1" height="1" alt=""></td><td class="bbcpageServices"><hr width="50" align="left"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a class="bbcpageServices" href="/feedback/">Contact Us</a><br><br></td><td class="bbcpageServices"><img src="/staticarchive/5ea3e7590d674d9be4582cc6f6c8e86070157686.gif" width="1" height="1" alt=""></td></tr></table><table width="635" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" id="bbcpageTableContent" style="margin:0px;float:left"><tr><td><a name="startcontent" id="startcontent"></a> <table bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" border="0" align="left"><tr><td colspan="3"> <table cellpadding="8"><tr><td>  <p><font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"><b>United Kingdom</b></font> </p><p> <img src="/staticarchive/c0c3ba495a65f94081ef0b0920d213bd72ccbd2a.gif" height="180" width="300" border="0" alt="Map of the UK" hspace="5" vspace="5" align="right"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> It is estimated that over 95% of the British population are monolingual <a href="../languages/english.shtml">English</a> speakers. There are various minority Celtic languages, and speakers of these are invariably bilingual English speakers. In Scotland 1.4% speak <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library/documents6/eid_ach_gisf_index.htm" target="blank">Scottish Gaelic</a> as well as English; in Northern Ireland 6.6% of the population are bilingual in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/blas/learners/index.shtml" target="blank">Irish Gaelic</a> and English; in Wales, 21% also speak <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/storyofwelsh/" target="blank">Welsh</a>. Welsh is the only Celtic language that enjoys official status. <br><br> In Scotland, Northern Ireland and some border areas of England, <a href="/voices/multilingual/scots.shtml" target="blank">Scots</a> is a distinct minority language although at times it overlaps with Scottish English. <br><br> There are also large numbers of community languages, brought into the country and sustained by recent immigrant communities, which account for more than 5.5% of the population. The largest group (spoken by 2.7% of the total UK population) are South Asian languages such as Bengali, Punjabi, Hindi and Gujarati. Other community languages include Cantonese, <a href="../languages/italian.shtml">Italian</a>, <a href="../languages/polish.shtml">Polish</a>, <a href="../languages/greek.shtml">Greek</a> and <a href="../languages/turkish.shtml">Turkish</a>. 45% of the total ethnic minority population lives in London, but community languages are spoken throughout the United Kingdom.<br><br><a target="_blank" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/country_profiles/newsid_1038000/1038758.stm">BBC News Online country profile</a></font> <img src="/staticarchive/317496a096d6c86486a71d4521994bcd171a6bb3.gif" height="1" width="50" alt="" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="1"> The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.</font> <br><img src="/staticarchive/317496a096d6c86486a71d4521994bcd171a6bb3.gif" height="5" width="1" alt="" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0"><br></p><hr><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td align="right"><a href="/languages/european_languages/countries/index.shtml"><img src="/staticarchive/1851d5e09be30971eebb43f6f3b17c9a559e6a38.gif" width="62" height="42" border="0" alt="Countries of Europe" hspace="5" vspace="5"></a></td> <td><a href="/languages/european_languages/countries/index.shtml"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"><b>Countries</b></font></a></td> <td align="right"><a href="/languages/european_languages/languages/index.shtml"><img src="/staticarchive/f78eecc473a4bb7d44b0aca1aacd573a6d29b9e9.gif" width="62" height="42" border="0" alt="Languages of Europe" hspace="5" vspace="5"></a></td> <td><a href="/languages/european_languages/languages/index.shtml"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"><b>Languages</b></font></a></td> </tr></table></td></tr></table></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" bgcolor="#daf3f1">聽</td></tr></table></td></tr></table><br clear="all"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" lang="en" id="bbcpageTableFooter"><tr><td class="bbcpageFooterMargin" width="110"><img src="/staticarchive/5ea3e7590d674d9be4582cc6f6c8e86070157686.gif" width="110" height="1" alt=""></td><td class="bbcpageFooterGutter" width="10"><img src="/staticarchive/5ea3e7590d674d9be4582cc6f6c8e86070157686.gif" width="10" height="1" alt=""></td><td class="bbcpageFooter" width="635" align="center"><img src="/staticarchive/5ea3e7590d674d9be4582cc6f6c8e86070157686.gif" width="635" height="1" alt=""><br><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="1"><a class="bbcpageFooter" href="/info/">About the BBC</a> | <a class="bbcpageFooter" href="/help/">Help</a> | <a class="bbcpageFooter" href="/terms/">Terms of Use</a> | <a class="bbcpageFooter" href="/privacy/">Privacy & Cookies Policy</a><br>聽</font></td></tr></table><br clear="all"><script src="/staticarchive/35ace60b29010652040a536a9d224b9518ba2d1a.js" type="text/javascript"></script></body></html>