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The British Languages

The document discusses two British languages - Welsh and Scottish Gaelic - that are now represented on British passports instead of French. It provides background information on each language, including statistics on number of speakers, the alphabet used, and their classification within the Celtic language family. Welsh has around 750,000 speakers and competes with Breton as the most widely spoken Celtic language, while Scottish Gaelic is spoken by around 58,652 people in Scotland.

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Medway08
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563 views

The British Languages

The document discusses two British languages - Welsh and Scottish Gaelic - that are now represented on British passports instead of French. It provides background information on each language, including statistics on number of speakers, the alphabet used, and their classification within the Celtic language family. Welsh has around 750,000 speakers and competes with Breton as the most widely spoken Celtic language, while Scottish Gaelic is spoken by around 58,652 people in Scotland.

Uploaded by

Medway08
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The British Languages

I am glad to report that the new 'biometric' passports issued by the British
government no longer have any French in them! Well worth the 1080 rials,
thanks!

Instead, and quite rightly, Welsh and Scottish Gaelic are the other British
languages represented.

Welsh (Cymraeg or y Gymraeg, pronounced [kəmˈrɑːɨɡ], [ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]), an


Indo-Euopean language, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken
natively in Wales (Cymru),spoken by about 750,000 people in England, along the
Welsh border, and in the Welsh immigrant colony in Argentine Patagonia.
There are also speakers of Welsh throughout the world, most notably in the rest
of Great Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia. The Welsh alphabet
has 28 letters:
a, b, c, ch, d, dd, e, f, ff, g, ng, h, i, l, ll, m, n, o, p, ph, r, rh, s, t,
th, u, w, y

Due to the increasing use of the English language the numbers of Welsh speakers
had been declining for decades. However, following a number of measures,
including the introduction of the Welsh Language Act 1993, Welsh has enjoyed a
strong revival in recent years and has an equal status with English in the
public sector in Wales. It competes with Breton (a close relative spoken in
France) as the most spoken Celtic language.

Scottish Gaelic, another Celtic language, is spoken by approx. 58,652 people in


Scotland, 1.2% of the population. It is the version of Gaelic spoken in Northern
Ireland. Gàidhlig is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. This
branch also includes the Irish and Manx languages. It is distinct from the
Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages, which includes Welsh, Cornish, and
Breton. Scottish, Manx and Irish Gaelic are all descended from Old Irish.

The language is often described as Scottish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, or Gàidhlig to


avoid confusion with the other two Goidelic languages. The modern Scottish
Gaelic alphabet has 18 letters:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U.
In Scottish English, Gaelic is pronounced [ˈgaːlɪk]; outside Scotland, it is
usually [ˈgeɪlɪk].

P O S T E D B Y M E D WAY

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