Languages and nationalities

Languages

Descendants

Normans

Norman-French was the language of the ruling class, the official language of the country, while Anglo-Saxon (old English) was spoken by the majority of the oppressed native population.

The victorious Normans gradually broke their ties with France and by the 13-th century had mingled in blood and language with Anglo-Saxons and united into one nation, speaking one language, born as the result of the marriage of the two nations and two languages.

The new English (Middle English) greatly enriched and changed under the influence of Norman-French, had become the language of educated classes and the official language of the state by the end of the 13-th century.

The 14-th century poet Jeoffrey Chaucer wrote in that language.

So the British people are descendants of many peoples what reflected in the nationalities, national character and languages of the peoples, inhabiting the British Isles today.

They are English, the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish who constitute the British nation.

English is the official language of the UK.

English is used as national, state and official literary language not only by one nation, but many ones.

Together with some other world languages such as French (which is spoken in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and some developing countries)

Spanish (spoken in Spain and some Latin-American countries)

The total population of the UK is over 57 mln (57077000) people. The UK is inhabited by the English — 47112 mln people, who constitute about 83% of the total population, the Scots — 5137 mln (9,5 %), the Welsh — 2812 mln (about 5%), the Irish — 1558 mln, constituting 2,7% of the total population. Among other nationalities, inhabiting the UK, there are Gaels, Jews, Poles, Germans, Frenchmen, Italians as well as migrants from India, Pakistan and African countries.

English is the official language of the country. Besides standard literary English there are many regional and social dialects. A well-known example is the cockney of East Londoners. English is the language predominantly spoken in all the four parts of the UK.

Wales, however, is bilingual, as a result of the long struggle of the Welsh to preserve their language.

Welsh is the first language of the majority of the population in most of western counties. The Welsh language is the survival of ancient Celtic, one of Europe's oldest languages. It was banned from use by Henry VIII after the Act of Union of 1535, by which he united England and Wales under one parliament. But the language lived on in the homes and in the arts and it continued to be the language of worship. In 1847 education commissioners preparing a report for the government in West­minster visited schools in Wales. There they heard children using their native Welsh language, which they attacked as immoral and backward. From then on a campaign to stamp out the use of Welsh was rigorously pursued — often by the Welsh themselves. Pupils overheard slipping into the Welsh language were forced to wear wooden boards around their necks bearing the words «Welsh Not». The commission's report, bound between blue covers, was never really forgiven and has passes into Welsh history as the «Treason of the Blue Books*.

Only in 1967 the Welsh Language Act was passed to affirm the equal validity of Welsh with English in the administration of justice and conduct of government business through Wales. For about 550000 people Welsh is the first language, many others speak it as fluently as English.

The Celtic language still exists as Gaelic in Scotland and Ireland. In Scotland some 100000 people, mainly in the Highlands and Western coastal regions and in the Hebrides are able to speak the Scottish form of Gallic. A few families in Northern Ireland speak the Irish form of Gaelic. French is still the official language of Jersey (Channel Islands) and on the Isle of Man. It is used for ceremonial and official procedure. Both French and English are used in courts.

Дата добавления: 2015-05-26