Topic: UK population
1. Multicultural Britain
2. Social division in the UK
3. Mainstream, the English, the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish – historical outline
4. Languages of the United Kingdom
5. The class system in Britain : the upper class, the middle class, the lower or working class
6. Division of people based on income and lifestyles: Sloanes, Yuppies, Swells, Dinkies,
7. Immigration to the U.K., racial discrimination, new Citizenship Tests for Foreigners
8. Ethnic minorities: immigrants form South Asia and the Caribbean, Poles in the U.K.,
9. British names and surnames
UK population: 61,8 million – 2008/09
(The Office for National Statistics)
ethnic groups:
white 92,1%
English 83,6%
Scottish 8,6%
Welsh 4,9%
Northern Irish 2,9%
black 2%
black Caribbean 1%
black African 0,8%
black other 0,2%
Indian 1,8%
Pakistani 1,3 – 1,6 %
mixed 1,2 %
other 1,6 %
(2001 Census)
England 51,444 million
Scotland 5,17 million
Wales 2,99 million
Northern Ireland 1,78 million
Migrations to Britain
10 000 BC After the end of the last Ice Age nomads lived on the islands,
hunters, gatherers, fishermen
6 500 BC The English Channel was formed
5 000 – 3 000 BC Tribes from the Iberian peninsula came to the islands in
various waves, among them people from Africa
1 000 - 700 BC Celtic tribes began to infiltrate the islands
75 BC A new immigration of Celtic tribe of the Belgae /’belgaι/ to
Britain
55/54 BC Julius Caesar, the Roman governor of Gaul carried out a
reconnaissance mission crossing the Channel for two times
43 AD The first conquest of Britain by Emperor Claudius. The
Highlands and most of Wales remained Celtic
300 AD Germanic sea pirates repeatedly attacked the eastern
coastal regions of Britain
407 AD The retreat of the Roman legions from Britain began
449 AD The Celtic king called Saxon troops into the country for
support against Picts
5th century Angles, Jutes and Saxons arrived in Britain .The language of
these invaders formed the basis of what developed into
Modern English
793 AD The fist raids of Scandinavian Vikings
866 – 871 Danish Vikings devastated Northumbria and Mercia,
occupied East Anglia and attacked Wessex
978 – 1016 large parts of the country got lost to the Danes
1066 The Norman invasion
Scots is the Germanic language variety traditionally spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.
Since there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects, scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Scots. Although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects do exist, these often render contradictory results. Focused broad Scots is at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum, with Scottish Standard English at the other. Consequently, Scots is often regarded as one of the ancient varieties of English, but with its own distinct dialects. Alternatively Scots is sometimes treated as a distinct Germanic language, in the way Norwegian is closely linked to, yet distinct from, Danish.
After the union of Scotland and England (1707), the use of Standard English was encouraged and the use of Scots discouraged. Owing to the widespread use of Standard English in the media, some Scots now believe they are merely using slang, rather than Scots.
Scottish Gaelic (Scottish Gaelic: Gàidhlig) is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish.
The 2001 UK Census showed that a total of 58,652 (1.2% of the Scottish population aged over three years old) in Scotland had some Gaelic ability at that time, with the Outer Hebrides being the main stronghold of the language. The census results indicate a decline of 7,300 Gaelic speakers from 1991. Despite this decline, revival efforts exist and the number of younger speakers of the language has increased.
Scottish Gaelic is not an official language of the European Union, or of the United Kingdom, which does not have any de jure official languages. However, it is classed as an autochthonous language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which the UK government has ratified. In addition, the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 gave official recognition to the language and established an official language development body ‒ Bòrd na Gàidhlig.
Outside of Scotland, a dialect of the language known as Canadian Gaelic exists in Canada on Cape Breton Island and isolated areas of the Nova Scotia mainland. This variety has around 1000 speakers, amounting to 1.3% of the population of Cape Breton Island.
Welsh (Cymraeg or y Gymraeg, is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England and in the Welsh immigrant colony in the Chubut Valley in Patagonia.
The most recent figures, presented in 2004 by the Welsh Language Board, indicate 611,000 (21.7% of the population of Wales in households or communal establishments) were able to speak Welsh. This figure marks a 0.9 percentage point increase when compared with a figure of 20.8% from the 2001 Census, and an increase of approximately 35,000 in absolute numbers within Wales. Welsh is therefore a growing language within Wales. Of those 611,000 Welsh speakers, 62% claim to speak Welsh daily. This figure rises to 88% amongst those who consider themselves fluent in Welsh.
A greeting in Welsh is one of 55 languages included on the Voyager Golden Record chosen to be representative of Earth in NASA's Voyager program launched in 1977. The greetings are unique to each language, with the Welsh greeting being Iechyd da i chwi yn awr ac yn oesoedd which translates into English as "Good health to you now and forever".
See Welsh English, sometimes known as "Wenglish", for the English language as spoken in Wales. Officially, the English and Welsh languages have equal status in Wales.
Irish (Gaeilge) is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language only by a small minority of the Irish population, and as a second language by a larger minority. However, it is widely considered to be an important part of the island's culture and heritage. It enjoys constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland. It is also an official language of the European Union and an officially recognised minority language in Northern Ireland.
Irish was the predominant language of the Irish people for most of their recorded history, and they brought their Gaelic speech with them to other countries, notably Scotland and the Isle of Man where it gave rise to Scottish Gaelic and Manx. It has the oldest vernacular literature in Western Europe. However, it began to decline under British rule after the seventeenth century. The nineteenth century saw a dramatic fall in the number of speakers partly due to the Great Famine of 1845–1852 (where Ireland lost half its population either to emigration or death) and partly due to government language policies. Irish speaking areas were especially hit hard. By its end, while the language never died out, it was spoken by less than 15% of the national population. Since then, Irish speakers have been a minority except in some areas known as Gaeltachtaí (singular: Gaeltacht), and efforts have been made to preserve and promote the language.
Estimates of fully native speakers range from 40,000 to 80,000 people. In the republic, there are just over 72,000 people who use Irish as a daily language outside education, as well as a larger minority of the population who are fluent but do not use it on a daily basis. (While census figures indicate 1.66 million people in the republic with some knowledge a significant percentage of these know only a little Irish). Smaller numbers of Irish speakers exist in Britain, the United States of America and other countries.
Cornish (Kernewek or Kernowek) is a Brythonic...
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