Languages and dialects in

UK

Toichueva Meerim
 Languages in UK

English is far from the only language

people in the United Kingdom
speak. In fact, English isn’t the only
indigenous language spoken in the
UK – there are quite a few more.
And we can add to those a large
number of foreign languages
spoken by the diverse population in
the UK.
 Wales - Welsh (Welsh)

Welsh is spoken by a large proportion of the

population of Wales. It is a Brittonic language of
the Celtic language family. Between 19% and 30%
of the population of Wales can communicate in it,
and Welsh can be found in all government
documents and on road signs in Wales.

How many people speak it: between 19% and 30%

of the population

In Wales, Welsh is the of cial language alongside

English. It is considered the most vibrant of the
Celtic languages in terms of active speakers and is
not considered endangered
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Scottish language

• Languages in Scotland

• * Scottish language (Gaelic or Celtic)

• English is historically the native language in England

and most of Scotland. All Scots today, of course, speak
English. But some are native speakers of Scottish
Gaelic.

• This is a Celtic language spoken mainly in the far

northwest of Scotland and the Hebridean Islands. The
speakers of the language are the Celtic Gaelic people.

• Scottish Gaelic is derived from Old Irish.

Irish-Northern Ireland

• Irish, also known as Gaelic (Gaeilge), is one of the of cial

languages of Ireland, but it also has historical ties to
Northern Ireland.

• In the UK and Northern Ireland, Irish is taught in some

schools and there is an effort to preserve and promote it.
This includes training programs, cultural events and
public initiatives to support the Irish language and
culture.

• It should be noted that English and Welsh (in Wales)

remain the most widely spoken languages in Northern
Ireland and the UK,
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Dialects in Britain

The best known modern

dialects of the UK are
Standardized, Cockney,
Scouse, Geordie, Estuary
English, Pitmatic, Makem
and Brummie. There are
others, but they are less
common and less distinct
from each other.
• Standardized British dialect

• British dialect is the common English language

of the United Kingdom, which is distinct from
regional dialects. It is based on dialects from
the southern parts of England, but is now
spoken in many cities and regions, including
London.

• It is the standard British dialect that is meant

when British and American variants of English
are compared. Other dialects such as Cockney,
Scouse, and Geordie are also compared to it.
Cockney is very popular only in London and the UK, even outside
the UK. Cockney has many sounds: they pronounce the letter
combination th as f or v, skip the h at the beginning of words and
the t at the end, and soften the l. In grammar the main differences
from standard British: me instead of my and the abbreviation ain't
instead of am, is, are not.

And the main feature of Cockney is rhyming slang. This is a unique

phenomenon: some words in speech are replaced by
abbreviations from stable phrases that rhyme with these words. It
turns out a kind of phonetic cipher, which people unfamiliar with
the dialect can not unravel. Here are some examples:

Talk - rabbit: talk rhymes with rabbit and pork (rabbit and pork)

Head - loaf: head rhymes with loaf of bread.

Phone - dog: phone rhymes with dog and bone.

For example: Wait a sec, my dog's ringing! - Wait a sec, my

phone's ringing.
Estuary English

• Estuary English is referred to as the language of

youth or informal English.

• Estuary English has a lot in common with the

Cockney dialect

• They swallow vowel sounds. And in some words they

replace the l sound with w: tall sounds like tow.

• The most characteristic features of Estuary English

vocabulary are cheers as "thank you" and mate
instead of friend.
Scouse

The Scouse dialect, unlike other North English dialects, is

characterized by a strong accentuation and intonation of speech.
During the conversation of Liverpudlians can be replaced by
signi cant changes in the tone of voice - a sudden rise or fall.

Some sounds scousers pronounce in their own way. For example,

the word look sounds like luck, and took sounds like tuck

Irish in uence is noticeable in the Scouse vocabulary. For example,

instead of my, Liverpudlians say me:

This is me car. - This is my car.

And instead of you, you can often hear the variants yous, youse or
use. In Scouse, the words sound and boss are synonyms for good.
The expression give us is often shortened to giz. And the phrasal
verb made up has a completely unexpected meaning: it is the
adjective "joyful, happy". For example:

I'm made up I met you. - I'm glad I met you.

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