Things you might not know about the languages spoken in the UK

How much do you know about the languages spoken in the UK?

You might think the answer is simple: English, of course! But the UK is much more linguistically diverse than you might think! ​

Before we start, a quick note about what I mean by “the UK”: the United Kingdom is made up of four countries – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

1. English isn’t the only language spoken in the UK.

English is the most widely used language. Around 98% of people in the UK can speak English, and for most people, it's their first language.

But English is not the only language you’ll hear in the UK. There are millions of people who speak it as a second or additional language. 

2. There are several other native languages.

These include Welsh, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, and Cornish. Most people who speak these languages also speak English.

Some of these languages are only spoken by a small number of people. Today, there are many campaigns and projects helping to keep these languages alive for future generations. 

3. About a quarter of the people living in Wales can speak Welsh.

In the 2021 census, about 18% of Welsh people said they could speak Welsh and 25% of people said they had some skills in Welsh. (There are about 3.2 million people living in Wales.)

There are Welsh-language TV and radio programmes as well as English-language ones. Many signs and documents are written in both Welsh and English. And Welsh has been a compulsory subject for children at school since 1990.

4. Scotland has two native languages besides English: Scots and Scottish Gaelic.

Scots is a Germanic language closely related to English. At least 30% of people in Scotland have some knowledge of Scots. Scottish Gaelic is related to Irish and is spoken by a much smaller number of people, around 2%.

5. British Sign Language is a language too.

British Sign Language (BSL) is used by many people in the Deaf community. It’s not just “English with your hands”. It has its own vocabulary and grammar.

There are around 150,000 users of BSL in the UK. More than half of users are Deaf, but there are also family members, interpreters and teachers who use it.

Another interesting thing is that BSL is completely different from American Sign Language (ASL), with its own signs and even a different alphabet.

6. There are also lots of languages brought here by people from around the world.

In the 2021 census, over 4 million people (about 6% of the population) said that English wasn't their main language. 

Over 600,000 people speak Polish as their first language. Other languages include Romanian, Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic and more. A lot of people who speak these languages are bilingual and speak English as well. 

7. The UK is a multicultural and multi-ethnic country.

Not everyone who speaks English as a first language is white, and not everyone who is British is white. People of many different ethnic backgrounds are born and grow up here, and many speak English as their first language.

You can't tell whether someone is British or not – or what their first language is – just by looking at them. 

8. Some British children grow up bilingual.

For example, children in Wales might grow up speaking English and Welsh. Or children whose parents moved to the UK might speak their parents’ language at home but speak English at school.  

9. London is one of the most multilingual parts of the UK.

In the 2021 census, 78.4% of people in London said English was their main language. This is the lowest percentage of any English region.

10. There isn’t one British English accent.

In fact, there are lots of different English accents in the UK. A person from Nottingham can sound very different from someone from Liverpool, Birmingham, or London. And there are even more different accents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

There are lots of websites that tell you how many accents there are, but it's actually impossible to give a precise number. Accents can change gradually, even from one town to the next. 

11. The accent that people outside the UK often think of as “the British accent” is not as common as you think.

The accent you might be most familiar with from learning English at school – or from watching Downton Abbey – is called Received Pronunciation (or RP).

In the past, RP was considered to be the “standard” accent and a sign of a good education. But relatively few people actually speak it nowadays. More people have a regional accent instead.

Attitudes towards accents are changing too. Having a regional accent isn't generally seen as a sign that someone is less educated nowadays.

12. There are different dialects too.

A dialect is a different variety of a language spoken in a particular region or community. It’s more than just a different accent. Some words in a dialect are different from standard English, and there can even be differences in grammar.

Mostly, people who speak one dialect will still understand people who speak another. The differences aren’t so huge. But it might take a little while to “tune in” and understand everything.

Some famous dialects in the UK are Geordie (in Newcastle) and Cockney (in East London).

13. There isn’t just one correct way to speak English.

When people talk about “Standard English”, they often mean the kind of English traditionally used in formal situations, education and broadcasting.

But there isn't just one correct way to speak English. The different dialects and accents already mentioned are all legitimate varieties of English. In fact, you can hear a much wider range of accents and varieties on the BBC nowadays.

And unlike some languages, English doesn't have an official organisation that decides what is and isn't “correct” English.

14. British English is not the original English.

Some people say they prefer British English because it's the original English. But British English has changed enormously over the last few hundred years. If you try to read some Shakespeare, you’ll soon see how different English was 400 years ago.

British settlers took English to North America and the language has continued to evolve since then, on both sides of the Atlantic. That's why British and American English are different today.

But it doesn't really make sense to say that British English is older than American English, or that British English is “the original English”. Both varieties have changed a lot over the years.

15. British people learn second languages.

A lot of people think that we don’t learn other languages in the UK. People in other countries can speak English so why bother to learn a second language, right?! Well, maybe some people have that attitude but not everyone!

In the UK, children learn another language for all or some of their years at school. In England, it’s compulsory to learn a second language from the age of 7 to 14, and some pupils choose to continue after that. The languages most commonly taught are French and Spanish. The rules are slightly different in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Many adults enjoy learning another language as a hobby. People can attend evening classes or teach themselves. Duolingo has made language learning popular again! 

It’s probably true that we’re not as good at languages here as people in some countries but the stereotype isn’t true for everyone.

So which of these facts surprised you most?


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