Beyond English: Welsh and Gaelic

Story 3 of 9

The way people speak changes a lot from one part of the UK to another. English itself has many accents and dialects: a person from Liverpool and a person from Glasgow can sound almost as if they speak different languages.

Some parts of the UK also have a language of their own:

Wales: lots of people speak Welsh. It is not a kind of English but a separate language. Children can learn it at school, and it is also taught at university.
Scotland: in parts of the Highlands and Islands, some people speak Gaelic, which is also a separate language from English.
Northern Ireland: some people speak Irish Gaelic.

A railway station sign on Anglesey in Wales, showing a very long Welsh place name — The station sign of a small village on Anglesey, in Wales. The village's Welsh name has 58 letters. Written out in full, the name is *Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch*: it is often called the longest place name in Europe, and local people just say Llanfair PG. Road signs across Wales are in both Welsh and English. Photo: Meirion / Geograph, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Quiz

In which part of the UK do some people speak Irish Gaelic?

Chapter contents: The UK Today