The English language in Europe, as a native language, is mainly spoken in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Outside of these states, it has a special status in Jersey and Guernsey (two of the three Crown Dependencies), Gibraltar (one of the British Overseas Territories), Malta and Cyprus (two former British colonies). In other parts of Europe, English is spoken mainly by those who have learned it as a second language, but also, to a lesser extent, natively by expatriates from the English-speaking world.
The English language is the official language of Gibraltar and one of the official languages of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Malta, Jersey, Guernsey and the European Union.
According to a survey published in 2006 13% of EU citizens speak English as their native language. Another 38% of EU citizens state that they have sufficient skills in English to have a conversation, so the total reach of English in the EU is 51%.
Read more about English Language In Europe: History of English in England, English As Lingua Franca
Famous quotes containing the words english, language and/or europe:
“He is no mystic, either, more than Newton or Arkwright or Davy, and tolerates none. Not one obscure line, or half line, did he ever write. His meaning lies plain as the daylight.... It has the distinctness of picture to his mind, and he tells us only what he sees printed in largest English type upon the face of things.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“But as some silly young men returning from France affect a broken English, to be thought perfect in the French language; so his Lordship, I think, to seem a perfect understander of the unintelligible language of the Schoolmen, pretends an ignorance of his mother-tongue. He talks here of command and counsel as if he were no Englishman, nor knew any difference between their significations.”
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“Positively I sit here, and look at Europe sink, first one deck disappearing, then another, and the whole ship slowly plunging bow-down into the abyss; until the nightmare gets to be howling. The Roman Empire was a trifle to it.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)