Languages Of Northern Ireland
The de facto official language of the United Kingdom is English (British English), which is spoken as the primary language of 95% of the UK population. The Welsh language is also an official language in Wales, and is the second most spoken language in the United Kingdom, after English. Polish is the third most-spoken in England and Wales. In addition, there are several other living languages indigenous to the territory, various regional dialects, and numerous languages spoken by recent immigrant populations and those who have learned them as second languages.
Read more about Languages Of Northern Ireland: Statistics, Status, Immigrant Languages, Norman French and Latin, Languages of The Channel Islands and Isle of Man, Languages of British Overseas Territories
Famous quotes containing the words northern ireland, languages, northern and/or ireland:
“For generations, a wide range of shooting in Northern Ireland has provided all sections of the population with a pastime which ... has occupied a great deal of leisure time. Unlike many other countries, the outstanding characteristic of the sport has been that it was not confined to any one class.”
—Northern Irish Tourist Board. quoted in New Statesman (London, Aug. 29, 1969)
“The trouble with foreign languages is, you have to think before your speak.”
—Swedish proverb, trans. by Verne Moberg.
“There exists in a great part of the Northern people a gloomy diffidence in the moral character of the government. On the broaching of this question, as general expression of despondency, of disbelief that any good will accrue from a remonstrance on an act of fraud and robbery, appeared in those men to whom we naturally turn for aid and counsel. Will the American government steal? Will it lie? Will it kill?—We ask triumphantly.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations.... They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
—Patrick Henry Pearse (1879–1916)