Linguistic Minorities PDF

**LINGUISTIC MINORITIES** A **[minority language]** is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are called linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally and an estimated number of approximate...

**LINGUISTIC MINORITIES** A **[minority language]** is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are called linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally and an estimated number of approximately 5,000 to 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, the vast majority of languages are minority languages in every country in which they are spoken. Some minority languages are simultaneously also official languages, such as Irish in Ireland or the numerous indigenous languages in Bolivia. Rights of linguistic minorities =============================== In 1992, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the *"Declaration on the Rights of* *Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities".* The Declaration contains a list of rights for minorities, Including, among others, the right to enjoy one's own culture without interference and the right to participate effectively in decisions at national level. States are requested to take measures in the field of education in order to encourage knowledge of the history, traditions, language and culture of minorities existing within their territories. States are also asked to implement national policies and programmes in favour of minorities. In order to tackle the problem of ethnic discrimination, in 2001 the United Nations organized the World Conference against Racism (WCAR -- Durban, South Africa 31 August to 7 September). The Conference illustrated many positive actions the States could take to eradicate all forms of racism, such as - the introduction of higher maximum penalties for racially-motivated crimes; - the promotion of public awareness campaigns intended to prevent racial discrimination and to increase tolerance; - the monitoring of hate speech; - the condemnation of any doctrine of racial superiority as scientifically false, socially unjust and dangerous. **[Languages in the United Kingdom]** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm1-9mFUfVY]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm1-9mFUfVY) The official language of the United Kingdom is English, which is spoken as the primary language of 95% of the UK population. Welsh is the second most spoken language in the United Kingdom. #### **ENGLISH** **English** is definitely not a minority language. As the official language of the UK, it has nearly 60 million speakers and is also of course the most widely-spoken language in the country. The British Isles have 13 living native languages of which two have been revived in the last 100 years, **Cornish** and **Manx.** There are the **Celtic languages of Wales, Ireland and Scotland** along with the Romance languages of the Channel Islands. Finally, there are the languages of the travelling communities of the British Isles. ***WELSH*** **The Welsh language** is officially protected by the Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998, and since 1998 it has been common, for example, for almost all British Government Departments to provide both printed documentation and official websites in both English and Welsh. Both the English and Welsh languages have equal status in Wales according to law. According to the 2001 census, about 20% of the population of Wales are able to speak Welsh, giving it around 600,000 speakers. However, there is some controversy over the actual number who speak Welsh; some statistics choose to include people who have studied Welsh to at least GCSE standard, not all of whom could be regarded as fluent speakers of the language. ***CORNISH*** Just like Welsh, Cornish is a Celtic language originating from the language of the early Britons, which is native to Cornwall in South-West England. If you go back to 1010, the census reveals that the entire population of Cornwall spoke Cornish then, but by 1800 it had all but died out. That was until 1904, when Henry Jenner wrote a book entitled A *Handbook of the Cornish Language*. This led to language rules being introduced in the 1920s, with a dictionary following in 1938. Finally, in 2002, it was recognised as a minority language by the UK, with UNESCO confirming that the term "extinct" was no longer accurate from 2010.  ***SCOTTISH GAELIC*** According to the 2001 census Scottish Gaelic has 58,652 speakers (roughly 1% of the population of Scotland). In total 92,400 people aged three and over in Scotland had some Gaelic language ability in 2001. According to a 1996 estimate of the General Register Office for Scotland, 30% of the Scottish population speak Scots (approximately 1.5 million speakers). ***IRISH*** In Northern Ireland, about 7% of the population speak Irish according to the 2001 census (around 110,000 speakers) and 2% speak Ulster Scots, seen by some as a language distinct from English and by some as a dialect of English, according to the 1999 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey (around 30,000 speakers). Alongside British Sign Language, Irish Sign Language is also used. #### **LANGUAGES OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS** Given its proximity to France, it's no surprise that the Channel Islands also [boast] (= si vantano) their own languages that are very similar to early French. In Alderney, there was **Auregnais (Norman French)**, which has unfortunately become extinct since the last native speaker died in 1960. There are, however, audio samples recorded in the 1980s which have allowed the language to be documented, at least. In Jersey, you can find **Jerriais**, a Norman language with just under 2,000 native speakers. 18% of the population of Jersey claim to be able to speak the language [to some extent] (= in parte, chi più chi meno). At present, there are a number of initiatives to try and give Jerriais an increased presence on the island. And, last but not least, **Guernesiais** is the Norman language spoken in Guernsey. Right now, there are just over a 1,000 native speakers, with 70% of these being over 65 years old. In order to revive the language, a number of children's story books have been published recently to try and get more young people speaking the language. **MANX** Although there are only 1,800 speakers of Manx on the Isle of Man, Manx is a Celtic language with the same roots as Gaelic. #### **IMMIGRANT LANGUAGES** With the UK being home to so many immigrants, it's no surprise that their culture has blended in so wonderfully with English. Among the many benefits of immigration, one of them for language lovers has to be the increase in languages spoken in the UK. Right now, the most commonly spoken languages by immigrants are **Polish, Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali, Arabic, French, Chinese**, to name just a few.