Languages of Wales
| Languages of Wales | |
|---|---|
| Official languages | Welsh (19%),English (99%) |
| Main immigrant languages | Urdu, Somali, Cantonese, Polish, Irish |
| Main foreign languages |
French German Italian Spanish |
| Sign languages | British Sign Language |
| Common keyboard layouts |
|
The two official languages of Wales are Welsh and English. Both languages are constituted as working languages of the National Assembly, however Welsh is further recognised in law as having "official status", making it the sole de jure official language in any part of the United Kingdom. The majority of the population of Wales is able to speak English, while Welsh is spoken by approximately one-fifth of the population.
English is widely used throughout the country and is the native language of most people in the South and the North East of the country; in the West and North, Welsh is the dominant native language. Nevertheless, there are a number of communities throughout the country to which these generalisations do not apply. For example, despite being located in the overwhelmingly English-speaking city of Swansea, 45% of Mawr's residents speak Welsh as their native language.
According to the 2011 census, Welsh is spoken by 19% of the population and English is spoken by 99% of the population.
Welsh English or Anglo-Welsh is the distinct form of English used in Wales.
Aside from lexical borrowings from Welsh like bach (little, wee), eisteddfod, nain and taid (grandmother and grandfather respectively), there exist distinctive grammatical conventions in vernacular Welsh English. Examples of this include the use by some speakers of the tag question isn't it? regardless of the form of the preceding statement and the placement of the subject and the verb after the predicate for emphasis, e.g. Fed up, I am or Running on Friday, he is
In South Wales the word "where" may often be expanded to "where to", as in the question, "Where to is your Mam?". The word "butty" is used to mean "friend" or "mate".
There is no standard variety of English that is specific to Wales, but such features are readily recognised by Anglophones from the rest of the UK as being from Wales, including the (actually rarely used) phrase look you which is a translation of a Welsh language tag
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