Wales Official Languages English
English is the primary official language able to be used in all situations whereas welsh only has official status in limited but significant situations as defined by legislation.
Wales official languages english. It is not easy to find reliable statistics about languages other than welsh or english because there isn t a question about them in the census. The official languages of wales welsh and english belong to us all irrespective of which one we prefer to use in our daily lives. Welsh language welsh cymraeg member of the brythonic group of the celtic languages spoken in wales modern welsh like english makes very little use of inflectional endings. Wales has two official languages english and welsh.
As welsh is one of europe s oldest languages many efforts are made by dedicated bodies and individuals to keep. The two official languages of wales are english and welsh. 2 1mb previous official languages scheme. Answer 1 of 4.
When the assembly s legislation committee scrutinised the welsh assembly government s proposals it recommended the inclusion of a clear statement that english and welsh are official languages of. The 2 official languages of wales are. Welsh and english are wales official languages but people here speak many other languages. Both languages are treated equally although english being widely spoken and is considered as the de facto language.
Within the assembly both english and welsh are working languages and the assembly. Both languages for example have equal status within the senedd welsh parliament. In most schools welsh is taught as a language and in yet others it is the medium of instruction. Annual report 2017 18 pdf.
Like two thirds of the world s population many people in wales are bilingual or multilingual. Technically both languages are categorized as working languages of the national assembly but welsh is the only one with official status. Wales has seen a bigger decline in pupils learning foreign languages than in any other part of the uk england has seen an 11 drop in the last five years while in northern ireland it was 12. The official languages scheme for the fourth assembly pdf.
The official languages scheme for the fourth assembly was formally adopted by the assembly in july 2013 and was based on the national assembly for wales official languages act 2012. They form part of our heritage our present and our future.