Languages of the United Kingdom

Guess the living native languages of the UK, as well as the most common immigrant languages.

According to Wikipedia

Some of the native languages can be considered dialects

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Last updated: December 4, 2019

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First submitted	May 18, 2014
Times taken	37,365
Average score	50.0%
Rating	4.01

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Native Languages

English

Welsh

Scots

British Sign Language

Irish

Angloromani

Scottish Gaelic

Cornish

Shelta

Immigrant Language

Polish

Punjabi

Urdu

Bengali

Gujarati

Arabic

French

Chinese

Portuguese

Spanish

Immigrant Language

Tamil

Turkish

Italian

Somali

Lithuanian

German

Persian

Filipino

Romanian

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80 Comments

+21

Level 76

May 20, 2014

I applaud the inclusion of BSL even if I missed it completely. It's not one that easily springs to mind, but YES it should be included.

Level 74

Apr 15, 2016

Indeed! I didn't get it, but I like that its on here

Level 45

Dec 31, 2019

Perhaps include a bullet point to note that not all languages included are spoken languages?

+33

Level 81

May 30, 2014

Once again I forgot there are a bunch of Lithuanians in the UK. But I got "Shelta," whatever the heck that is, by trying to type in "Cantonese."

Level 34

May 30, 2014

Shelta is sometimes referred to as "Cant."

+14

Level 53

Jan 3, 2016

Yes, the travellers will often shout "You Cant!" at each other ;-)

Level 72

Jan 14, 2019

Interesting hadnt heared of either ! I wonder why (no sarcasm, I thought i'd add that, since that phrase is used with sarcasm more often then not. And this site does not have a shortage of sarcastic comments)

Level 82

Aug 14, 2016

I suspect that's how most people get it. It's certainly how I came to it.

Level 68

Jan 10, 2017

yep, me too. Looks like all Chinese languages are combined in this quiz. If you are going to combine Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, etc, why not also combine French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian? Also, Gujarathi really should be an acceptable type-in for Gujarati.

Level 29

Jun 14, 2017

Haha, same

Level 78

Sep 19, 2017

ditto

Level 43

Jul 7, 2024

Same

Level 85

May 30, 2014

A 2010 Scottish Government study of "public attitudes towards the Scots language" found that 64% of respondents (around 1,000 individuals being a representative sample of Scotland's adult population) "don't really think of Scots as a language", - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language.

More like a very distinct dialect.

Level 55

Jun 11, 2015

I once saw a map of Europe's languages, and was surprised to see Scots listed as a separate language, while the inhabitants of Sicily were labelled as speaking Italian. I guarantee Sicilian is more a different language to Italian than Scots is to English.

Level 60

Dec 24, 2020

Are you a Scots and Scicilian speaker? If not, how can you guarantee?

Level 44

Jan 27, 2021

a survey of the non-linguistically inclined scottish population is of less worth than the academic linguistic community which generally (but not universally) consider scots to be a separate language.

Level 21

May 11, 2022

people are surprisingly bad at categorising their own language. for example most people in jamaica consider patois a dialect of english whereas to most english people its completely incomprehensible and is considered a language by linguists. so the thoughts of scottish people , although it may seem counterintuitive, dont necessarily mean too much

Level 83

Dec 16, 2022

'A language is a dialect with an army and a navy'

Level 57

Jul 4, 2024

I raised this point on Reddit not long ago and was met with a wall of vitriol.

+12

Level 58

May 30, 2014

Manx?

Level 53

May 30, 2014

It has no native speakers, unfortunately.

Level 58

Jun 1, 2014

Which does however mean that at least we won't have to discuss whether Man is part of the UK for the purpose of this quiz.

Level 28

Dec 27, 2017

but surely the same rule should apply to BSL?

Level 80

Jul 28, 2021

Aren't deaf people native BSL speakers?

Level 73

Jun 14, 2017

No native speakers? What are you talking about? Wikipedia lists ~1,800 speakers.

Level 83

Mar 13, 2024

It lists 2,200 second language and 23 first language speakers in 2021. Only the first language ones are presumably counted under 'native speaker', and it's not impossible that when OP commented there were in fact no native speakers, although it's likely there was just a negligible amount.

Level 50

May 30, 2014

Bah, I have a friend who speaks Gujarati and it didn't even occur to me. Good quiz.

Level 78

May 30, 2014

So, I first try American Sign Language. I live in California. Then, hello, it's UK. Did get BSL after a second or two.

Level 59

May 30, 2014

Argh I kept typing Welsch instead of Welsh -_-

Level 50

May 31, 2014

I tried Punjab, but not Punjabi :D

Level 72

May 31, 2014

What about the languages of the Channel Islands? Or are they not considered to be UK?

Level 42

May 3, 2015

English is the language of the Channel Islands, though some people there also speak French; there is no indigenous language in the islands.

Level 83

Dec 16, 2022

The local varieties of French are however very distinct from Standard French. I don't believe many people speak them any more though.

Level 72

Oct 4, 2023

Not exactly. They also speak Jèrriais and Guernésiais, the indigenous varieties of Norman French.

Level 22

Jun 1, 2014

100 percent with 1:46 left

Level 44

Jun 3, 2014

Whit dae ye mean there's nae Doric

Level 51

Jun 5, 2014

What is Scots? That's like saying Brummy or Geordie?

Level 26

Sep 5, 2015

Scots or Scots Gaelic, to give it its full name, is a Celtic language spoken in Scotland. It's entirely different from an accent, like Brummy or Geordie.

+11

Level 66

Dec 20, 2015

Scots and Gaelic are completely different. Scots is more of a dialect of English, according to those of us that speak it. Gaelic is a completely different language with nothing in common with English whatsoever.

Level 56

Jun 7, 2014

So, I must still be asleep or something because I totally forgot English...

Level 33

Nov 18, 2014

Angloromany??? Nobody (except perhaps a linguist) calls it that - please, please add the usual name of Romany as an optional spelling. I tried to think of the names of the Jersey and Guernsey dialects of Norman French, but you're right to exclude then as not formally being part of the UK.

Level 39

Nov 25, 2014

I don't understand why you have put Cornish in here. By that ruling all English accents should be included.

Level 13

May 18, 2015

Cornish have their own language. It is known as 'Kernor' which is Cornish for Cornish.

Level 82

Apr 7, 2018

Yep. It did die out, but has been resurrected - few genuine native speakers even now, but it has to qualify as a native language that is spoken.

Level 71

Apr 21, 2020

Indeed, Cornish is spoken by about 0.0008 % of the population. And is not actually the first language of many of these. For comparison, native speakers of Punjabi make up nearly 0.5% of the population. In other words there are about 500 times as many native Punjabi speakers as Cornish speakers in the UK. There are about as many native Polish speakers in the UK as the entire population of Cornwall, of whom perhaps 0.1 % can speak Cornish.

Level 75

Dec 17, 2014

Where is Scouse?

Level 42

May 3, 2015

I have never heard of either Angloromani or Shelter and have lived here all my 67 years.

Level 21

May 11, 2022

shelta is the language of the irish travellers and angloromani of the british roma. it is unsurprising you've never heard of it

Level 72

Sep 22, 2015

What surprises me the most is the absence of Yoruba, as there is a lot of Nigerians in UK...

Level 33

Jan 19, 2016

Angloromani? Can't you call it Romany? No-one uses that very technical name. Romany appears in the various Oxford dictionaries, where Angloromany (or Anglo-Romany) doesn't (except perhaps in the full 20-volume OED). You could use Roma except it would catch Romanian too.

Level 63

Nov 2, 2016

I tried straight up Romani and was surprised when it wasn't accepted.

Level 82

Nov 23, 2016

I tried Romani, Romany, and Gypsy. I went and looked it up and "Angloromany" appears to be different than Romani. It is a combination of Romani and English. Learn something new everyday on Jet Punk.

Level 56

Feb 16, 2016

Like cariad, I have lived in the UK all my life and have never heard of Shelta or Angloromani. Although according to wiki, Angloromani has not been spoken in the UK since the 19th century. And if APHill wants Scouse included, I want Geordie!!

Level 47

Apr 18, 2016

Doric should be included in native languages.

Level 31

Jul 24, 2016

Any chance of accepting gaellic?

Damn it. Cant believe I didn't try it with one l

Level 73

Jul 28, 2016

Just discovered I've been misspelling Gujarati (I thought it was Gujurati for some reason). Oh well, I know for next time.

Level 40

Sep 7, 2016

ultser scots?

Level 48

Nov 23, 2016

Surprised that both 'Scots' and 'Scottish Gaelic' is listed. Surely Scouse or Geordie should be included as well?

And no Yiddish or Hebrew? There is a large and well-established jewish community in the UK.

Level 43

Feb 4, 2017

Scouse and Geordie are dialects, whereas Scots and Scottish Gaelic (which are very different, by the way) are languages.

Level 69

Jan 10, 2017

Where is Manx Gaelic? I believe there are still a few native speakers, and although there are not a considerable amount, it is undergoing a revival in local schools and has I believe around 3,000 total fluent speakers.

Level 63

Jun 22, 2017

Isle of Man, like Channel islands, is a Crown dependency, thus is not part of the UK. Otherwise, also French and Jersey and Guersney local languages should be included as UK native language.

On the other hand, in Akrothiri and Dhekelia Greek is an official language, while in Gibraltar Spanish and Llanito are also spoken, and different creoles appear in the Caribbean overseas UK territories.

Level 60

Dec 13, 2017

I think Tagalog should be accepted.

Level ∞

Dec 14, 2017

It is accepted

Level 38

Apr 7, 2018

Greek should be on here there's a huge Cypriot community in the UK

Level 44

May 4, 2018

If Scots is really a separate language as people say, why can I as a native English speaker from England understand 90% of it without a problem? It's just heavily dialected English.

Level 68

Oct 2, 2018

I think gaeilge should be accepted for Irish

Level 72

Jan 14, 2019

I agree gaeilge should be accepted. First tried that, then tried goidelic then started typing scottish something I believe, not sure it that turned scots or scottish gaelic green.

Level 73

Nov 13, 2018

This was tricky. I had no idea there were so many native living languages in the UK.

Level 72

Jan 14, 2019

after english irish scottish gaelic and welsh, ow and scots...

there were still blank spots... so I tried to remember the old tribes, so I tried saxon and picts and celtic and anglos and francs etc

Level 84

Jan 26, 2019

Of course Hindi should be there. And so should Manx, which is an official language on the Isle of man.

Level 47

Apr 7, 2019

What about American

Level 59

Jun 24, 2019

Hindi should be accepted for Urdu. It is the same language, there's just a different alphabet.

Level 57

Aug 19, 2019

Angloromani? Then also Cymroromani - there are PROBABLY more Welsh Romani than English Romani - especially still speaking any form of Romani

Level 83

Mar 13, 2024

According to Wikipedia, the Welsh Romani language went extinct in the 1960s.

Level 80

Mar 11, 2021

Surprised that Hindi isn't here. Got all but BSL and Angloromani.

Level 76

Apr 22, 2021

What about Gibberish? I hear that's pretty popular in the UK

Level 58

Jan 5, 2023

Ulster-Scots should definitely be on here.

Level 76

Feb 14, 2024

If Cornish is included then surely so should be Manx.

Level 68

May 6, 2024

I didn't try BSL but I did try Braille (which doesn't seem to be included).

Level 44

Jun 10, 2024

i'd add manx. there are no original native speakers but there are children of 2d language speakers who speak it as a 1st language, wich i'd count

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