UK, Ireland /
Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]
Manx is used on their Radio station at certain times in the day and for special occasions in their Parliament, i can't comment on everyday usage because i've honestly never met anyone from IOM!
but we get Manx Radio here in North West England
if you check out Manx Radios web feed, you can hear them ID on the hour in English & Manx.
Cumbrian seems extinct afaik
The Cornish language has developed underground long after it was officially extinct and will likely be kept alive by nationalists
cb88, not Liverpool but Manchester, Cheshire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire & Staffordshire :-)
The attractive Market town of Leek in Staffordshire has a Polish community ( i go there to buy my PL papers) and beautiful countryside that will take your breathe away, and the friendliest people i've ever met
when i bought Dziennik, the friendly English Shop assistant assumed i was Polish and greeted me in Polish.
i may as well cover all the Languages of these Islands.
Republicans/Nationalists in Northern Ireland use the Irish Language in the Northern Irish Parliment and then repeat the statement in English. the speaker of the house offered to use instant translation whereby the English speakers would receive an instant translation via headphones and the Republican speaker would use only Irish.
The Republicans rejected this because it would have made it obvious that many of their own members of parliment didn't understand what their leaders where saying in Irish!
the current system allows them to make their political point and then deliver their speech in the language their supporters really understand.
south of the border the Irish broadcaster RTE has recently begun to promote the learning of the Language and introduced Irish News broadcasts on RTE 1 & 2FM which are English for the rest of the day. a typical advert will go "have you got a spare 5 minutes?... why not practise your Irish!"
(I'd support a campaign like that to encourage the learning of Welsh in Wales & Western England)
the national 24 hour Irish Station is Radio Na Gael, during the day they broadcast traditional Irish folk mx and coverage of rural/Western Irish affairs but after 9pm they get freaky!
their late night programming is amazingly eclectic, i love to listen when we holiday in west wales
a few years ago the Radio 4 programme "The routes of Language" mentioned the fact that Indigenous Welsh Speaking Communities exist in Shropshire border towns like Oswestry, The local teacher was confused & amused by the Kids habit of scattering Welsh phrases into their English, like "oggies" for Hedges
when we drove through we did see some Welsh signs on the English side of the border, these communities can receive Welsh Broadcasting via "overspill" from Wales.
Welsh singers/songwriters & musicians have recently shot themselves in the foot, they have demanded an 10 x increase in the royalties they receive from BBC Radio Cymru, the end result? BBC Radio Cymru has reduced its broadcast day by 2 hours to cover the increased cost. So theres now less Welsh Language broadcasting at a time when the census shows that its needed more than ever! Dumb move or what?
i know less about the Scottish situation than Ireland as its further away, their Gaelic language station only broadcast a few hours a day and the station isn't as welcoming as R Cymru or R Na Gael. for some reason people all over the UK now see Gaelic language programmes on the BBC Parliament channel but not the more widely spoken Welsh.
as recently as the 70's it was possible to find Scots who knew only Gaelic, My Parents once took a boat ride with a ferryman who spoke no English
