Urdu in the United Kingdom

Urdu is the fourth most commonly spoken language in the United Kingdom. According to the 2011 census, 269,000 people (0.5% of UK residents) listed Urdu as their main language.[1] Ethnologue reports the total number of Urdu-speakers in the UK at over 400,000.[2]

Challenges

Britain's Anglophone tradition and inheritance centralises English as the national lingua and vernacular. Radical opportunities exist however for the productive growth of minority Commonwealth migrant languages such as Urdu and Punjabi, particularly in curriculum-based education.[3]

Use in politics

When Pakistani-origin Scottish MSP Bashir Ahmad was elected to the Scottish parliament in 2007, he took his oath in both English and Urdu.[4] Queen Victoria used to write her political briefings in Urdu during her stay in India.[5]

Queen Victoria's handwritten political briefing.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "2011 Census: Quick Statistics". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "Ethnologue report for United Kingdom". Ethnologue. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  3. ↑ Marsh, David (2012). "Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). A Development Trajectory". University of Córdoba.
  4. ↑ "Scotland's first Muslim MSP dies". BBC. 6 February 2009. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  5. ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-12670110

Further reading

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