9 Languages of the British Isles

One of the frequent mistakes that students (and teachers!) make is that they conflate English literature with British literature.  While it is true that most British literature is written in the English language, the English language is just one of many languages spoken in Britain, and literature has been, and continues to be produced in all of the languages of the British Isles.  The video below gives you some sense of the rich diversity of languages spoken on the British Isles.  Keep in mind, though, that the languages represented in the video are descendants of the older languages of Britain.  Because Britain was an empire, and continues to have close connections with nations in the Common Wealth, languages from around the world are spoken by British citizens and British residents.