What Languages Are Spoken In England? (Find Out!)

English is the most common language spoken in England. Outside of immigrant populations, there is virtually no other language that is widely spoken by English born people. Immigrant populations do represent a significant portion of languages spoken, such as Polish, Punjabi and Bengali. The Celtic Cornish has been revived in recent years.

For all intents and purposes, then, the language of England is English.

Virtually anyone born and raised in England will speak English as their first language, with only immigrant populations really affecting this.

In the UK more broadly there are other languages spoken by large parts of the population, but not in England itself.

Let’s find out more.

In This Article

What are the top three languages spoken in England?

English is the most common and really the only native language used in England.

This is the one you’ll hear English people using more or less without exception.

It’s the de facto official language and the language that will be used in any kind of communication, whether that’s entertainment or more formal things like news broadcasts or in academia.

There are other indigenous languages in other parts of the UK, but not in England.

However, there are very large populations of immigrants who continue to speak their own native language in England and to whom English is a second language.

By far the most numerous of these is Polish.

There are around 700,000 people that were born in Poland that live now in the UK, with the vast majority of these living in England.

This makes Polish among the most widely spoken languages in England.

Next is Punjabi, with around 300,000 speakers living in England.

These immigrants come primarily from India and Pakistan due to historical ties with England’s colonial past.

So, the Punjabi-speaking population comprises the third most widely spoken language in England, though again it is not a native language.

So, England is like many European countries in that its linguistic diversity is fairly small.

It is a profoundly multicultural society with people from all over the world living in England, and of course these people are also part of the “native” people of England.

There is no “indigenous” population in England today as far as the standard definition goes.

Despite being a hub of immigration, the only main language spoken is English, with immigrant languages Polish and Punjabi making up the next most commonly spoken languages.

What is the main language of England?

English is the main language of England.

Outside of immigrant populations, English is the language you will hear used in just about every setting you can think of. It is the vernacular and the language that people born in the country speak.

There are strong dialectal distinctions between regions of England, but no two dialects of English are mutually unintelligible.

Interestingly, this was not the case historically, and you can look at two texts from different areas in the Middle Ages and you’ll find they were vastly different from one another.

English is also the language of government and official communications, it is used in news, media, and entertainment, and there are no other languages used in any kind of formal setting.

The only other possible example is some churches which may still hold mass in Latin, or mosques which hold Arabic rites.

However, these are not very common anymore.

So, English is the main language of England. If we are to use the word “native” while recognizing the baggage such a word carries, then English is the only such language in the country.

That said, it is not the only language used and there is one other example of an English language which is not an immigrant language.

How many languages are spoken in England?

Many languages are spoken in England by immigrant populations. Polish and Punjabi, as mentioned, are the most common.

After that, many other languages from the same area are spoken widely in England, such as Urdu, Bengali, Gujurati, as well as Arabic, French, Chinese and Portuguese.

Most of these, though, are the mother tongues of immigrants who don’t use them much outside of their family and friends.

One other example of a “native” English language still used today is the Celtic Cornish.

This was a language spoken until around the 18^th Century in the southernmost region of England in Cornwall, but which has since been revived.

However, less than 0.01% of the population know the language and none speak it as a first language.

What second language is taught in England?

A few different languages are taught in English schools as second languages.

The most common is French and this tends to be taught from around age 11.

Spanish is also a very common language taught in high schools.

German is the next most common language to be taught in English schools.

There’s not a huge amount of uptake of these languages into later stages of life and most students tend not to continue learning these languages once they leave school.

This question can get a bit confusing for non-English people as the distinction between England, Britain, Great Britain, the British Isles, the United Kingdom and so on can be more than a little misty.

England, though it may be part of wider areas, is one country, and within that one country, English is the only native language.

Many other languages are widely spoken by large immigrant populations, and Cornish has been revived, but English is the only really native language.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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