Fiona a is h £t Jo Tomlinson

Joe:
Susan:
Julia:
Joe:
Julia:
Susan:
Julia:
Susan:
Joe:
Julia:
Susan:
Track 29
Stephanie: 
Right, Harry, Rob, sh a ll we get started on th is presentation fo r European Studies?
Rob: 
Well, how about if I s ta rt by talking about the ce ntral regions of Spain, where m ost people speak
Spanish?
Harry: 
Good idea. It’s im p orta nt we make it clear th a t the m ajority of the population use Spanish as
th e ir main language. Then I can introduce the Galician accent of the north-w est.
Stephanie: 
But is n 't Galician m ore of a d ia lect?
M orning, everyone! How are you?
Fine thanks, Joe.
Yeah, fine, Joe. Have you managed to do much research on our m in ority languages project?
Well, Julia, I've been having some trouble finding inform ation about the num ber of Cornish 
speakers in the UK. The records at the Office of N ational Statistics and the Cornish Language 
Council say different things, so I'm not sure who to believe.
Hm. Susan, have you got any inform ation about this?
I was looking on the governm ent's m in o rity languages w ebsite, and it says that nearly half the 
m in ority language speakers in the UK are speakers of W elsh.
Are you sure it's nearly half? I thought the num ber of Gaelic and Welsh speakers was m ore or 
less the same.
It used to be, when Gaelic was a com pulsory subject in schools. But nowadays there are few er 
speakers of Gaelic compared to Welsh. And apparently, w ith Cornish it’s d iffic u lt to know 
the exact percentage of the population who speak it because m ost people only speak it to 
interm ediate level; very few people are flu e n t speakers.
I suppose that's why the sta tistics are different. Well, I th in k we should go w ith the more 
conservative estim ate based on the num ber of flu e n t speakers.
I th in k you're right, which means that Cornish is n 't spoken by nearly as many people as the other 
languages.
Yes, I th in k th at's rig h t too. Based on flu en t speakers, that means th a t Welsh is the m ost w idely 
spoken and the num bers of Irish and Gaelic speakers are m ore or less the sam e.