Vocabulary notes

Assent – согласие; одобрение, утверждение, разрешение, санкция (Royal assent — королевская санкция (одобрение монархом законопроекта))

Bishop - епископ (Anglican bishop — епископ протестантской церкви)

Chief executive - глава исполнительной власти; губернатор штата; зд. глава правительства

Codify - составлять кодекс, кодифицировать

Commonwealth of Nations - Содружество Наций

Dependency - зависимая страна, зависимая территория

Executive power – исполнительная власть

Hereditary peer - наследственный пэр

Life peer - пожизненный пэр (лицо, получившее титул барона), дающий право быть членом палаты лордов [House of Lord], но не передающийся по наследству;

Realm - государство, королевство

Abbrevations

CN - the Commonwealth of Nations

H.C. – House of Commons

H.L. - House of Lords

MP – member of parliament

PM – prime minister

Languages

The United Kingdom does not have a constitutionally defined official language. English is the main language (being spoken monolingually by more than 70% of the UK population) and is thus the de facto official language.

The other indigenous languages are Scots (which is closely related to English) and the Insular Celtic languages (which are not). The latter fall into two groups: the P-Celtic languages (Welsh and the Cornish language); and the Q-Celtic languages (Irish and Scottish Gaelic).

Welsh is spoken by about 20% of the population of Wales, giving it around 600,000 speakers. Welsh speakers - particularly concentrated in neighbouring English counties and in London and other large cities.

Scottish Gaelic is spoken by roughly 1% of the population of Scotland. Lowland Scots is spoken by 30% of the Scottish population (approximately 1.5 million speakers).

In Northern Ireland, about 7% of the population speaks Irish and 2% regional forms of Scots. Alongside British Sign Language, Irish Sign Language is also used.

Cornish is spoken by roughly 3,500 people.

Recent immigrants, especially from the Commonwealth, speak many other languages. The United Kingdom has the largest number of Gujarati, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, and Punjabi speakers outside of Asia.

Vocabulary notes

British Sign Language - Британский язык жестов (кинетическая речь)

Celtic language – кельтский язык

Cornish language - корнуоллский, корнийский язык

Indigenous – местный, туземный

Insular – островной; мягкий (об островном типе климата); замкнутый, сдержанный; ограниченный

Monolingual – одноязычный

Scots - шотландский диалект; шотландский; относящийся к шотландскому диалект

Scottish Gaelic – шотландский гаэльский язык (язык шотландских кельтов)

Welsh language - валлийский язык

Religion

Although today one of the most "secularised" states in the world, the United Kingdom is traditionally a Christian country, having official faiths:

Anglicanism, in the form of the Church of England, is the Established Church in England. The Queen is Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Presbyterianism (Church of Scotland) is the official faith in Scotland.

The Anglican Church of Wales was disestablished in 1920.

The Anglican Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1871.

Other religions followed in the UK include Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, and Buddhism.

The UK still is a predominantly Christian country. This is reflected throughout British public life – for instance there is an established church in England and a national church in Scotland. The Head of State is a Christian monarch crowned by an Archbishop in Westminster Abbey. British society could be said to belong to the Judaeo-Christian tradition, and even though only 7% of people in the UK are actually practicing Christians, the majority of people in the UK, 72%, identify themselves as Christian. Over 75 % of UK citizens consider themselves to belong to a religion.

Each of the four nations of the United Kingdom has distinctive church traditions.