A multilingual British Isles

Have a British Isles where the celtic languages of Scotland, Ireland and Wales remain dominant in the 21st century, much like OTL continental Europe. Have Manx and Norn (the language of Orkney and Shetland) survive in the same way but have Cornish linger on until the early 20th century, akin to regional languages in France. Have English be nothing more than a second language in all these places, not unlike the Netherlands/Scandinavia in OTL. Could this have been a reality until the present day?

What affect would this have on politics in the United Kingdom? Would there even be a United Kingdom today?
 
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Why not have the Yorkshire/Lincolshire/East Anglia areas speaking an English distinct from Southern English, as it has more additions from Danish, as well. It may well have happened if there had been no Harrowing of the North. (Lancashire/Cumbria be more heavily influenced by Norse)
You would still get England and given (Southern)English propensity probably at some time a single country on the island of Great Britain.
 
Why not have the Yorkshire/Lincolshire/East Anglia areas speaking an English distinct from Southern English, as it has more additions from Danish, as well. It may well have happened if there had been no Harrowing of the North. (Lancashire/Cumbria be more heavily influenced by Norse)
You would still get England and given (Southern)English propensity probably at some time a single country on the island of Great Britain.

My linguistic situation is probably more likely though
 
How about this: Ireland unites under a single king, and the kingdom does not fall apart upon his death. Ireland is able to fend off the English invasions and starts playing politics, probably allying with France.

That would at least get you Irish Gaelic. Not sure about the others. Again, the best scenario is for all of them to remain autonomous.

Alternatively, the English do conquer, but instead of imposing their culture and language, they co-opt the locals, making them vassals. To borrow from Crusader Kings 2, we might have the King of England being the Emperor of Britain, but his vassals include the King of Scotland, the High King of Ireland, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cornwall, and the High Lord of Mann. As long as the local aristocracy speak the local language, we'll be fine.
 
I'm pretty sure the Celtic language of scotland barely ever dominated in Scotland, it was usually the Scots dialect of English.
 
I'm pretty sure the Celtic language of scotland barely ever dominated in Scotland, it was usually the Scots dialect of English.

Gaelic did dominate until the high Middle Ages when English started to expand via the burghs and thereby replaced gaelic on some of the east coast and central belt while gaelic held sway everywhere else, even in Galloway. Eventually, a highland lowland line emerged by the 16th century and gAelic remained dominant over the highlands, even Inverness. It lost ground in the highlands from the late 19th century onwards but is still spoken in the western isles.
 
There probably wouldn't be a UK in this scenario, I would think. English prevailed in Wales, Cornwall, the Scottish Highlands and Ireland because it was the language of power. If the elites and local government in those places had continued to use the indigenous languages, the languages would have remained strong. But that's hard to accomplish with them being part of an English-speaking monarchy. As London was the center of power, so the language of London became what people aspired to speak and write.

Maybe one way it could happen, without balkanizing the islands, would be if the British Isles were ruled by a foreign, absentee monarch, so that none of the local languages would become predominant. This potentially could have happened if the English kings had triumphed in the Hundred Years' War, and decided to set up their capital in Paris. Then, English would not have had the prestige it came to have - although French may have eventually taken root at the expense of the local languages instead.
 
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Gaelic did dominate until the high Middle Ages when English started to expand via the burghs and thereby replaced gaelic on some of the east coast and central belt while gaelic held sway everywhere else, even in Galloway. Eventually, a highland lowland line emerged by the 16th century and gAelic remained dominant over the highlands, even Inverness. It lost ground in the highlands from the late 19th century onwards but is still spoken in the western isles.

We should clarify that it was Scots that spread across the Lowlands in the Middle Ages. Prior to the Union of the Crowns, Scots was apparently much more distinct from English than it is today. If Elizabeth I had had children and the two kingdoms had never come under the same crown, we might think of Scots and English as separate (but similar) languages, the way we do Danish and Norwegian.
 
There probably wouldn't be a UK in this scenario, I would think. English prevailed in Wales, Cornwall, the Scottish Highlands and Ireland because it was the language of power. If the elites and local government in those places had continued to use the indigenous languages, the languages would have remained strong. But that's hard to accomplish with them being part of an English-speaking monarchy. As London was the center of power, so the language of London became what people aspired to speak and write.

Maybe one way it could happen, without balkanizing the islands, would be if the British Isles were ruled by a foreign, absentee monarch, so that none of the local languages would become predominant. This potentially could have happened if the English kings had triumphed in the Hundred Years' War, and decided to set up their capital in Paris. Then, English would not have had the prestige it came to have - although French may have eventually taken root at the expense of the local languages instead.
Irish managed to still be the majority language of Ireland not long after 1800 while welsh only became a minority language in 1900 and so language shift did not occur immediately.

My idea is that For those languages to survive, perhaps have Ireland turn Protestant during the reformation and therefore not have any English settlement, have the scottish burghs founded by the Hiberno-Norse a century earlier and in Wales have Cardiff and Swansea urbanise on domestic welsh labour. What could have saved Manx and Norn? Greater local nationalism perhaps?
 
IMHO if you keep Latin or Norman French as the language of the elite, then English is not going to become so predominant, and this is about the only way I can see it working. That way, Norman barons in Wales could later industrialise using Welsh labour, and under them the Welsh contractors, speaking Welsh, could become rich in turn.

Unreformed Catholicism, maybe due to a permanent union of the English and French crowns, something like that as the POD

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
IMHO if you keep Latin or Norman French as the language of the elite, then English is not going to become so predominant, and this is about the only way I can see it working. That way, Norman barons in Wales could later industrialise using Welsh labour, and under them the Welsh contractors, speaking Welsh, could become rich in turn.

Unreformed Catholicism, maybe due to a permanent union of the English and French crowns, something like that as the POD

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

The problem with that is that the Anglo-Normans were the ones who pushed for marginalizing Welsh and Gaelic (they're the ones who invaded those places in full, not the Anglo-Saxons). Any Norman baron who uses Welsh labor won't tolerate them speaking Welsh, they'd oblige them to use either the bastardized English of OTL or (preferably in the early days) Norman French.
 
But if all those languages had remained dominant as there continental counterparts did, (and as Irish and welsh did until the early and late nineteenth centuries respectively), and if gaelic had remained the language of all Scotland (except the Norse areas) through the Middle Ages and into the modern era, would Wales and Scotland have, like Ireland seen stronger nationalist movements earlier on.
 
Having Edward I fall on his horse and die in his teens would be a good start.

Fall off his horse, agreed. Onto pointy rocks. Covered in flesh-eating ants. That eat very slowly.

Edit: I suspect that I have just revealed myself to not be much of a fan of Longshanks.
 
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A few PODs to consider:

- James IV doesn't die at Flodden and Gaelic culture could have received royal support longer.

- Somehow avoid the Prayer Book Rebellion and Cornish could well have gone on to achieve a status like Welsh.

- Have Denmark hold onto Shetland and the Orkney's longer to save Norn.
 
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