161 tongues in London
From ROBIN CHARTERIS in London
London schoolchildren certainly know what they are talking about — in 161 different languages. Not all at once, or individually, of course, but that is the total number of languages spoken by schoolchildren in the city, says a survey by the Inner London Education Authority. Two years ago, the count was 147. One pupil in five of the 280,000 schoolchildren in London speaks a language other than" English. At 57 London schools, more than half the children converse in a different language outside school. Bengali is the most common language with 12,000 speakers, followed by Turkish (4383), Gujerati (3831), Urdu (3642), Chinese (3546), Spanish (3210), Greek (3033), Punjabi (3015), Arabic (2706),
Italian (2102), French (2030), Portuguese (1821), and Yoruba, one of the main languages of Nigeria (1120). The number of Viet-namese-speaking children has increased from 371 to 774 in two years. Those from the Philippines, who speak Tagalog, have risen from 448 to 765, while the number of youngsters from the Twi-speaking area of Ghana has gone up from 446 to 724.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19860117.2.122.11
Bibliographic details
Press, 17 January 1986, Page 20
Word Count
180161 tongues in London Press, 17 January 1986, Page 20
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in