native speaker thought to have died in 1777. A revival initiated by Henry Jenner began in 1903. In 2002, the Cornish language was named as a historical regional language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The UN classes it as a critically endangered language. Principal minority language areas Welsh: North-West Wales: Percentage of speakers 69% (76% understand Welsh). Population: Gwynedd - 118,400 (2001 census) Scottish Gaelic: Outer Hebrides: Percentage of speakers 61%. Population: Na h-Eileanan Siar - 27,400 In the 2001 census, each island overall was over 50% Gaelic speaking – South Uist (71%), Harris (69%), Barra (68%), North Uist (67%), Lewis (56%) and Benbecula (56%). With 59.3% of Gaelic speakers or a total of 15,723 speakers, this made the Outer Hebrides the most strongly coherent Gaelic speaking area in Scotland. British Sign Language British Sign Language, often abbreviated to BSL, is the language of 125,000 Deaf adults, about 0.3% of the total population of the United Kingdom. It is not exclusively the language of Deaf people; many relatives of Deaf people and others can communicate in it fluently. Recognised to be a language by the UK Government on 18 March 2003, BSL has the highest number of monolingual users of any indigenous minority language in the UK. UK census Abilities in the regional languages of the UK (other than Cornish) for those aged three and above were recorded in the UK census 2011 as follows. Distribution of those who stated they could speak a regional language in the 2011 census. Note: Scale used varies for each map. Status Certain nations and regions of the UK have frameworks for the promotion of their autochthonous languages. In Wales, the Welsh Language Act 1993 requires English and Welsh to be treated equally throughout the public sector. This was further enforced through the passing of the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011. In Scotland, the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 gave the Scottish Gaelic language its first statutory basis; and the Western Isles region of Scotland has a policy to promote the language. In Northern Ireland, the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022 will “provide official recognition of the status of the Irish language” (in addition to English), with Ulster Scots as an officially recognised minority language. The UK government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of: Cornish (in Cornwall) Irish and Ulster Scots