Editing North West England (section)

===Language and dialect===
The earliest known language spoken in the North West was a dialect of the [[Common Brittonic|Brythonic language]] spoken across much of Britain from at least the [[Iron Age]] up to the arrival of English in the first millennium AD. Fragments of this early language are seen in the inscriptions and place names of the Roman era. In some parts of the region, the Brythonic dialect developed into the medieval language known today as [[Cumbric]], which continued to be spoken perhaps as late as the 12th century in the north of Cumbria. This early Celtic heritage remains today in place names such as [[Carlisle, Cumbria|Carlisle]], [[Penrith, Cumbria|Penrith]] and [[Eccles, Greater Manchester|Eccles]], and many river names such as [[River Cocker, Cumbria|Cocker]], [[River Kent|Kent]] and [[River Eden, Cumbria|Eden]].

English may have been spoken in the North West from around the 7th century AD, when the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of [[Northumbria]] first appears to have made inroads west of the Pennines. The language at this time would have been the Northumbrian dialect of [[Old English]]. The high percentage of English place names in the region as a whole suggests English became almost ubiquitous over the coming centuries, particularly in the area south of the Lake District. Manchester, Liverpool, Lancaster, Blackburn and Preston are among the region's many English place names. In the 9th to the 11th centuries, Danes from the east and Norsemen from Ireland and Scotland began settling in the area. The North West is really the only area of England where Norse settlement was significant and their influence remains in the place names and dialect of the region. Elements like ''fell'', ''thwaite'' and ''tarn'', which are particularly common in Cumbria, are all Norse. The numerous Kirkbys and place names with "holm" and "dale" show the [[Scandinavia]]n influence throughout the North West.

Through the [[Middle Ages]] the dialects of the North West would have been considerably different from those spoken in the Midlands and south. It was only with the spread of literacy (particularly with the publication of the [[King James Version|King James Bible]]) that [[Standard English]] spread to the region. Even so, local dialects continued to be used and were relatively widespread until the 19th and 20th centuries.

In modern times, English is the most spoken language in the North West, with a large percentage of the population fluent in it, and close to 100% conversational in it. To the north-east of the region, within the historic boundaries of [[Cumberland]], the [[Cumbrian dialect]] is dominant. The historical county of [[Lancashire]] covered a vast amount of land, and the [[Lancashire dialect]] and accent is still predominant throughout the county, and stretches as far north as [[Furness]] in South Cumbria to parts of north [[Greater Manchester]] and [[Merseyside]] in the south of the region. The region boasts some of the most distinctive accents in the form of the [[Scouse]] accent, which originates from [[Liverpool]] and its surrounding areas, and the [[Manchester dialect|Manc]] accent, deriving from the central [[Manchester]] district. Both of these descend from the Lancashire dialect but have some distinctions from it, especially Scouse. The region's accents are among those referred to as '[[English language in Northern England|Northern English]]'.

Large immigrant populations in the North West result in the presence of significant immigrant languages. South Asian languages such as [[Urdu language|Urdu]], [[Hindi]] and [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]] are widespread, with the largest number of speakers residing in [[Preston, Lancashire|Preston]], [[Blackburn]] and Manchester. The [[British Chinese|Chinese]] once made up the largest minority in the region (as Liverpool has one of the oldest Chinese settlements in Europe), and still do to the far north where Chinese is spoken by small but significant communities. Since the enlargement of the EU, over one million [[Polish people|Poles]] have immigrated to the UK, a large number of them settling in the North West. Places such as [[Crewe]] as well as larger cities make [[Polish language|Polish]] written information available for the public, to much controversy. Other immigrant languages with a presence in the North West are Spanish, mainly amongst the [[Latin American Briton|Latin American]] communities in [[Liverpool]] and [[Manchester]],{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}} as well as various other Eastern European and Asian languages.

The most taught languages in schools across the North West are English, French and Spanish. German and Italian are available at more senior levels and, in cities such as Manchester and Liverpool, even Urdu and Mandarin are being taught to help maintain links between the local minority populations.{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}}