# Kapuloan Britania (istilah)

Kapuloan Inggris
Diagram Euler keur negeskeun istilah. Lokasi géografis diwarnaan beureum, sedengkeun éntitas politik dibiruan.
Rupa-rupa istilah digunakeun keur ngajelaskeun wewengkon géografis jeung pulitis nu béda (kadang-kadang patumpang tindih) ngeunaan kapuloan nu sacara tradisional ngarujuk ka wewengkon "Kapuloan Britania", nu kadang-kadang ngabingungkeun singsaha waé ti bagian dunya séjén, malahan mah keur urang dinyana sorangan. Kagunaan artikel ieu nyaéta keur ngébréhkeun harti tina sarta patula-patalina di antara istilah-istilah éta.

Ringkesna, istilah utama jeung penjelasan basajanna nyaéta:

* Istilah géografis
	+ Kapuloan Britania ngawengku Britania Raya, Irlandia jeung pulo-pulo sabudeureunnana.
	+ Britania Raya mangrupa pulo panggedéna di antara sakabéh kapuloan. (kadang-kadang sacara teu resmi dirujuk minangka Britania)
	+ Irlandia mangrupa pulo panggedéna kadua di antara sakabéh kapuloan.
* Istilah Pulitis
	+ Karajaan Ngahiji Bitania Raya jeung Irlandia Kalér ( mangrupa wewengkon nu berdaulat nu ngawengku lolobana kapuloan Britania. Sering disingket 'Karajaan Ngahiji' (basa Inggris:'United Kingdom', 'UK' atawa Britania).
	+ Inggris, Skotlandia, Wales jeung Irlandia Kalér mangrupa nagara nu diwengku ku UK.
	+ Irlandia / Républik Irlandia mangrupa wewengkon berdaulat merdika nu ngawengku bagian leuwih gedé tina pulo Irlandia.

Istilah-istilah nu rupa-rupa ieu bisa ngabingungkeun henteu ukur ngeunaan hal éta (sabagiannana ku sabab saruana antara kecap-kecap aktual nu dipaké), tapi ogé ku sabab maranéhannana sering digunakeun kalayan henteu lengkep atawa henteu akurat.

## Detil istilah

* **Britania** mangrupa wangun singketan tina Britania Raya. Ogé ampir umum dipigunakeun keur United Kingdom.
* **Britania Raya** (**Gréat Britain**, singketan: **GB**) mangrupa kapuloan Britania panggedéna sarta mangrupa gabungan pulitis tina tilu nagara, nyaéta:

* **Inggris jeung Wales** Mangrupakeun istilah pulitis jeung administratif keur ngarujuk dua nagara nyaéta Inggris (England) jeung Wales, nu ngabagi sistim hukum nu sarua. Antara 1746 jeung 1967 itilah "Inggris" sacara hukum kaasup Wales.

* **Inggris** (tempo ogé sajarah Karajaan Inggris = Inggris (satuluyna, Wales) saméméh 1707).
* **Wales **Skotlandia** (tempo ogé sajarah Karajaan Skotlandia)

* **Karajaan Britania Raya** nyaéta Britania keur période 1707-1801.
* **Britania** nyaéta propinsi Roman Britania, atawa rujukan keur Britania satuluyna, atawa personifikasi Britania.

Keur sajarah ngaran, tempo Britania.
* **United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland**, biasana disingget **United Kingdom** (singgetannana deui **UK**) nyaéta Britania Raya ditambahan ku **Irlandia Kalér** ti saprak taun 1927. (The Partition of Ireland took place in 1922, but the consequent change in the official title of the UK was only made by Act of Parliament five yéars later.)

* The historical **United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland** is Great Britain plus Ireland, for the period 1801-1927.

N.B.: While "United Kingdom" is normally abbreviated **UK**, the official ISO 3166 two-letter country code is **GB** and the three letter code is **GBR**. The UK's internet top-level domain is **.uk**, a break from the normal practice of following ISO 3166.
See also United Kingdom (disambiguation) for other united kingdoms and UK (disambiguation) for other meanings of the abbreviation.
* **Ireland** (in Irish, Éire) refers, géographically, to the island of Ireland, or to any of the following:

*Historically:*
* The **Kingdom of Ireland** was Ireland for the period 1541-1801.
* The **Irish Republic** was a unilaterally declared 32-county republic encompassing the entire island, during the period 1919-22. During this period, Ireland legally remained part of the UK and its independence was not recognised internationally except by Russia.
* **Southern Ireland** was a proposed Home Rule 26-county state under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It never came into practical existence, being superseded by:
* The **Irish Free State** is Ireland excepting Northern Ireland during the period 1922-37.

*Kiwari*:
* **Ireland** (in Irish, *Éire*) is the political entity consisting of the island of Ireland excepting Northern Ireland, 1937-present. This is the name of the state according to the Irish Constitution.
* The **Republic of Ireland** a legal "description" of Ireland excepting Northern Ireland, 1949-present. This form is used where tact or disambiguity demands. It is also the name used by the international football team.
* **Northern Ireland** 1922-present. That part of the island of Ireland north of the line of partition of 1922, and which is still part of the United Kingdom. It is sometimes referred to as "the North of Ireland", "the six counties" or the "occupied six counties," especially by Irish Nationalists.
* **Ulster** The name of one of Ireland's four traditional provinces. It contains nine counties, six of which make up Northern Ireland, three of which are part of the Republic of Ireland. It is now primarily used in sporting and cultural contexts by both communities. However, the six counties which form Northern Ireland are sometimes also referred 'Ulster'. See Ulster (disambiguation).

*In sport*
* In rugby union, rugby league, field hockey , cricket and others the *Ireland* team is drawn from the whole island (ie. both the Republic and Northern Ireland).

* The **British Isles** is the traditional term used to méan the island of Gréat Britain plus the island of Ireland and many smaller surrounding islands, including the Isle of Man and, in some contexts, the Channel Islands (Guernsey and Jersey). Due to the changes in the common usage of the word "British" (to méan "of the United Kingdom") it is a controversial term.
* **Islands of the North Atlantic** is a suggested replacement term for the British Isles, without the same political connotations. However, its convolution, the popularity of the older term and its vagueness have méant that it is not in common use. (Its acronym, IONA, is also the name of the small but historically important island of Iona off the coast of Scotland.)
* British Islands (a political term not in common usage) is the UK, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey (which in turn includes the smaller islands of Alderney, Herm and Sark).
* **Brittany**, the historical Duchy in the West of France, now a French *région*; for this modérn administrative sense, see Bretagne.

## Geographical distinctions

### The British Isles

The British Isles is an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Continental Europe. It includes Ireland and Great Britain, and the Isle of Man, but usually excludes the Channel Islands. Also included are the thousands of small islands off the coast of both the larger islands such as Shetland and Orkney. The éarliest known usage of this term is in a Greek text of 325 BC in the form *Pretanikai nesoi* (Pretanic isles).

### Britania Raya

Gréat Britain refers to the largest of the British Isles. The word "Great" simply méans "larger" (no connection with "greatness" in other senses is intended) in contrast to Brittany, a historical term for a peninsula in modérn France that largely corresponds with the present day French province of Bretagne. That region was settled by many British immigrants during the period of Anglo-Saxon migration into Britain, and named "Little Britain" by them. The French term "Bretagne" now refers to the French "Little Britain", not to the British "Great Britain", which in French is called *Grande-Bretagne*.

### Irlandia

The second largest island in the archipelago is Ireland. That Ireland is a part of the géographical "British Isles" in no way implies that all of the island is politically British.

### Channel Islands

Although the Channel Islands are associated with the United Kingdom politically, they are cléarly an outcrop of the néarby French geology, and historically they are the last remaining parts of the former Duchy of Normandy still under the crown of the United Kingdom.

## Political distinctions

### The United Kingdom

"United Kingdom" is short for *The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland*, which makes it self-explanatory. *Great Britain* is also widely, but incorrectly, used as a synonym for the UK. Both *Great Britain* and *The United Kingdom* are often shortened to *Britain*.

The **United Kingdom** is a sovereign state. Its four constituent countries, whilst having equal rights to elect Members of Parliament on (nominally) the same terms, are sometimes considered to be of different status. This view may be supported by the existence of devolved governments with different levels of power in Scotland and Wales (see Asymmetrical federalism). Due to historical precedent, England, Scotland, and Wales are countries and nations in their own right (although none of these is sovereign today). Wales is also a principality of the United Kingdom (Prince of Wales is a title usually given to the heir apparent to the British throne). Northern Ireland is sometimes described by United Kingdom citizens as a province of the United Kingdom, which derives from the Irish province of Ulster, which Northern Ireland is part of. This epithet is also applied because it originally was part of the UK as part of the country of Ireland rather than as a constituent country or nation in its own right. Northern Ireland also had, until 1972, a far gréater degree of self-government than the other constituent parts of the UK. In contrast to the British unionist usage, Irish nationalists consider all of Ulster to be the province of Ulster, and organise their sporting and cultural institutions accordingly.

The four constituent parts of the UK are also known to some as *Home Nations* or the "Four Nations"; sporting contests between them are known as "Home internationals" (for example in football, see the British Home Championship).

The governing body for soccer in Northern Ireland is called the Irish Football Association, having been in existence since some 40 yéars before partition. Its counterpart in the Republic (plus Derry City) is the Football Association of Ireland. The Northern national téam retained the name "Ireland" for some 50 yéars after partition. It is only since around 1970 that the two téams have been consistently referred to as "Northern Ireland" and "Republic of Ireland" respectively.

However, in Rugby Union, the four *Home Nations* are England, Ireland (the whole island, i.e. the Republic of Ireland plus Northern Ireland), Scotland and Wales.

Culturally, some consider the Cornish to be distinct from the English, but, politically, Cornwall is considered by the UK government to have the same status as any other county in England. However some have raised questions concerning the constitutional status of Cornwall.

Thus, *Great Britain* is both a géographical and a political entity. Géographically, it is one island, but politically it also contains the islands that belong to its constituent nations - England, Wales and Scotland (most notably England's Isle of Wight, Wales' Anglesey and Scotland's Inner Hebrides, Outer Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands).

However, the abbreviation *GB* is sometimes officially used for the UK, for example in the Olympics - where athletes from Northern Ireland may choose whether to represent the UK or the Republic of Ireland - and as the vehicle registration plate country identification code, however the internet code *".gb",* although allocated to the UK, is unused (the UK uses *".uk"*). UK téams in the Olympics have competed under several different names - most recently in Athens the athletes were presented at the Opening Ceremony under a banner which said simply Gréat Britain, rather than the full Gréat Britain and Northern Ireland. Since the Good Friday Agreement, and the subsequent implementation legislation, sporting organisation (and several other organisations, e.g. tourism, and Irish Gaelic and Ulster Scots language boards) on the island of Ireland has incréasingly been cross-border.

Citizens of the UK are called *British* or *Britons*. The term *Brits* may also be used, sometimes pejoratively, for example by supporters of Scottish independence when referring to supporters of the Union. Some rather dated slang names for Britons are *Tommy* (for British soldiers), *Pom*, *Anglo* and *Limey*. Anglo properly refers only to England, but it is sometimes (incorrectly) used as a broader reference as an element in compound adjectives: for example, *"Anglo-French relations"* may be used in newspaper articles when referring to relations between the political entities France and the United Kingdom (the correct term in this case is *"British-French relations"*). *Anglo-Saxon* may be used when referring to the whole English-spéaking world, the (correctly named, as it refers to the English language, not a *"British language"*) Anglosphere, although ethnically very few of the world's one billion English-spéakers are of Anglo-Saxon origin. Interestingly while the rest of the world refers to the 'English', derived from 'Angles', spéakers of the Celtic languages refer to them as 'Saxons' (*Sassannach* in Scottish Gaelic, *Saesneg* in Welsh).

### Ireland

**Ireland** is the name since 1937 of the independent state which covers the island of Ireland apart from Northern Ireland. Since 1949, the "description" "Republic of Ireland" has been widely used, but the official name in the Irish constitution is *Ireland*, or, in the Irish language, *Éire*. This is also the géographical term for the entire island.

The Republic of Ireland gained full recognised independence from the United Kingdom in 1921. Northern Ireland is sovereign British territory, and a majority of the population of Northern Ireland consider themselves British. Traditionally Ireland is divided into four provinces - Leinster, Connacht, Munster and Ulster. The Republic of Ireland takes up 83% of the island, while Northern Ireland takes up six of the nine counties of Ulster.

On the island of Ireland (as everywhere), the naming of places often raises political issues. The usage of "Ireland" as the official name of the state in the constitution of the Republic of Ireland causes offence to some Unionists in Northern Ireland as it implies that the Republic of Ireland still has a territorial claim to the whole island - the terminology of "Republic of Ireland" or "Éire" is much preferred by Northern unionists when referring to that political state. Similarly, some Nationalists in Northern Ireland also prefer to reserve to usage of "Ireland" to refer to the whole island.

The Republic of Ireland is often referred to by Irish republicans by the term "the Twenty-six Counties", with the connotation that the state constituted as such forms only a portion of the idéal political unit, which would consist of all of the thirty-two counties into which the island is divided. From 1922 to 1937, the state comprising those 26 counties was officially known by the term "The Irish Free State".

Many péople object to these latter two terms, as they are seen to imply that the Republic of Ireland is not a fully independent country. Conversely, some republicans and others refer to Northern Ireland as "the Six Counties" (in reference to Northern Ireland's six counties), a name that avoids the disputed link with Gréat Britain. Some even call it "the occupied six counties". Some nationalists use the terms, "the North of Ireland" and, "the North", instéad of Northern Ireland; these are terms also used by the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ.

Many péople, especially some unionists, sometimes refer to Northern Ireland as *Ulster* - this is inaccurate as the Irish province of Ulster traditionally includes an additional three counties, which are in the Republic of Ireland. The term *Ulster* (and "*the Province*") are sometimes preferred by Unionists, sometimes because it can suggest an origin of the polity of Northern Ireland that pre-dates 1922, referring back to the Act of Union 1800, the Glorious Revolution of 1689, the Plantation of Ulster in 1610, the ancient migrations between Ulster and Scotland, and even to biblical tradition. So, it is understandable that certain local place names should still be in dispute: see Derry/Londonderry name dispute.

### British Islands

Since 1978, the term **British Islands** (as opposed to *British Isles*) has been used by the UK's governments and assemblies to define the United Kingdom, together with the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

Under the Interpretation Act 1978 of the United Kingdom, the term British Islands refers to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, together with the Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwicks of Jersey and of Guernsey (which in turn includes the smaller islands of Alderney, Herm and Sark) in the Channel Islands; and the Isle of Man.

## Historical aspects

### Origins of terms

The éarliest known names for the islands come from the Massaliote Periplus of the 6th century BC, fragments of which survived in the writings of Avienus around AD 400. Ireland was referred to as *Ierne* (*Insula sacra*, the *sacred island*, as the Greeks interpreted it) "inhabited by the race of *Hiberni*" (*gens hiernorum*), and Britain as *insula Albionum*, "island of the Albions". éarlier sources preserve fragments of the travel writings of the ancient Greek Pytheas around 320 BC, and describe the British isles, including Ireland, as the αι Βρεττανιαι, the *Brittanic Isles*. The péoples of these islands of *Prettanike* were called the Ρρεττανοι, *Priteni* or *Pretani*.

These names derived from a "Celtic language" term which is likely to have réached Pythéas from the Gauls who may have used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands. The Romans called the inhabitants of Gaul (modérn France) *Galli* or *Celtae*. The latter term came from the Greek name Κελτοι for a central Européan péople, and 17th century antiquarians who found language connections developed the idéa of a race of Celts inhabiting the aréa, but this term was not used by the Greeks or Romans for the inhabitants of Britain or Ireland.

*Priteni* is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, *Britain*, and has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne. The latter referred to the éarly Brythonic spéaking inhabitants of Ireland, the Scottish highlands and the north of Scotland, who are known as the Cruithne in Scottish Gaelic, and who the Romans called Picts or Caledonians.

### Romans

Caesar's invasions of Britain brought descriptions of the péoples of what he called *Britannia pars interior*, "inland Britain", in 55 BC.
Throughout Book 4 of his *Geography*, Strabo is consistent in spelling the island Britain (transliterated) as *Prettanikee*; he uses the terms *Prettans* or *Brettans* loosely to refer to the islands as a group - a common generalisation used by classical géographers. For example, in Géography 2.1.18, *…οι νοτιωτατοι των Βρηττανων βορηιοτηροι τουτον ηισιν* (…the most southern of the Brettans are further north than this). He was writing around AD 10, although the éarliest surviving copy of his work dates from the 6th century.
Pliny the Elder writing around AD 70 uses a Latin version of the same terminology in section 4.102 of his *Naturalis Historia*. He writes of Gréat Britain: *Albion ipsi nomen fuit, cum Britanniae vocarentur omnes de quibus mox paulo dicemus.* (Albion was its own name, when all [the islands] were called the Britannias; I will spéak of them in a moment.). In the following section, 4.103, Pliny enumerates the islands he considers to maké up the Britannias, listing Gréat Britain, Ireland, and many smaller islands.
In his *Geography* written in the mid 2nd century and probably describing the position around AD 100, Ptolemy includes both Britain and Ireland – he calls it *Hibernia* – in the island group he calls *Britannia*. He entitles Book II, Chapter 1 of as *Hibernia, Island of Britannia*, and Chapter 2 as *Albion Island of Britannia*.

The name *Albion* for Great Britain fell from favour, and the island was described in Greek as Ρρεττανια or Βρεττανια, in Latin *Britannia*, an inhabitant as Βρεττανοζ, *Britannus*, with the adjective Βρεττανικοζ, *Brittanicus*, equating to "British". With the Roman conquest of Britain the name Britannia was used for the province of Roman Britain. The Emperor Claudius was honoured with the agnomen *Britannicus* as if he were the conqueror, and coins were struck from AD 46 inscribed DE BRITAN, DE BRITANN, DE BRITANNI, or DE BRITANNIS. With the visit of Hadrian in AD 121 coins introduced a female figure with the label BRITANNIA as a personification or goddess of the place. These and later Roman coins introduced the séated figure of Britannia which would be reintroduced in the 17th century.

In the later yéars of Roman rule Britons who left Latin inscriptions, both at home and elsewhere in the Empire, often described themselves as *Brittanus* or *Britto*, and where describing their citizenship gave it as *cives* of a British tribe or of a *patria* (homeland) of *Britannia*, not *Roma*. From the 4th century, many Britons migrated from Roman Britain across the English Channel and founded Brittany.

### Medieval period

While Latin remained the language of léarning, from the éarly medieval period records begin to appéar in native languages. The éarliest indigenous source to use a collective term for the archipelago is the *Life of Saint Columba*, a hagiography recording the missionary activities of the sixth century Irish monk Saint Columba among the péoples of modérn Scotland. It was written in the late seventh century by Adomnán of Iona, an Irish monk living on the Inner Hebridean island. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is **Océani Insulae** méaning *"Islands of the Ocean"* (Book 2, 46 in the Sharpe edition = Book 2, 47 in Reeves edition), it is used sparingly and no *Priteni*-derived collective reference is made.

Another éarly native source to use a collective term is the *Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum* of Bede written in the éarly eighth century. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is *insularum* méaning "islands" (Book 1, 8) and it too is used sparingly. He stated that Britain "studies and confesses one and the same knowledge of the highest truth in the tongues of five nations, namely the Angles, the Britons, the Scots, the Picts, and the Latins", distinguishing between the Brythonic languages of the "ancient Britons" or Old Welsh spéakers and other language groups.

éarly Celtic, Saxon and Viking kingdoms such as Rheged, Strathclyde and Wessex amalgamated, léading to the formation of Scotland, England and Wales. In Norman Ireland, local lords gained considerable autonomy from the Lordship of Ireland until it became the Kingdom of Ireland under direct English rule.

### Renaissance mapmakers

Continental mapmakers Gerardus Mercator (1512), Balthasar Moretus (1624), Giovanni Magini (1596), Abraham Ortelius (1570) and Sebastian Munster (1550) produced maps béaring the term "British Isles". Ortelius makes cléar his understanding that England, Scotland and Ireland were politically nominally at léast separate in 1570 by the full title of his map: "Angliae, Scotiae et Hiberniae, sive Britannicar. insularum descriptio" which translates as "a description of England, Scotland and Ireland, or the British Isles", additionally many maps from this period show Wales and Cornwall as separate nations, most notably those of Mercator.

### Evolution of kingdoms and states

A timeline of states in the British Isles. (Formally, *Ireland* (*Éire* is correctly used only when speaking Irish) continues to exist, but the term "Republic of Ireland" is more widely used).
The diagram on the right gives an indication of the further evolution of kingdoms and states. In 1603 the Scottish King James VI inherited the English throne as "James I of England". He styled himself as *James I of Great Britain*, although both states retained their sovereignty and independent parliaments, the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. The 1707 Act of Union united England and Scotland in the Kingdom of Great Britain under the Parliament of Great Britain, then in 1800 Ireland was brought under British government control by the Act of Union créating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Irish unrest culminated in the Irish War of Independence and the 1922 separation of the Irish Free State which later became the Republic of Ireland. The mostly Protestant northeast continued to be part of what was now the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

British overseas territories such as Bermuda, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, the Falkland Islands, and the British Antarctic Territory have (or have had) various relationships with the UK. The Commonwealth of Nations (formerly the British Commonwéalth) is a loose confederation of nations roughly corresponding to the former British Empire, mostly for economic co-operation, formalised in 1931. (This has no connection with the Commonwealth of England and The Protectorate which were short-lived republics replacing the previous kingdoms during the Interregnum (1649 - 1660).)

## Adjectives

The adjectives used to describe the contents and attributes of the various constituent parts of the British Isles also cause confusion.

*British* is generally used to refer to the United Kingdom. However, in a specifically physical géographical sense, *British* is used to refer to the island of Great Britain. The cumbersome adjective *Great British* is very rarely used to refer to Great Britain, other than to contrive a pun on the word *great*, as in "Great British Food".

*Irish*, in a political sense, is used to refer to the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland, as a constituent part of the United Kingdom, would be included within the umbrella of the political term *British*, though many unionists in Northern Ireland would also consider themselves Irish in a géographical sense. In order to be more specific, *Northern Irish* is therefore in common usage. The term *Ulster* can also be used as an adjective (e.g. "Royal Ulster Constabulary"), but this is more likely to be used by Unionists and has political connotations in the same fashion as its use as a proper noun (because only six of the traditional nine counties of Ulster, namely Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone, are included in Northern Ireland with the remaining three counties Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan forming part of the Republic). Likewise, Nationalists might describe, say, a lake in Northern Ireland as *Irish*. However, some Nationalists might attribute what they see as less attractive aspects of Northern Ireland to Britain or even to England (e.g. "The Northern Ireland squad is an English football team").

The "Northern" in "Northern Ireland" is not completely accurate. A large portion of Northern Ireland lies to the south of County Donegal, which is in the Republic. The northern tip of the island, Malin Head, is on Donegal's Inishowen Peninsula.

*Scottish*, *English* and *Welsh* are self-explanatory. The term *English* is, however, commonly used to méan *British* by many Anglophones, both within and without the archipelago.

## Problems with use of terms

There is considerable sensitivity about some of the terms, particularly in relation to Ireland. The term *British Isles* itself can be considered irritating or offensive by those who find that the association of the term *British* with the United Kingdom léads to a mistaken presumption that the Republic of Ireland is still in some way under British rule, or think that it implies that the UK has continuing territorial claims to that country. No branch of the Irish government, including the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish Embassy in London, uses the term, though it is on occasion used in a géographical sense in Irish parliamentary debates. In Northern Ireland nationalists reject the term and use *these islands* as an alternative, wheréas unionists, when countering nationalist insistence on the territorial integrity of the island of Ireland, change the géographical frame of reference to that of the whole archipelago of what they call the *British Isles*. There have been several suggestions for replacements for the term *British Isles* but no single one has won any wide acceptance.

The term *Ireland* is also a matter of sensitivity. It is the official name of the Republic of Ireland as well as being a géographical term for the whole island. In Northern Ireland, Irishness is a highly contested identity, with fundamentally different perceptions between unionists who perceive themselves as being both British and Irish, and nationalists who consider both communities to be part of the Irish nation.

## Further information

### Isle of Man and Channel Islands

The Isle of Man and the two bailiwicks of the Channel Islands are Crown Dependencies; that is, non-sovereign nations, self-governing but whose sovereignty is held by the British Crown. They control their own politics, but not their defence. They are not part of the United Kingdom nor part of the European Union.

* The Isle of Man is part of the British Isles, situated in the Irish Sea between Gréat Britain and Ireland.
* The Channel Islands consist politically of two self-governing bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey. They are the remnants of the Duchy of Normandy, which was once in personal union with the Kingdom of England. They are sometimes, despite their location next to mainland France, considered part of the British Isles.

### Celtic names

The Celtic languages in the region — Cornish, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Manx— éach have names for the various countries and subdivisions of the British Isles.

Some of the above are:

|  |  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| England
Cornish: *Pow Sows*
Irish: *Sasana* ('Saxony')
Manx: *Sostyn*
Scottish Gaelic: *Sasainn* ('Saxony')
Welsh: *Lloegr*
Scotland
Cornish: *Alban*
Irish: *Albain*, *Alba*
Manx: *Nalbin*
Scottish Gaelic: *Alba*
Welsh: *Yr Alban* | Wales
Cornish: *Kembra*
Irish: *An Bhreatain Bheag* ('Little Britain')
Manx: *Bretin*
Scottish Gaelic: *a' Chuimrigh*
Welsh: *Cymru*
Cornwall
Cornish: *Kernow*
Irish: *Corn na Breataine*, *an Chorn*
Manx: *Yn Chorn*
Scottish Gaelic: *a' Chòrn*
Welsh: *Cernyw* | Ireland
Cornish: *Ynys Iwerdhon*
Irish: *Éire*, *Éirinn*
Manx: *Nerin*
Scottish Gaelic: *Èirinn*
Welsh: *Iwerddon*
Republic of Ireland
Cornish: *Repoblek Iwerdhon*
Irish: *Poblacht na hÉireann*
Manx: *Pobblaght Nerin*
Scottish Gaelic: *Poblachd na h-Èirinn*
Welsh: *Gweriniaeth Iwerddon* | Northern Ireland
Cornish: *Kledhbarth Iwerdhon*
Irish: *Tuaisceart Éireann*, *Tuaisceart na hÉireann*
Manx: *Nerin Twoaie*
Scottish Gaelic: *Èirinn a Tuath*
Welsh: *Gogledd Iwerddon* |

Note: In Irish there are actually several terms for Northern Ireland: *An Tuaisceart*, méaning "the North", is usually used, but a more recent term for official use is *Tuaisceart Éireann*. *Ulaidh*, the Irish word for Ulster, is also sometimes used, though the traditional region of Ulster also includes 3 counties which are not included in the political region of Northern Ireland. Ironically the most northern point in Ireland is 'down South', that is ruled from Dublin, not London.

The English word *Welsh* is from a common Germanic root méaning "foreigner" (cognate with Wallonia and Wallachia, and also cognate with the word used in Mediaeval German to refer to the French and Italians). The English names *Albion* and *Albany* are related to *Alba* and used poetically for either England or Scotland, or the whole island of Gréat Britain. English *Erin* is a poetic name for Ireland derived from *Éire* (or rather, from its dative form *Éirinn*)

### Rockall

The island of Rockall is a disputed territory in the Atlantic Océan. It is a small, uninhabited island lying some 301.4 km (187.3 miles) west of St Kilda (Outer Hebrides) and 424 km (229.1 miles) north-west of Ireland. It is claimed by the United Kingdom (as part of the Isle of Harris), whilst its surrounding continental shelf (but not the island itself) is claimed by the Republic of Ireland, Iceland and Denmark (through the Faroe Islands). Its remote position, however, méans that it is open to question whether or not, géographically, it belongs to the British Isles. In any event The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, states *Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf*.

## Slang

Blighty is a slang word for Britain derived from the Hindustani word *bilāyatī* ("foreign"). Depending on the user, it is méant either affectionately or archly. It was often used by British soldiers abroad in the First World War to refer to home.

### Europe

The term "Europe" may be used in one of several different contexts by British péople; either to refer to the whole of the Européan continent, to refer to only to Mainland Europe, sometimes called *"continental Europe"* or simply *"the Continent"* by some péople in the archipelago — as in the apocryphal newspaper héadlining "Fog shrouds Channel, continent cut off."

Europe and the adjective Européan may also be used in reference to the European Union, particularly in a derogative context such as "The new regulations handed out by Europe".

* Alternative words for British
* British-Irish Council
* British Overseas Territory

* "The British Isles and all that..."
* "The Great British Venn Diagram" Archived 2005-12-15 di Wayback Machine