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The various terms used to describe the different (and sometimes overlapping) geographical and political areas of the islands traditionally referred to collectively as the British Isles are often a source of confusion for people from other parts of the world, and even for the inhabitants of those islands themselves. The purpose of this article is to explain the meanings of and inter-relationships among those terms.

The terms with technical meanings are:

  • United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the official name for one of the two sovereign states of the British Isles
  • United Kingdom is a shortening of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In historical contexts, it is used as a shortening of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which existed between 1801 and 1922.
  • Great Britain (as a geographical term) is the largest and most populous island of the archipelago.
  • Great Britain (as a political term) consists of England, Scotland and Wales, and includes those politically-integrated islands (e.g. the Isles of Scilly and Shetland). It is also the name of the kingdom that existed in this same limits from 1707 to 1801. It is sometimes incorrectly used to mean the United Kingdom.
    • England and Wales Is a political and administrative term referring to the two home countries of England and Wales, which share the same legal system. Between 1746 and 1967 the term "England" did legally include Wales.
  • Britain in its modern usage is the usual short form for Great Britain and also for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (or, in historical contexts, for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland).
  • British in its modern usage is an adjective for Britain (with the same ambiguity). Also the official term for citizenship of the United Kingdom; i.e. someone who is a citizen of the United Kingdom is officially called a British Citizen.
  • Éire (pronounced AIR-a) is the Irish name for the island or country of Ireland, from which the English name, 'Ireland', derives. The 1937 constitution of the political entity usually referred to as the Republic of Ireland, states that the name of the state is Ireland or Éire in Irish and this is still in force. In 1949 the Irish Parliament passed the Republic Of Ireland Act which does not change the name of the state but merely indicated that the state would be "described" as a republic
  • Ireland (as a political term) is the Republic of Ireland, the other sovereign state in the archipelago. Historically Ireland can refer to the land which became the Lordship of Ireland in 1171, and the Kingdom of Ireland from 1541 to 1801, and as a separate administrative unit within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland between 1801 and 1922.
  • Ireland (as a geographical term) is the second largest island in the archipelago; sometimes also the island of Ireland to distinguish from the political unit.
  • The Republic of Ireland is a sovereign state consisting of most of the island of Ireland. It became independent of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1922 under the name the Irish Free State, changed its name to Éire from 1937 to 1949, and became the Republic of Ireland in 1949.
  • Northern Ireland is that part of the island of Ireland which remained part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland after the Irish Free State gained independence in 1922.
  • Irish is the first official language of the Republic of Ireland; it is also the official term for citizenship of the Republic of Ireland, and an adjective for the island of Ireland.

These various terms can be confusing not only in themselves (partly owing to the similarity between some of the actual words used), but also because they are often used loosely or inaccurately.

Terminology in detail

On the history of the name, see Britain.
  • The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, usually shortened to the United Kingdom (abbreviation UK) = Great Britain + Northern Ireland since 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 years later.)
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, geographically, to the island of Ireland, or to any of the following:

Historically:
Present:
  • Ireland (in Irish, Éire) = 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 = may be either a synonym for Northern Ireland, or may refer to a larger area in the northern part of the island of Ireland i.e. the province of Ulster which includes the 6 counties of Northern Ireland as well as 3 counties of the Republic of Ireland and primarily used in sporting contexts. See Ulster (disambiguation).
In sport
  • In Rugby Union, the Ireland team is drawn from the whole island.
    • The British Isles = the traditional term used to mean the island of Great Britain + the island of Ireland + 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 mean "of the United Kingdom") it is a controversial term.
  • Islands of the North Atlantic = 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 meant 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) = 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 modern 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. This term dates to usage in a Greek text of 325 BC in the form Pretanikai nesoi (Pretanic isles).

    Great Britain

    Great Britain refers to the largest of the British Isles. The word "Great" simply means "larger" (no connection with "greatness" in other senses is intended) in contrast to Brittany, a historical term for a peninsula in modern France that largely corresponds with the present day French province of Bretagne. That region was settled by Brythons (from Cornwall) around 500, fleeing from the Anglo-Saxons, 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.

    Ireland

    The second largest island in the archipelago is Ireland. That Ireland is a part of the geographical "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 clearly an outcrop of the nearby 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 (the heir to the British throne is usually the Prince of Wales). Northern Ireland is often described as a province of the United Kingdom, and sometimes called "the province", rather than a constituent country or nation, because it originally did not join the Union alone but with the whole of the island of Ireland; Northern Ireland also had, until 1972, a far greater degree of self-government than the other constituent parts of the UK.

    The four constituent parts of the UK are also known to some as Home 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 years before partition. Its counterpart in the Republic (plus Derry City) is the Football Association of Ireland. The Northern national team retained the name "Ireland" for some 50 years after partition. It is only since around 1970 that the two teams 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 geographical and a political entity. Geographically, 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 teams 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 Great Britain, rather than the full Great 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 increasingly 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-speaking 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-speakers are of Anglo-Saxon origin.

    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 geographical term for the entire island.

    The Republic of Ireland gained full recognised independence from the United Kingdom in 1921. Northern Ireland is sovereign British territiory, 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 ideal 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 people 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 Great Britain. Some even call it "the occupied six counties". Some nationalists use the terms, "the North of Ireland" and, "the North", instead of Northern Ireland; these are terms also used by the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ.

    Many people, especially some unionists, sometimes refer to Northern Ireland as Ulster - this is slighlty 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

    Origin of the term British Isles

    In classical times, The prefix "Brit-" implied the Cruithne peoples and was used when describing the whole archipelago of islands. Native sources used oceani insulae meaning "islands of the ocean" or insularum meaning "islands". The phrase British Isles only appears in the English language from the 17th Century onwards but has gained common usage within the United Kingdom.Collins Paperback Encyclopedia, ISBN 0004708653 In the 18th century the term Celt was coined linking the Cruithne with continentals who had also spoken Celtic languages and with the surviving Celtic nations.

    Classical geographers

    The inhabitants of Great Britain in classical times were called the Priteni or Pretani by classical writers of geographies, who named it after these inhabitants, using a transliteration into their own language such as Latin (e.g. Bretannae) or Greek (e.g. Βρηττανων). Irene was the word they used for the island of Ireland, after the Érainn of its southern coasts.

    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 geographers. For example, in Geography 2.1.18, …οι νοτιωτατοι των Βρηττανων βορηιοτηροι τουτον ηισιν (…the most southern of the Brettans are further north than this)Translation by Roseman, op.cit.. He was writing around AD 10, although the earliest 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 Great Britain: Albion ipsi nomen fuit, cum Britanniae vocarentur omnes de quibus mox paulo dicemus. (Albion was its own name, when all islands were called the Britannias; I will speak of them in a moment.). In the following section, 4.103, Pliny enumerates the islands he considers to make up the Britannias, listing Great Britain, Ireland, and many smaller islands.

    Ptolemy includes Ireland — he calls it Hibernia — in the island group he calls Britannia. He entitles Book II, Chapter 1 of his Geography as Hibernia, Island of Britannia.

    Native sources

    The early surviving discussion of the geography is almost exclusively in classical languages. The "British Isles" terminology is found in modern English only in documents written after the Reformation in England, the earliest quotation of "British Isles" given by the Oxford English Dictionary is in 1621.Definition of British Isles: OED online, The Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 26 June 2006.

    The earliest 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 peoples of modern 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 Oceani Insulae meaning "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 early native source to use a collective term is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum of Bede written in the early eighth century. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is insularum meaning "islands" (Book 1, 8) and it too is used sparingly.

    Renaissance mapmakers

    Continental mapmakers Gerardus Mercator (1512), Balthasar Moretus (1624), Giovanni Magini (1596), Abraham Ortelius (1570) and Sebastian Munster (1550) produced maps bearing the term "British Isles". Ortelius makes clear his understanding that England, Scotland and Ireland were politically nominally at least 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.

    The Greeks called the British Isles Pretaniké and the Romans initially called Great Britain Britannias or Alba, and they called Ireland and other smaller islands Britanniae. After the successful invasion of CE 41 they called their province on the island of Great Britain Britannia (which province eventually covered roughly the same area as present-day England and Wales). The Romans then named Scotland Caledonia and Ireland Hibernia to differentiate them from the land that had been conquered — they never conquered either.

    The diagram on the right gives an indication of the evolution of kingdoms in the British Isles. Earlier, unmarked kingdoms are the more difficult to define Celtic, Saxon and Viking kingdoms such as Rheged, Strathclyde and Wessex.

    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, even though there was not a state called the Kingdom of Great Britain until 1707), although both states retained their independent parliaments and sovereignty, see Parliament of Scotland and Parliament of England. Scottish histories often refer to this monarch as James VI and I (James the Sixth and First), while conversely English historians may refer to the same monarch as James I and VI (James the First and Sixth). Many Scots (and not just nationalists) were upset in 1953, when at the coronation of the present monarch, Elizabeth Windsor, she gained the title Elizabeth II, when in fact neither the former Kingdom of Scotland (c843–1707), nor its successors the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707-1801) and the current United Kingdom (1801–present day), ever had an Elizabeth I. The former Kingdom of England (927–1707), however, had a monarch titled Elizabeth I. The current rule is that the monarch's number is the higher of the two that he or she would have if England and Scotland remained separate; see List of regnal numerals of future British monarchs. Therefore, were there to be another King James, he would be King James VIII, not III (following James VII of Scotland and II of England.)

    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 Commonwealth) is a loose confederation of nations roughly corresponding to the former British Empire, mostly for economic co-operation, formalised in 1931. (The Commonwealth of England and The Protectorate have nothing to do with this and 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 geographical 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 geographical 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 and completely incorrectly used to mean British by many Anglophones, both within and without the archipelago.

    Problems with use of 'British Isles'

    Although the terms's origins are believed to have been geographical and ecological rather than political, the fact that the British Isles in general coincided with the former United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801—1922) meant that the term developed geopolitical, economic and cultural meanings also.For example, Kathleen Burk The British Isles Since 1945 (Short Oxford History of the British Isles) (Oxford University Press, 2003) 0199248389; Britannia.com, which describes itself as "American's Gateway to the British Isles since 1996" and covers government, parliament, the law, the monarchy, the media and other topics. The division of the former United Kingdom into two states in 1922, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,Though the Irish Free State exited the former United Kingdom in 1922, the name of the new United Kingdom was not changed until 1927. and the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) complicated usage of the term British Isles, with the new Irish state viewing itself as having left the British Isles as a cultural and political identity also. No branch of the Irish government, including the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish Embassy in London, uses the term."Written Answers - Official Terms", Dáil Éireann - Volume 606 - 28 September, 2005. In his response, the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs added that "Our officials in the Embassy of Ireland, London, continue to monitor the media in Britain for any abuse of the official terms as set out in the Constitution of Ireland and in legislation. These include the name of the State, the President, Taoiseach and others." However, many public bodies still use the term,Two Irish-based or partially-based institutions which date from the former United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland retain references to the "British Isles". Due mainly to administrative convenience, neither the Commissioners for Irish Lights nor the Royal National Lifeboat Institution were passed from United Kingdom to Irish control at independence. Both exist in effect as shared British-Irish institutions and are referred to as "British Isles" institutions. though others regard references to it still being part of the British Isles as controversial and sometimes offensive.Norman Davies, The Isles: A History. p.xxii."Irish Genealogical Sources No. 25 - History of the Royal Hibernian Military School, Dublin" uses the term "then British Isles" to refer to Ireland's relationship association with it prior to 1922.As evidenced by the complaints received by the readers' editor of a major British newspaper: Ian Mayes, "Where are we?", The Guardian'', August 11, 2001. Despite this, Irish opinion is certainly divided on the issue, and government ministers will use the term freely in speeches.For example Síle de Valera, Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, at the official opening of a theatrical festival in 2002, as reported on the Irish government website.

    In the Republic of Ireland it is often assumed that the term British Isles does not include the Republic of Ireland itself Reform of Irish Insurance Market: Presentation: Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business. Retrieved 25 June 2006.Scoping Study to assess the status of Irelands tide gauge infrastructure and outline current and future requirements, Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, University College Cork. Retrieved 25 June 2006. moreover, it is also sometimes assumed that the term does not include the Republic of Ireland in British usage;The British Isles: The British Isles website. Retrieved 25 June 2006. British Isles and Ireland, BBC Schools, Music, World Music Website. Retrieved 25 June 2006. and Manx Isle of Man Tourism: Tourism website. Retrieved 25 June 2006. hence the occasional use of the phrase '"British Isles and Ireland".

    Thus the term British Isles may cause offence to those who interpret it politically, as implying continued United Kingdom sovereignty over the Republic of Ireland, or that the Republic of Ireland is politically related to the United Kingdom in some sense.

    The term British Isles has led to several high-profile and embarrassing faux pas. The then United States First Lady Nancy Reagan, on a state visit to Ireland with her husband, the President Ronald Reagan, inquired of Irish officials how often members of the British Royal Family visited. When told that they didn't, Mrs Reagan expressed surprise, given the fact that Ireland was "in the British Isles". Irish officials informed her that Ireland is not part of the British Isles and had not been since Irish independence in December 1922. During a stop-over visit to the Republic of Ireland in 1989 by the then leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, he indicated that he assumed Ireland's head of state was Queen Elizabeth II, given that she was the British Queen and his officials said that Ireland was a part of the British Isles.http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1989-4/1989-04-02-NBC-2.html Tom Brokaw report.] Even those who should be familiar with its use are prone to mistakes — such as the BBC in an article on the British weather, which refers to the "country" of the British Isles.British Weather (Part One): BBC Weather. Retrieved 25 June 2006.

    Alternative terms

    Because of the controversy alternative names for the archipelago have been suggested, notably the Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA). This suggestion was made by Sir John Biggs-Davison, a Conservative MP, in the 1980s. For usage of IONA, in preference to the "British Isles" see Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's speech at the Forty-Second Plenary Session of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation, Dublin Castle, Friday, 5 December, 1997. It was later used as a term in the Northern Ireland peace process. In a wider context, however, the term might be misunderstood as including Iceland, Greenland, the Azores and other islands

    Other alternatives include Great Britain and IrelandThe Royal Anthropological Institute. Website. Retrieved 25 June 2006, but this has its own difficulties. In Ireland the term "these islands" is more often used to refer in aggregate to the islands in question Surf the Isles.com: Comercial website for finding Products from the North-West European Archipelago. Retrieved 26 June 2006 , though is clearly inadequate as a general term for the islands. The Anglo-Celtic Isles, is another alternative occasionally used in academia.See "The Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Norse Coinages of York" by Michael Dolley for recent examples of academic usage. It is also used in book categorisation alongside, or in preference to, "British Isles. For example here.

    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.

    Celtic names

    The Celtic languages in the region — Cornish, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Manx— each 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 ('The People')

    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, meaning "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 meaning "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 Great 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 Ocean. 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, means that it is open to question whether or not, geographically, it belongs to the British Isles.

    Slang

    Blighty is a slang word for Britain derived from the Hindustani word bilāyatī ("foreign"). Depending on the user, it is meant 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 people; either to refer to the whole of the European continient, to refer to only to Mainland Europe, sometimes called "continental Europe" or simply "the Continent" by some people in the archipelago — as in the apocryphal newspaper headlining "Fog shrouds Channel, continent cut off."

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

    Notes

    See also

    External links

    British Isles | United Kingdom

    Geography (terminology)

    Britio (terminaro) | Британские острова (терминология)

     

    This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "British Isles (terminology)".

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