LECTURE 1 GENERAL INFORMATION OF GREAT BRITAIN (5)

1. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF GREAT BRITAIN, ITS POLITICAL STATUS AND CULTURAL PECULIARITIES

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5. General Information

⚫ Official name: The United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland
⚫ Total area: 243,610 square km
⚫ Population: 67,225,000
⚫ Official language: English; both English and
Scots Gaelic in Scotland; both English and
Welsh in Wales
⚫ National anthem: ‘God, Save the King’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a5Kc
GHwnzA&ab_channel=StLaurence%27sC

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⚫ Largest cities: London, Birmingham, Glasgow
⚫ Government: Parliamentary system, Constitutional
monarchy, Unitary state
⚫ Monarch: King Charles III (Queen Elizabeth II
passed away on 8/09/2022)
⚫ Longest river: The Severn (354km long)
⚫ Highest mountain: Ben Nevis (1,344 metres high)
⚫ Currency: British pound / pound sterling
⚫ National holiday: 2nd Saturday in June (1926)
Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II

7. King Charles III & Queen Elizabeth II

King Charles III & Queen Elizabeth II

8. Pound Sterling (GBP)

9. Ben Nevis 1344 m (4408 ft.)(Scotland, the Grampians)

10. The Severn (E Wales and W England) the longest river in Great Britain, with a length of 220 miles (354 km)

11. Political terms:

⚫ An official name of the country is:
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
⚫
Great Britain means the countries of England, Wales
and Scotland considered as a unit.
⚫
The United Kingdom includes: England, Wales,
Scotland and Northern Ireland.
⚫
The Isle of Ireland comprises Northern Ireland (UK, cap.
Belfast) the Irish Republic (cap. Dublin)

12.

Historical and poetic names
Albion – Roman name for Great Britain (the Latin word
‘albus’, meaning white chalk cliffs).
⚫ Britannia – 1) the name that the Romans gave to their southern
British province; 2) the name given to the female embodiment
of Britain.
⚫ Briton – a word used to describe a citizen of the United
Kingdom.
⚫ Caledonia, Cambria and Hibernia – were the Roman
names for Scotland, Wales and Ireland respectively.
⚫ Erin – a poetic name for Ireland.
⚫

13. The White Cliffs of Dover are the region of English coastline facing the Strait of Dover and France.

14. The image of Britannia (/brɪˈtæniə/) is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident

and shield.

15. Land

⚫ The United Kingdom comprises four
geographic and historical parts:
⚫ England
⚫ Scotland
⚫ Wales
⚫ Northern Ireland

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Other tokens of national identity
⚫ Surnames
The prefix ‘Mac’ or ‘Mc’ (such as McCall,
MacCarthy, MacDonald) is Scottish or Irish. The
prefix ‘O’ (as in O’Brien, O’Connor) is Irish. A large
number of surnames (for example, Evans, Jones,
Morgan, Price, Williams) suggest Welsh origin. The
most common surname in both England and Scotland
is ‘Smith’.

19.

Clothes
The kilt, a skirt with a tartan pattern
worn by men, is a very well-known
symbol of Scottishness
(Scottish national identity).

20.

Characteristics of people
There are certain stereotypes of national character which are well
known in Britain.
The Irish – great talkers
the Scots – careful with money
the Welsh – renowned for their singing
ability.

21.

History
Ptolemy’s 2nd-century map of Roman Britain.
The Roman conquest of Britain refers to AD 43–84.

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Old Tribes:
- Angles (West Germanic people from N Germany who invaded and
settled large parts of E and N England in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D.);
- Saxons (people that inhabited parts of central and northern -Germany
from Roman times, many of whom conquered and settled in much of
southern England in the 5th - 6th centuries)
- Jutes (a Low German tribe, a portion of which settled in Kent, England,
in the 5th century);
- Britons (the early Celtic inhabitants of S Britain who were largely
dispossessed by the Anglo-Saxon invaders after the 5th century A.D.)
- Gaelic tribes are the Celtic people of Ireland, Scotland, or the Isle of
Man.

23.

1535 The Kingdom included Wales
⚫ 1604 King James VI (King of Scots) proclaimed
himself a king of England, Scotland, Wales
⚫ In 1 May 1707 Act of Union. The parliament
proclaimed the new all-island state “Great Britain”
⚫ 1801 GB was united with Ireland
⚫ 1922 Most of Ireland seceded from the UK
⚫ 1927 renamed the UK of GB and NI
⚫

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Religion
Glasgow
Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral
Anglicanism . Church of England - the English branch of the Western
Christian Church, which combines Catholic and Protestant traditions,
rejects the Pope's authority, and has the monarch as its titular head.

25. Houses of Parliament (the building in which the House of Commons and the House of Lords assemble)

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