Geography: General

information about the country

and its people.
Outline.
1. Political and geographical names of the country.
2. Historical and poetic names of the country.
3. Symbols of the four nations. The UK coat-of-arms
(герб).
4. The flag of the country and history of its name.
5. Linguistic signs of national identity (национальные
особенности, характер).
6. National stereotypes.
• The United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland is an insular
(островная) country
• It is situated on the isles
• they lie off the north-west coast of the
continent of Europe.
• they are known as the British Isles.
• The largest island is Britain or Great
Britain
• the other large one is called Ireland.
• “GB” is a geographical expression
• “The UK” is a political one.
In the British Isles there are 2 states:
1. the Republic of Ireland -“Eire” ['ɛərə] (its
Irish language name), known as “Ireland”
or “Republic”.
2. The other state is The United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
There are 2 small parts of The British Isles
which have special political arrangements
(политическая структура).
• They are called “Crown Dependencies”
(зависимая территория короны):
• The Channel Islands and the Isle of
Man.
• They have complete internal self-
government (органы внутреннего
самоуправления) (its own Parliament and its
own tax system-налоговая система)
• They are ruled by a Lieutenant
[lef'tenənt] Governor (вице-губернатор
(титул представителя монарха) appointed
(назначенный) by the British Government.
• The largest island, Great Britain, consists
of England, Wales and Scotland.

• The next largest island, Ireland, is shared

(разделен) by 2 independent states:
Northern Ireland (or Ulster) and the Irish
Republic.
Historical names for England:
• Albion is often used in poetic contexts.
• The other name (given by the Romans to
their southern British province) is
Britannia.
• It is also the name that was given to the
female symbol of Britain.
The Roman names:
• Caledonia[kælɪ'dəunɪə] - Scotland
• Cambria ['kæmbrɪə] - Wales
• Hibernia[haı’bɜːnıə] - Ireland.

Erin is a poetic Celtic name for Ireland.

• It is also called “The Emerald Isle” –
It symbolizes the greenery of its
countryside.
• The political unification (объединение) was
completed in 1800
• the Irish Parliament was joined with the
Parliament for England, Scotland and
Wales in Westminster
• all the British Isles became a single state.
• in 1922 most of Ireland became a
separate (отдельный) state.
 There are certain symbols of the
four nations:
The red rose – England
The thistle (чертополох)– Scotland
The leeks (лук-порей) & the daffodil
(нарцисс) – Wales
The shamrock (клевер, трилистник) - Ireland
Tea cosy (чехол на чайник)
 Symbols of England

• Big Ben • Life Guard

Policeman Double Decker
Tower of London St Paul's Cathedral
London Eye Pint of Beer
Royal Coat of Arms
Tower Bridge
• Black Taxi
Union Flag  
Foot Guard
Buckingham Palace
Animal symbols of England
 Tudor Rose

• the Tudor dynasty in

England.
• Henry Vll (the Lancaster
family) married Elizabeth
of York (the York family).
This marriage united the
two families.
• Henry created the Tudor
rose, (the White Rose of
York and the Red Rose
of Lancaster) = the end
of a struggle between
York and Lancaster
The Official Coat of Arms of the
United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland
• On the left, the shield is
supported by the English
Lion.
• On the right it is supported
by the Unicorn of
Scotland.
• The coat has both the motto (девиз) of
British Monarchs:
• Dieu et mon droit
(God and my right)
• and the motto of the Order of the Garter
(орден Подвязки):
• Honi soit qui mal y pense
('Evil to him who evil thinks')
• on a representation (изображение) of the
Garter behind the shield.
• Royal Coat of Arms

Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom

• The Union Flag, the Union Jack, is the
national flag of the UK.
• It’s the symbol of the administrative union
of the countries of the UK.
• It is made up of the Flags of 3 countries
united under one Sovereign - the countries
of England, Scotland and Northern
Ireland
• Wales was a Principality (княжество) it
could not be included on the flag.
• Besides the Union Jack there is Royal
Standard – Royal personal flag.
• The national anthem (гимн) is the oldest in
the world, established in 1745
• It runs as follows:
God save our gracious Queen, God save
our noble Queen, God save the Queen!
Send her victorious, Happy and glorious
Long to reign over us. God save the
queen!
Royal Standard
Linguistic signs of national identity
• Welsh is spoken by 0.5 million people -
20% of the population (население) of
Wales.
• Gaelic is used in the Republic of Ireland,
where it is the 1st official language, in
Scotland as well.
• It is spoken by 15,000 people in the west
of Ireland.
• Scots Gaelic is spoken by 80,000 people
in the hills and islands of the west of
Scotland (not official).
• “Mac” or “Mc” in surnames (such as McCall, MacCarthy,
MacDonald) is always either Scottish or Irish;
• the prefix “O” (as in O’Brien, O’Hara) is Irish;
• surnames - Davis, Evans, Jones, Lloyd, Morgan, Price,
Rees, Williams - Welsh origin
• the most common surname in both England and
Scotland - “Smith”.

First names are signs of national identity as well:

• the Scottish form of “John” is “Ian” and its Irish form is
“Sean”;

• nicknames for Scottish, Irish and Welsh men:

• Scottish - ‘Jock’;
• Irishmen - ‘Paddy’ or ‘Mick’
• Welshmen - ‘Dai’ or ‘Taffy’.
 National stereotypes.
• There is a fictional
(вымышленный)character who is
supposed to be the symbol of Englishness
and certain English virtues (достоинство).
• It’s John Bull.
 Do you really know what the
English are like?
• What are the first 3 things which come
into your mind when you hear the
words 'England' or 'the English?
• There are many examples of the typical
British habits which are not typical any
more:
1. the stereotyped image of the London ‘city
gent’ wearing of a bowler hat (цилиндр)
is not typical any more
2. Food and drink: the traditional ‘British’ (or
‘English’) breakfast is a large fry-up +
cereal with milk, toast, butter and
marmalade,tea - only 10% of the people
in Britain have this sort of breakfast.
• 2/3 have the cereal, tea and toast.