British Sign Language
Encyclopedia
British Sign Language (BSL) is the sign language
used in the United Kingdom
(UK), and is the first or preferred language of some deaf people in the UK; there are 125,000 deaf adults in the UK who use BSL plus an estimated 20,000 children. The language makes use of space and involves movement of the hands, body, face and head. Many thousands of people who are not deaf also use BSL, as hearing relatives of deaf people, sign language interpreters or as a result of other contact with the British deaf community.
, an Edinburgh teacher, founded 'Braidwood's Academy for the Deaf and Dumb' in 1760 which is recognised as the first school for the deaf in Britain. His pupils were the sons of the well-to-do. His early use of a form of sign language, the combined system, was the first codification of what was to become British Sign Language. Joseph Watson was trained as a teacher of the Deaf under Thomas Braidwood and he eventually left in 1792 to become the headmaster of the first public school for the Deaf in Britain, the London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb in Bermondsey.
In 1815, an American Protestant minister, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
, travelled to Europe to research teaching of the deaf. He was rebuffed by both the Braidwood schools who refused to teach him their methods. Gallaudet then travelled to Paris and learned the educational methods of the French Royal Institution for the Deaf, a combination of Old French Sign Language
and the signs developed by Abbé de l’Épée
. As a consequence American sign language
today has a 60% similarity to modern French Sign Language but is almost unintelligible to users of British Sign Language.
Until the 1940s sign language skills were passed on unofficially between deaf people often living in residential institutions. Signing was actively discouraged in schools by punishment and the emphasis in education was on forcing deaf children to learn to lip read
and finger spell. From the 1970s there has been an increasing tolerance and instruction in BSL in schools. The language continues to evolve as older words such as Alms and PawnBroker have fallen out of use and new sign such as Fax machine and laser have been invented. The evolution of the language and its changing level of acceptance means that older users tend to rely on finger spelling while younger ones make use of a wider range of gestures.
share English
as the predominant spoken language, British Sign Language is quite distinct from American Sign Language
(ASL). BSL is also distinct from Irish Sign Language
(ISL) (ISG in the ISO
system) which is more closely related to French Sign Language
(LSF) and ASL.
It is also distinct from Signed English, a manually coded method expressed to represent the English language
.
The sign languages used in Australia
and New Zealand
, Auslan
and New Zealand Sign Language
, respectively, evolved largely from 19th century BSL, and all retain the same manual alphabet and grammar and possess similar lexicons. These three languages may technically be considered dialects of a single language (BANZSL
) due to their use of the same grammar and manual alphabet and the high degree of lexical sharing (overlap of signs). The term BANZSL was coined by Trevor Johnston and Adam Schembri.
In Australia deaf schools were established by educated deaf people from London, Edinburgh and Dublin. This introduced the London and Edinburgh dialects of BSL to Melbourne and Sydney respectively and Irish Sign Language to Sydney in Roman Catholic schools for the deaf. The language contact post secondary education between Australian ISL users and 'Australian BSL' users accounts for some of the dialectal differences we see between modern BSL and Auslan. Tertiary education in the US for some deaf Australian adults also accounts for some ASL borrowings found in modern Auslan.
Auslan, BSL and NZSL have 82% of signs identical (using concepts from a Swadesh list
). When considering similar or related signs as well as identical, they are 98% cognate. By comparison, ASL and BANZSL have only 31% signs identical, or 44% cognate. Further information will be available after the completion of the BSL corpus is completed and allows for comparison with the Auslan corpus and the Sociolinguistic Variation in New Zealand Sign Language project . There continues to be language contact between BSL, Auslan and NZSL through migration (deaf people and interpreters), the media (television programmes such as See Hear, Switched, Rush and SignPost are often recorded and shared informally in all three countries) and conferences (the World Federation of the Deaf Conference – WFD – in Brisbane 1999 saw many British deaf people travelling to Australia).
Makaton
, a communication system for people with cognitive impairments or other communication difficulties, was originally developed with signs borrowed from British Sign Language. The sign language used in Sri Lanka
is also closely related to BSL despite the spoken language not being English, demonstrating the distance between sign languages and spoken ones.
BSL users campaigned to have BSL recognised on a similar level to Welsh
, Scottish Gaelic
, and Irish
. BSL was recognised as a language in its own right by the UK government on 18 March 2003, but it has no legal protection. There is however legislation requiring the provision of interpreters such as the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
s. Signs used in Scotland
, for example, may not be used, and may not be understood immediately by those in Southern England, and vice versa. Some signs are even more local, occurring only in certain towns or cities (such as the Manchester system of number signs). Likewise, some may go in or out of fashion, or evolve over time, just as terms in spoken languages do.
Many British television channels broadcast programmes with in-vision signing, using BSL, as well as specially made programmes aimed mainly at deaf
people such as the BBC
's See Hear
and Channel 4
's VEE-TV.
BBC News broadcasts in-vision signing at 07:00-07:45, 08:00-08:20 and 13:00-13:45 GMT/BST each weekday. BBC One
also broadcasts in-vision signed repeats of the channel's primetime programmes between 00:30 and 04:00 each weekday.
BSL is used in some educational establishments, but is not always the policy for deaf children in some local authority areas. The Let's Sign BSL and fingerspelling
graphics are being developed for use in education by deaf educators and tutors and include many of the regional signs referred to above.
Signature excellence in communication with deaf people is accredited by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and provides awards at the following levels:
The British Deaf Association
has formed the BSL Academy to provide an official British Sign Language curriculum and tutor training.
In Scotland, there is a Scottish Qualifications Authority
(SQA) system for students learning British Sign Language. Currently there are 3 levels in the SQA system (continuing assessments):
Applications for Junior Trainee, Trainee or MRSLI (Member of the Register of Sign Language Interpreters) status are considered and vetted by the NRCPD. To be eligible candidates must have the relevant qualifications and must pass a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau
) check. Interpreters must have an advanced knowledge of English and BSL and must be able to process information quickly and accurately.
Interpreters may apply for the status of "Junior Trainee Interpreter" after completing the Level III/ NVQ 3 BSL assessment (they must also be enrolled on a recognised interpreter training programme, have completed some initial training and have professional indemnity insurance to register). They may then undertake work in restricted settings. Once registered with an approved course and having demonstrated their BSL is NVQ 4 standard interpreters are then eligible for the "Trainee Interpreter" title and can work in a wider variety of settings.
After completing an approved course and once the interpreter has been assessed for the NVQ 4 in BSL Interpreting (or equivalent), Trainees can apply to become a "Member of the Register of Sign Language Interpreters" (MRSLI). This status allows an interpreter to work in all settings. Even once MRSLI status is achieved, however, an interpreter is required to undertake Continuous Professional Development and when available, specialist training is required to work in specific domains. Some settings have policy guidelines (e.g. the Criminal Justice System) that require registered MRSLI status or, 'the yellow badge' before a sign language interpreter can work in those settings.
The Association of Sign Language Interpreters provides a network of regional groups, professional development opportunities and a mentoring scheme. It represents the sign language interpreting profession in England, Wales and Northern Ireland sitting on advisory committees and having strong links with the NRCPD. Membership is available as Student, Associate and Full levels. The latter two categories provide the interpreter with professional indemnity insurance. Other interested parties can also subscribe as either Individual or Corporate Supporters.
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
used in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(UK), and is the first or preferred language of some deaf people in the UK; there are 125,000 deaf adults in the UK who use BSL plus an estimated 20,000 children. The language makes use of space and involves movement of the hands, body, face and head. Many thousands of people who are not deaf also use BSL, as hearing relatives of deaf people, sign language interpreters or as a result of other contact with the British deaf community.
History
Records exist of a sign language existing within deaf communities in Britain as far back as 1570. British sign language has evolved, as all languages do, from these origins by modification, invention and importation. Thomas BraidwoodThomas Braidwood
Thomas Braidwood was born at Hillhead Farm, Covington, Lanarkshire, Scotland, the fourth child of Thomas Braidwood and Agnes Meek. Braidwood originally established himself as a writing master instructing the children of the wealthy at his private building based in Canongate in Edinburgh...
, an Edinburgh teacher, founded 'Braidwood's Academy for the Deaf and Dumb' in 1760 which is recognised as the first school for the deaf in Britain. His pupils were the sons of the well-to-do. His early use of a form of sign language, the combined system, was the first codification of what was to become British Sign Language. Joseph Watson was trained as a teacher of the Deaf under Thomas Braidwood and he eventually left in 1792 to become the headmaster of the first public school for the Deaf in Britain, the London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb in Bermondsey.
In 1815, an American Protestant minister, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, LL.D., was a renowned American pioneer in the education of the Deaf. Along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Cogswell, he co-founded the first institution for the education of the Deaf in North America, and he became its first principal...
, travelled to Europe to research teaching of the deaf. He was rebuffed by both the Braidwood schools who refused to teach him their methods. Gallaudet then travelled to Paris and learned the educational methods of the French Royal Institution for the Deaf, a combination of Old French Sign Language
Old French Sign Language
Old French Sign Language is a term that loosely describes the language of the deaf community in 18th century Paris at the time of the establishment of the first deaf schools...
and the signs developed by Abbé de l’Épée
Charles-Michel de l'Épée
Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée was a philanthropic educator of 18th-century France who has become known as the "Father of the Deaf".-Overview:...
. As a consequence American sign language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
today has a 60% similarity to modern French Sign Language but is almost unintelligible to users of British Sign Language.
Until the 1940s sign language skills were passed on unofficially between deaf people often living in residential institutions. Signing was actively discouraged in schools by punishment and the emphasis in education was on forcing deaf children to learn to lip read
Lip reading
Lip reading, also known as lipreading or speechreading, is a technique of understanding speech by visually interpreting the movements of the lips, face and tongue with information provided by the context, language, and any residual hearing....
and finger spell. From the 1970s there has been an increasing tolerance and instruction in BSL in schools. The language continues to evolve as older words such as Alms and PawnBroker have fallen out of use and new sign such as Fax machine and laser have been invented. The evolution of the language and its changing level of acceptance means that older users tend to rely on finger spelling while younger ones make use of a wider range of gestures.
Phonology
Like many other signed languages, BSL phonology is defined by elements such as hand shape, orientation, location, and motion.Grammar
BSL uses a topic–comment structure http://www.cohearentvision.org.uk/deaf-users/deaf-awareness-week/grammatical-structure-of-british-sign-language/. Canonical word order outside of topic–comment structure is OSV http://blog.garethj.com/2008/03/bsl-word-ordering/, http://bsl.wikia.com/wiki/Word_order, and noun phrases are head-initial http://books.google.com/books?id=lUsCbazTICIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false.Relationships with other sign languages
Although the United Kingdom and the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
share English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as the predominant spoken language, British Sign Language is quite distinct from American Sign Language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
(ASL). BSL is also distinct from Irish Sign Language
Irish Sign Language
Irish Sign Language is the sign language of Ireland, used primarily in the Republic of Ireland. It is also used in Northern Ireland, though British Sign Language is also used. Irish Sign Language is more closely related to French Sign Language than to British Sign Language, which was first used...
(ISL) (ISG in the ISO
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
system) which is more closely related to French Sign Language
French Sign Language
French Sign Language is the sign language of the deaf in the nation of France. According to Ethnologue, it has 50,000 to 100,000 native signers....
(LSF) and ASL.
It is also distinct from Signed English, a manually coded method expressed to represent the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
The sign languages used in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Auslan
Auslan
Auslan is the sign language of the Australian deaf community. The term Auslan is an acronym of "Australian sign language", coined by Trevor Johnston in the early 1980s, although the language itself is much older...
and New Zealand Sign Language
New Zealand Sign Language
New Zealand Sign Language or NZSL is the main language of the Deaf community in New Zealand. It became an official language of New Zealand in April 2006, alongside Te Reo Māori....
, respectively, evolved largely from 19th century BSL, and all retain the same manual alphabet and grammar and possess similar lexicons. These three languages may technically be considered dialects of a single language (BANZSL
BANZSL
BANZSL, or British, Australian and New Zealand Sign Language, is the language of which British Sign Language , Auslan and New Zealand Sign Language may be considered dialects...
) due to their use of the same grammar and manual alphabet and the high degree of lexical sharing (overlap of signs). The term BANZSL was coined by Trevor Johnston and Adam Schembri.
In Australia deaf schools were established by educated deaf people from London, Edinburgh and Dublin. This introduced the London and Edinburgh dialects of BSL to Melbourne and Sydney respectively and Irish Sign Language to Sydney in Roman Catholic schools for the deaf. The language contact post secondary education between Australian ISL users and 'Australian BSL' users accounts for some of the dialectal differences we see between modern BSL and Auslan. Tertiary education in the US for some deaf Australian adults also accounts for some ASL borrowings found in modern Auslan.
Auslan, BSL and NZSL have 82% of signs identical (using concepts from a Swadesh list
Swadesh list
A Swadesh list is one of several lists of vocabulary with basic meanings, developed by Morris Swadesh from 1940 onward, with the final, posthumously published version 1971 [1972], which is used in lexicostatistics and glottochronology .- Versions and authors :There are several versions of Swadesh...
). When considering similar or related signs as well as identical, they are 98% cognate. By comparison, ASL and BANZSL have only 31% signs identical, or 44% cognate. Further information will be available after the completion of the BSL corpus is completed and allows for comparison with the Auslan corpus and the Sociolinguistic Variation in New Zealand Sign Language project . There continues to be language contact between BSL, Auslan and NZSL through migration (deaf people and interpreters), the media (television programmes such as See Hear, Switched, Rush and SignPost are often recorded and shared informally in all three countries) and conferences (the World Federation of the Deaf Conference – WFD – in Brisbane 1999 saw many British deaf people travelling to Australia).
Makaton
Makaton
Makaton is a language programme designed to provide a means of communication to individuals who cannot communicate efficiently by speaking. Makaton has been effectively used with individuals who have cognitive impairments, autism, Down's syndrome, specific language impairment, multisensory...
, a communication system for people with cognitive impairments or other communication difficulties, was originally developed with signs borrowed from British Sign Language. The sign language used in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
is also closely related to BSL despite the spoken language not being English, demonstrating the distance between sign languages and spoken ones.
BSL users campaigned to have BSL recognised on a similar level to Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
, Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
, and Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
. BSL was recognised as a language in its own right by the UK government on 18 March 2003, but it has no legal protection. There is however legislation requiring the provision of interpreters such as the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
Usage
BSL has many regional dialectDialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s. Signs used in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, for example, may not be used, and may not be understood immediately by those in Southern England, and vice versa. Some signs are even more local, occurring only in certain towns or cities (such as the Manchester system of number signs). Likewise, some may go in or out of fashion, or evolve over time, just as terms in spoken languages do.
Many British television channels broadcast programmes with in-vision signing, using BSL, as well as specially made programmes aimed mainly at deaf
Deaf culture
Deaf culture describes the social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values and shared institutions of communities that are affected by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as a cultural label, the word deaf is often written with a...
people such as the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's See Hear
See Hear
See Hear is a weekly magazine programme for deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK, broadcast on Wednesday afternoons at 1pm. The programme focuses on the British and the worldwide deaf community and covers a broad range of topics from areas such as education, deaf people's rights, technology...
and Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's VEE-TV.
BBC News broadcasts in-vision signing at 07:00-07:45, 08:00-08:20 and 13:00-13:45 GMT/BST each weekday. BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
also broadcasts in-vision signed repeats of the channel's primetime programmes between 00:30 and 04:00 each weekday.
BSL is used in some educational establishments, but is not always the policy for deaf children in some local authority areas. The Let's Sign BSL and fingerspelling
Fingerspelling
Fingerspelling is the representation of the letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands. These manual alphabets , have often been used in deaf education, and have subsequently been adopted as a distinct part of a number of sign languages around the world...
graphics are being developed for use in education by deaf educators and tutors and include many of the regional signs referred to above.
Learning British Sign Language
British Sign Language can be learnt throughout the UK and three examination systems exist. Courses are provided by community colleges, local centres for deaf people and private organisations. Most tutors are native users of sign language and hold a relevant teaching qualification.Signature excellence in communication with deaf people is accredited by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and provides awards at the following levels:
- Level I – Elementary
- Level II – Intermediate
- Level III/ NVQ 3 – Advanced
- NVQ Level 6 – Required as part of the NVQ Level 6 BSL/English Interpreting. (This qualification was formerly called NVQ Level 4)
The British Deaf Association
British Deaf Association
British Deaf Association is a deaf-led British charity that campaigns and advocates for deaf people who use British Sign Language.It was originally formed in 1890 by Francis Maginn, who was deaf himself...
has formed the BSL Academy to provide an official British Sign Language curriculum and tutor training.
In Scotland, there is a Scottish Qualifications Authority
Scottish Qualifications Authority
The Scottish Qualifications Authority is a non-departmental public body responsible for accreditation and awarding. It is partly funded by the Education and Lifelong Learning Directorate of the Scottish Government, employing 750 staff, based in Glasgow and Dalkeith...
(SQA) system for students learning British Sign Language. Currently there are 3 levels in the SQA system (continuing assessments):
- SQA: Introduction to British Sign Language
- SQA: British Sign Language Level 1
- SQA: British Sign Language Level 2
Becoming a BSL / English interpreter
Deaf Studies courses with specific streams for sign language interpreting exist at several British universities. Course entry requirements vary from no previous knowledge of BSL to NVQ level 6 BSL (or equivalent). Courses are often mapped against Signature's (previously CACDP) language qualifications and/or the National Occupational Standards for Interpreting; mapping ensures completion of a course gives eligibility to register with the National Registers of Communication Professionals with Deaf and Deafblind People (the NRCPD).Applications for Junior Trainee, Trainee or MRSLI (Member of the Register of Sign Language Interpreters) status are considered and vetted by the NRCPD. To be eligible candidates must have the relevant qualifications and must pass a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau
Criminal Records Bureau
The Criminal Records Bureau , is an Executive Agency of the Home Office, which provides wider access to criminal record information through its Disclosure service for England and Wales...
) check. Interpreters must have an advanced knowledge of English and BSL and must be able to process information quickly and accurately.
Interpreters may apply for the status of "Junior Trainee Interpreter" after completing the Level III/ NVQ 3 BSL assessment (they must also be enrolled on a recognised interpreter training programme, have completed some initial training and have professional indemnity insurance to register). They may then undertake work in restricted settings. Once registered with an approved course and having demonstrated their BSL is NVQ 4 standard interpreters are then eligible for the "Trainee Interpreter" title and can work in a wider variety of settings.
After completing an approved course and once the interpreter has been assessed for the NVQ 4 in BSL Interpreting (or equivalent), Trainees can apply to become a "Member of the Register of Sign Language Interpreters" (MRSLI). This status allows an interpreter to work in all settings. Even once MRSLI status is achieved, however, an interpreter is required to undertake Continuous Professional Development and when available, specialist training is required to work in specific domains. Some settings have policy guidelines (e.g. the Criminal Justice System) that require registered MRSLI status or, 'the yellow badge' before a sign language interpreter can work in those settings.
The Association of Sign Language Interpreters provides a network of regional groups, professional development opportunities and a mentoring scheme. It represents the sign language interpreting profession in England, Wales and Northern Ireland sitting on advisory committees and having strong links with the NRCPD. Membership is available as Student, Associate and Full levels. The latter two categories provide the interpreter with professional indemnity insurance. Other interested parties can also subscribe as either Individual or Corporate Supporters.