ayearinlanguage: A Year in Language, Day 54: British Sign Language British Sign Language aka. BSL is
ayearinlanguage: A Year in Language, Day 54: British Sign Language British Sign Language aka. BSL is the language spoken by native deaf and mute communities in the U.K. Though the spoken American and British varieties of English are closely related BSL and ASL are not related and not mutually intelligible. Instead BSL is the progenator, or at least the direct descendant thereof, of the BANZSL sign language family, which includes the sign languages of Autralia, New Zealand, and parts of South Africa. It is difficult to put a precise date on the genesis and development of BSL. Like many sign languages it was left relatively unattended by hearing historians and linguists and the deaf population remaining to account for it was either uninterested or, more likely, not paid any mind. Documentation of sign language on the isles goes back as far as the late medieval period, and becomes formalized with the founding of England’s first school for the deaf in 1760. Sadly I must admit to a great failing on my part. I cannot tell you the ways in which BSL differs, on a structural level, from ASL or any other sign language for that matter, though it does as much as any spoken language may differ from another. I simply do not have the knowledge, and consider the lack of easily accessible knowledge about it to be quite the failure on the part of linguists as a whole (I should note, there are many who have and do study signs, its just still very niche). I hope, as the year goes on, that I can educate myself more and share that with all of you. If there is anything I hope to communicate with this admission it is that sign language, like the communities that speak them, are all too easily overlooked and forgotten about by the hearing majority. Language is the great social tool of humans, allowing us to commune in numbers beyond most other animals. Likewise a breech in language separates us. I encourage any reading this to truly consider that deaf and mute communities cannot for the most part speak with the hearing and vice versa, despite the fact that we are all easily capable of learning and utilizing signs. -- source link