British Sign Language Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

British sign language (BSL) is the sign language used in the United Kingdom. BSL is the first or preferred language of nearly 70,000 deaf or hearing-impaired people in the UK. It is a language of space and movement using the hands, body, face and head. Many thousands of hearing people also use BSL: more people use BSL than speak Gaelic.

Although the United States and Britain share a spoken language, British Sign Language is a distinct language from American Sign Language. BSL fingerspelling is also different from ASL as it uses two hands instead of one. The Makaton system was developed by borrowing signs from British Sign Language.

The systems for sign language used in Australia and New Zealand, Auslan and New Zealand Sign Language, were based largely on 19th Century BSL, and all retain the same manual alphabet, grammar and similar lexicon. BSL, Auslan and NZSL together may be called BANZSL.

There have been campaigns to have BSL recognised on a similar level to Welsh and Gaelic. The BBC broadcasts many programmes with in-vision signing, using BSL. Also it makes the programme See Hear, which is aimed mainly at Deaf people.

See also

• Languages in the United Kingdom
• UK topics

External Links

• The Royal National Institute for the Deaf - The UK's best-known charity focussing on improving accessibility for deaf people
• The Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People - a UK charity whose primary aim is to improve and facilitate communication between deaf and hearing people

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BSL is also used as an abbreviation for Breed-specific legislation.

This is an Article on British Sign Language. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About British Sign Language

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