British Sign language is a visual-gestural language which makes use of three dimensional space and the movement of hands (and other parts of the body) to convey meaning. It has its own vocabulary and syntax.
British Sign Language can be understand through the processes of spoken language. Spoken language involves the use of the oratory faculties to produce sounds mapped against specific words and grammatical combinations. The oratory elements, then received by the auditory faculties and processed accordingly. British sign language however, makes use of the visual faculties as opposed to the auditory faculties. In the same way that spoken language makes use of rules to produce comprehensive messages, British Sign Language is also governed by a complex grammar.
Contrary to the beliefs of significant parts of the speaking population, British Sign Language is not a mixture of arbitrary signs modeled on the visual referent.
Officially recognized
British Sign Language has only been recognized as a formal language in the last 20 years. The seemingly innocuous implications of non recognition however, had serious impacts on the development and self confidence of Deaf children.
The UK government has only recently recognized British Sign Language as an official British Language (18th March 2003). This recognition has not extended to legislation however and as such, access to services and relevant information continues to be problematic for Deaf people.
Uses of British Sign Language
British Sign Language is not confined to this community of people. It is also used by families, colleagues and friends of deaf individuals and also, professionals such as British Sign Language interpreters and teachers. It is estimated that up to 70,000 individuals use British Sign Language as their first language
British Sign Language differ from spoken language
British Sign Language makes use of visual channels, while spoken language makes use of auditory channels. The differences do not stop here . Speed is also a key differentiating factor and as such, words in the spoken mode can be produced twice as quickly as signs. Even though this is the case, this does not make the communicating of British Sign Language any slower than spoken language; the reason being that the eyes can perceive multiple signals – therefore, the signs maybe combined with other movements of the face, head and body.
