The term sign language can be used to refer to any one of a large number of languages found amongst Deaf communities throughout the world. These languages are natural and are not derived from the spoken languages in their country of origin. Knowledge of sign language use dates back at least two thousand years in the western world and probably even earlier in Chinese writings. The earliest English source is John Bulwer’s “Chirologia: or the Natural language of the Hand” written in 1644.
- British Sign Language (BSL) is the language of the Deaf community. It is used by an estimated 25,000 Deaf people in Britain and is often the first language of Deaf children in Deaf families. It is not gesture but a language in its own right that can express all that a spoken language can express. BSL has its own structure and grammar and does not follow English word order. It is a language of space and movement, using hand shapes, mouth patterns, facial expression, finger spelling and body movement. The facial expression or mouth pattern used with a sign is often quite different to that of spoken English.
One of the most striking differences between signs and words is the frequency with which signs bear a visual likeness to the objects they are referring to (their referents). It is not surprising that visual languages are more iconic than spoken languages as objects do tend to have more visual than auditory associations.
- About 50 % of basic sign vocabulary appears to be image based, at least in the sense that non-signers will agree on the source of the imagery when told the meaning of a sign. It is important, though, not to overemphasise the distinctiveness of iconicity in sign language, as many signs have no iconic link to their referent.
- As much as 10% of signed utterances use a manual alphabet. The standard manual alphabet in BSL has 26 handshapes that correspond to the 26 letters of the English alphabet. The manual alphabet can be traced back as far as 1641 in this country and even then it was reported to be “of great antiquity.” It has changed considerably, although the alphabet in use today still dates back to at least 1732. Originally hearing people, to communicate secret information, used the manual alphabet as a code. Deaf people adopted it and research has shown that BSL signers use it in many ways.
(The iconic sign for food)
The best-known use of the manual alphabet is for fingerspelling full English words, particularly nouns and proper nouns (which account for half of all fingerspellings), abbreviations, acronyms or single manual letter signs. Fingerspellings can also be used for a brief period of time until permanent signs for English words are developed. So for example we can see both the fingerpelling S.M. for supermarket as well as the sign for SUPERMARKET.
Fingerspelled ‘s’ and ‘m’ – together mean SUPERMARKET
The sign SUPERMARKET has both clenched hands moving in zig-zag forwards – like a trolley.
The manual alphabet continues to play a significant part in sign communication as a bridge to English lexicon.
Our understanding of sign language structure has increased significantly and these brief comments can be seen as a simple introduction to what is a complex area of study.
There is a great deal more information on BSL to be found on Signstation and in later sections of this manual.