British Sign Language

About British Sign Language

British Sign Language dates back to the 15th century, with the publication of The History of the Syon Monastery at Lisbon and Brentford (1450). This text contains descriptions of hand signs, including some which still exist in modern British Sign Language. It was not until the 18th century that Thomas Braidwood founded the first British school for the deaf in Edinburgh, called "The Braidwood Academy for Deaf and Dumb." The Braidwood school focused on oral communication rather than signing, but it also used "the combined system," the early form of British Sign Language.

Although deaf people were unofficially communicating with signs in Britain for years, up until the mid-20th century, deaf people were encouraged to read lips and spell words on their fingers rather than use sign language. It was not until the 1970s that British Sign Language was accepted and taught in schools. The British Sign Language community then spent many years campaigning to convince the government to recognize the language, which it eventually did in 2003.

British Sign Language Grammar

British Sign Language is a visual language, so the way it conveys meaning differs from spoken language. Those who use British Sign Language primarily use their hands to communicate. There are over 1,800 signs in British Sign Language.

Just like spoken English, British Sign Language still has phonology and grammar. Sentences in British Sign Language are composed of a subject (a person, place, or thing) and a commentary about the subject. Like American Sign Language, British Sign Language uses a topic-comment structure, in which the speaker signs the topic of the conversation first and then comments on it. For example, note the difference in word order in the two following examples:

British Sign Language Alphabet

British Sign Language has an alphabet with signs for each of the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet. What is unique about the British Sign Language alphabet is that it is a two-handed alphabet. This means that signers must use both hands to form the letters. The image below depicts the British Sign Language alphabet.

Fig. 2 - The BANZSL alphabet

British Sign Language Numbers

British Sign Language also requires the use of hand signals to indicate numbers. To sign the numbers in British Sign Language, signers use their dominant hand to lead the sign. For numbers ten through nineteen, the signs require movements in addition to finger shapes. To sign twenty and the numbers above it, signers use two hands. They also often mouth the number while they are signing.

Fig. 3 - BSL Numbers 1-9

American Sign Language vs. British Sign Language

Although American Sign Language and British Sign Language are both used by people in English-speaking communities, they are two different languages. A speaker of one is unlikely to understand the other one because only 31% of the languages' signs are the same.¹ One of the main reasons why American Sign Language is different from British Sign language is because it has a one-handed alphabet.

Those who use American Sign Language also frequently use fingerspelling (spelling out words with letter signs) for all types of words when they lack a sign for it. Meanwhile, British Sign Language uses a two-handed alphabet and uses fingerspelling rarely, typically only for proper nouns.

¹ David McKee and Graeme Kennedy, "Lexical Comparison of Signs From American, Australian, British, and New Zealand Sign Languages: David Mckee and Graeme Kennedy." In K. Emmorey and H. Lane (Eds). The Signs of Language Revisited: An Anthology to Honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Kilma. 2000