Sign language question.

[Mottie]

Seeing various world leaders giving statements on the telly every day with a signing person in the background, I was just curious whether sign language is universal or is there, for example, English sign language, French sign Language, Spanish sign language etc etc. Anyone know?

 

[EddieM]

AFAIK There are a few variants of sign language.

 

[Gasguru]

Just like speech it varies from region to region even across England.

 

[Tigercubrider]

Certainly BSL and ASL are different- (American/British)
As said, BSL has regional "accents" that mean a London signer can tell if someone's from Bristol or Scotland

I used to work with a deaf theatre group although I can't sign much.
(I knew the bloke in four weddings)

 

[Doug99]

I am rather ignorant of Sign Language and assumed all deaf people could lip read. On socializing with an elderly person who was born deaf, I discovered that he was taught sign language from a very early age so could not understand the English language either written or spoken.

 

[Tigercubrider]

Deaf people vary, like "hearies"
They have their own culture and language. The syntax of BSL is different to English
A deaf person might say "big emotion sad I have"

Back in the day a lot of deaf kids went to deaf schools- much less common nowadays and schools may have a deaf unit . Some deaf people can lipread, some can hear something, some nothing. I knew a girl for two years, exchanging signs and notes with her until one day she spoke. She always could, but was self conscious of her voice and preferred to sign.

 

[Tigercubrider]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Sign_Language