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20 - Sign Languages in Britain and Ireland

from Part III - Multilingualism in Britain and Ireland: Minority Languages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2024

By
Adam Schembri ,
Kate Rowley  and
Lorraine Leeson
Edited by
Susan Fox
Susan Fox
Affiliation:
Universität Bern, Switzerland
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Summary

In this chapter, we give a brief overview of the structure, use, and history of British Sign Language and Irish Sign Language, the majority sign languages of the Deaf communities in the United Kingdom and Ireland respectively. After an introduction to the history and social context of each sign language, we present some key features of their grammar, before discussing sociolinguistic variation and change in the two varieties. We close with a discussion of the some of the key applied linguistics dimensions of research into the two sign languages.

Keywords

sign languagesDeaf communitiesBritish Sign LanguageIrish Sign Languagegrammatical descriptionsociolinguistics of sign languagesapplied linguistics of sign languages
Type
Chapter
Information
Language in Britain and Ireland , pp. 439 - 452
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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