Northern Ireland Sign Language

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Native to Ireland and United Kingdom

Region Northern Ireland

Native speakers "BSL" is the native or preferred language of 3,500 in Northern Ireland (2007)

Language family BANZSL Family. Emerging from British, Irish, and American Sign.

Northern Ireland Sign Language

ISO 639-3 –

Glottolog None

Additional information

Northern Ireland Sign Language

Sign language used mainly by deaf people in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland Sign language (NISL) is a sign language used mainly by deaf people in Northern Ireland.

NISL is described as being related to Irish Sign Language (ISL) at the syntactic level while the lexicon is based on British Sign Language (BSL) and American Sign Language (ASL).

A number of practitioners see Northern Ireland Sign Language as a distinct and separate language from both BSL and ISL though "many 'Anglo-Irish' Northern Irish signers argue against the use of the acronym NISL and believe that while their variety is distinct, it is still a part of British Sign Language."

As of March 2004[update] the British Government recognises only British Sign Language and Irish Sign Language as the official sign languages used in Northern Ireland.

BANZSL family tree

Old British Sign Language (c. 1760–1900)

Maritime SL(c. 1860–present)

Swedish SL family?(c. 1800–present)

Papua NG SL(c. 1990–present)

Auslan(c. 1860–present)

New Zealand SL(c. 1870–present)

British SL(c. 1900–present)

Northern Ireland SL(c. 1920–present)

South African SL(c. 1860–present)

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References

Janzen, Terry (2005). Topics in Signed Language Interpreting: Theory And Practice. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 256 & 265. ISBN 90-272-1669-X. OCLC 60742155. Retrieved 22 June 2008. 90-272-1669-X ↩
Janzen, Terry (2005). Topics in Signed Language Interpreting: Theory And Practice. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 256 & 265. ISBN 90-272-1669-X. OCLC 60742155. Retrieved 22 June 2008. 90-272-1669-X ↩
"Sign Language". Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure. Archived from the original on 9 January 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110109104308/http://www.dcalni.gov.uk/index/languages/sign_language.htm ↩
"Paul Murphy announces recognition for sign language". Northern Ireland Office. 30 March 2004. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2011. I am pleased to announce formal recognition for both British and Irish Sign Languages in Northern Ireland. https://web.archive.org/web/20110520115301/http://www.nio.gov.uk/paul-murphy-announces-recognition-for-sign-language/media-detail.htm?newsID=8540 ↩