Sign languages are visual means of communication using a combination of hand movements, facial expression, body language and lip reading. It is the primary mode of language for many in the Deaf community, and is also used by many others with a hearing loss or other difficulties with verbal communication.

There are many sign languages, and most countries have their own, unrelated to the primary spoken language of the country. The main sign language used in the UK is called British Sign Language (BSL) for example, while the USA has its own separate sign language called American Sign Language (ASL), which is more closely related to the French sign language (Langue des Signes Française, or LSF) than to BSL!

As BSL is independent of the spoken language, it has its own grammatical structure and syntax. The main structure used is known as a ‘Topic-Comment structure’ – this means that the topic of the sentence is stated first, and the rest of the sentence is explained afterwards.

To put this more academically, English has a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) structure, like so:

I (subject) + read (verb) + a book (object)

But BSL has an Object-Subject-Verb (OSV) structure, which it shares with languages such as Japanese, and many of the languages of the Amazon basin! It looks like this:

Book (object) + me (subject) + read (verb)

To enable a better understanding of BSL as a distinct language, a literal transcription of our staff members’ signed translation is below: