History of British Sign Language (BSL)?

[Shane Gilchrist O hEorpa]

Trevor,

of course there were signs long before the birth of JC - but we are
talking about British Sign Language - thats why i said "formal" :-)

the first signed language in Ireland was actually BSL - the first deaf
(known) school in Dublin used BSL - a lot of deafies in Dublin won't
want to know that - they ll like to think ISL was always the first one
(!) - sadly BSL died away cos of its "Protestant stigma"

your BSL is fine - its mine that is too fast for you!

yours in BSL,

Shane

On 4/2/06, Trevor Jenkins <trevor.jenkins at suneidesis.com> wrote:
> > Trevor,
> >
> > Formal BSL was first used in Braidwood's Academy in Edinburgh - im not
> > sure re: the date but its deffo in the 1700s.
>
> Shane has a better grasp of BSL than I do. (He's had the real misfortune
> to try to understand me.) Not sure that the literature backs him up on the
> dates though. And in reading that literature there seems to be some
> suggestion that Braidwood put up with the use of signing rather than
> actively encouraged it. Thomas Tillsye signing at his own marriage is
> clearly documented (Sutton-Spence and Woll). There is also Lord Downing's
> servant in 1666. Downing recommended that Samuel Pepys learning some
> simple signs and the latter mentions this in his famous diary. Jonathan
> Rée mentions this in his book "I See a Voice" (HarperCollins, 1999, p121).
>
> Having recently read Melvin Bragg's "The Adventure of English" I wonder
> perhaps whether the Tillsye and Pepys accounts describe a sort of Middle
> BSL rather than Modern BSL. That way both Shane and I can be right. ;-)
>
> Regards, Trevor
>
> <>< Re: deemed!
>
>
>
>