Sign languages is an independent, fully fledged language which arouses naturally in deaf communities in different countries. Lexical items are mappings between a phonological form and a set of meanings. Sign Language (BSL) is a visual-gestural language distinct from spoken languages used in the United Kingdom but in contact with them. BSL is the language of the British Deaf community. BSL has its own phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Many deaf users of BSL possess cultural and linguistic identities distinct from those of English speakers. Nonetheless, BSL has regular contact with English and can represent English orthography with its manual alphabet. This paper will discuss BSL and factors that influence it.
Sociolinguistics is used for the study of the relationship between language and society. This is a broad area of investigation that developed through the interaction of linguistics with academic disciplines that look at language in its social contexts. Social linguistics uses all these connections to try to analyze language from a social perspective. This study looks at how age, gender and region influence phonological and lexical variation for the sign ADDRESS. The study looked at the phonological variation of the "Address" sign in four different regions among two different age groups in the United Kingdom. The known handshape for “ADDRESS” is the middle finger on the chest with a movement towards the body. (BSL sign bank)
