Deaf geography

Late twentieth-century discourses regarding deaf people and sign language provide the theoretical background for investigating early modern families with hereditary deafness within the Kentish Weald. The first of its kind, this thesis described the methods used to ascertain the presence of sufficient numbers of networked deaf people to maintain natural sign language.

A source-driven work, it began with two data sources - a list generated by previous American genealogical research of the first known European-American deaf families originating from seventeenth-century Kent and the 1851 Census of Great Britain, a previously unexplored resource of the first attempt to fully enumerate deaf people in Britain. This thesis was based on an analysis of primary documentation and a critical reading of previous primary and secondary sources seeking to connect the two initial sources. Its framework was predicated on a stance that acknowledges and values deaf culture and its embodies performed manifestation, sign language. Examining the discourses surrounding deaf people throughout the period, it relied upon the concepts of representation, individual identity, and group identity to query the existence of a deaf group identity predating the labels used to describe it.

(Print) 1470-1197 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rscg20 Bristol Deaf Memories: archives, nostalgia and the loss of community space in the deaf community in Bristol Dai O'Brien, Lisa Stead & Nicholas Nourse To cite this article: Dai O'Brien, Lisa Stead & Nicholas Nourse (2017): Bristol Deaf Memories: archives, nostalgia and the loss of community space in the deaf community in Bristol, Social & Cultural Geography,

"Ireland is unique for having a deaf community where two signed languages co-exist because of pillarisation in Irish society: in Dublin, two types of schools were set up to educate Ireland’s deaf children: one Protestant school (Claremont), two Catholic schools - which led to the development of “Protestant Signs” and “Catholic Signs” as separate signed languages. In a later stage, “Protestant Signs” was brought to Belfast from Dublin.

The paper will look at the development of Northern Ireland Sign Language (NISL) as a result of its recent contact with Irish Sign Language (ISL) and the English variants of British Sign Language (BSL), taking into consideration, its historical contact with American Sign Language (ASL) brought over by Maginn & Tillinghast at Dummy’s Hill. The transition from a sign creole heavily based on ASL and BSL to a full fledged language not recognised as an independent language will be explored.

There are over 5,000 sign language users in Northern Ireland, fluent in one or both sign languages: NISL or ISL. A large number are able to code-switch between both languages. With approximately 25 deaf children now being educated at Northern Ireland’s only deaf school, NISL is losing its traditional ground and its linguistic domain. As a minority language, NISL is endangered due to the increase in language contact with BSL due to the younger members of Northern Ireland’s deaf community being educated in England. We will look at the signers’ perspective i.e. the refusal of older members to replace their signs with the recent borrowing from BSL, the younger signers’ reactions saying NISL is undergoing lexical modernisation seeing BSL as a better alternative.

Examples will be given in NISL and BSL. The paper will discuss the understanding of the dynamics of language variety domination and resistance, focusing on the nature and development, however limited, of sign language activism in Belfast and Northern Ireland, and the subsequent response of the nationality war when faced with this challenge to the cultural hegemony of NISL and the community it is used in. It will look at how the two languages can be accommodated and protected by the Northern Ireland Assembly. Recommendations will be discussed in details."