成人快手

Through his interpreter Sue, local BSL teacher Stephen Hurley tells Stephen Bumfrey about regional accents in sign language.

STEPHEN HURLEY:
In terms of accents, it could be linked to your upbringing, what school you went to, what deaf community you belong to... For example, in Norfolk we have a predominant sign for "porridge" - card, that's the hand shape, if you can relay that to your listeners, I don't know how you do that, but that's very much akin to the Gorleston School for the Deaf, which is no longer here. But in Manchester, for example, that'd be different - that'd be "morning, here", but in Newcastle that'd be "good morning".

STEPHEN BUMFREY:
So that's, yes, either your hand moving across your chest, or your hand moving from top to bottom.

STEPHEN HURLEY:
A lot of regional accents come in colours - I think there are about twenty different signs for the word "purple", for example! I personally only know about four or five. And then you've got numbers - you know, "six", "six" or "six". Either with a thumb, the little finger, or the two-handed six. And sometimes you can tell where people are from because of the way they sign. Like Northern Ireland, for example. But I can adjust to people's different signs. And obviously working with my interpreters, I have to clarify sometimes if they're from a different part of the country. It's a bit like when you meet hearing people with spoken accents, you can tell that they're from Manchester, Scotland, Ireland - and exactly the same in the deaf community.

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