The sign languages used in Australia and New Zealand, Auslan and New Zealand Sign Language, respectively, evolved largely from 19th century BSL, and all retain the same manual alphabet and grammar and possess similar lexicons.

The language contact post secondary education between Australian ISL users and ' Australian BSL ' users accounts for some of the dialectal differences we see between modern BSL and Auslan.

Further information will be available after the completion of the BSL corpus is completed and allows for comparison with the Auslan corpus and the Sociolinguistic Variation in New Zealand Sign Language project.

There continues to be language contact between BSL, Auslan and NZSL through migration ( deaf people and interpreters ), the media ( television programmes such as See Hear, Switched, Rush and SignPost are often recorded and shared informally in all three countries ) and conferences ( the World Federation of the Deaf Conference – WFD – in Brisbane 1999 saw many British deaf people travelling to Australia ).

Auslan is related to British Sign Language ( BSL ); the three have descended from the same parent language, and together comprise the BANZSL language family.

These two dialects may have roots in older dialectic differences from the United Kingdom, brought over by Deaf immigrants who founded the first schools for the deaf in Australia — English varieties ( from London ) in Melbourne and Scottish ones ( from Edinburgh ) in Sydney, although the relationship between lexical variation in the UK and Australia appears much more complicated than this ( some Auslan signs appear similar to signs used in the Newcastle variety of BSL, for example ).

It uses the same two-handed manual alphabet as BSL ( British Sign Language ) and Auslan ( Australian Sign Language ).

BANZSL, or British, Australian and New Zealand Sign Language, is the language of which British Sign Language ( BSL ), Auslan and New Zealand Sign Language ( NZSL ) may be considered dialects.

BSL, Auslan and NZSL all have their roots in a deaf sign language used in Britain during the 19th century.

Between Auslan, BSL and NZSL, 82 % of signs are identical ( per Swadesh lists ).

The term BANZSL is not meant to replace the terms BSL, Auslan and NZSL.

BSL, Auslan and NZSL: Three signed languages or one?

ISL was brought by Catholic missionaries to Australia and South Africa, and to Scotland and England, with remnants of ISL still visible in some variants of BSL, especially in Glasgow, and with some elderly Auslan Catholics still using ISL today.

In Australia, ' Signed English ' was developed by a committee in the late 1970s, who took signs from Auslan ( especially the southern dialect ), invented new signs, and borrowed a number of signs from American Sign Language that have now made their way into everyday use in Auslan.

At the high end of the scale, fingerspelling makes up about 8. 7 % of casual signing in ASL, and 10 % of casual signing in Auslan.

Of those who use Auslan as their main language, only about 5 % learned it from their parents, with the rest acquiring it from peers at school or later in life.

A recent small-scale study puts fingerspelled words in Auslan conversations at about 10 % of all lexical items, roughly equal to ASL and higher than many other sign languages, such as New Zealand Sign Language.

Auslan has also been influenced by Irish Sign Language ( ISL ) and more recently has borrowed signs from American Sign Language ( ASL ).

In more recent times Auslan has seen a significant amount of lexical borrowing from American Sign Language ( ASL ), especially in signs for technical terms.

ASL contains many signs initialised from an alphabet which was also derived from LSF, and Auslan users, already familiar with the related ISL alphabet, accepted many of the new signs easily.

Australasian Signed English was created in the late 1970s to represent English words and grammar, using mostly Auslan signs together with some additional contrived signs, as well as borrowings from American Sign Language ( ASL ).

Deaf Indigenous people of Far North Queensland ( extending from Yarrabah to Cape York ) form a distinct signing community using a dialect of Auslan ; it has features of indigenous sign languages and gestural systems as well as signs and grammar of Auslan.

The first Auslan dictionaries used either photographs or drawings with motion arrows to describe signs ; more recently, technology has made possible the use of short video clips on CD-ROM or online dictionaries.

A two-handed manual alphabet, identical to the one used in British Sign Language and New Zealand Sign Language, is integral to Auslan.

Today there is a growing number of courses teaching Auslan as a second language, from an elective language subject offered by some secondary schools to a two-year full-time diploma at TAFE.

Auslan evolved from sign languages brought to Australia during the nineteenth century from Britain and Ireland.

Auslan is a natural language distinct from spoken or written English.

Most acquire Auslan from deaf peers at school or later through Deaf community networks.

The Deaf community often distinguish between " oral deaf " who grew up in an oral or signed English educational environment without Auslan, and those " deaf deaf " who learnt Auslan at an early age from Deaf parents or at a deaf school.

Despite these differences, communication between Auslan users from different regions poses little difficulty for most Deaf Australians, who often become aware of different regional vocabulary as they grow older, through travel and Deaf community networks, and because Deaf people are so well practised in bridging barriers to communication.

A visual sign taken from a deaf sign language may be generalised to represent homonyms of the English word — for example, the Auslan sign for a ' fly ' ( insect ) may be used in Signed English for the verb ( to ) ' fly '.

Linguists often regard Auslan as having two major dialects-Northern ( Queensland and NSW ), and Southern ( Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia ).

Signs of Australia: A new dictionary of Auslan ( the sign language of the Australian deaf community ).

BSL users campaigned to have BSL recognised on a similar level to Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Irish.

Interpreters must have an advanced knowledge of English and BSL and must be able to process information quickly and accurately.

Interpreters may apply for the status of " Junior Trainee Interpreter " after completing the Level III / NVQ 3 BSL assessment ( they must also be enrolled on a recognised interpreter training programme, have completed some initial training and have professional indemnity insurance to register ).

A large number of jurisdictions have enacted breed-specific legislation ( BSL ) in response to a number of well-publicized incidents involving pit bull-type dogs, and some government organizations such as the United States Army and Marine Corps have taken administrative action as well.

Every Scottish qualification-from the Access level for those with learning difficulties to a Doctorate and including vocational as well as ESOL and BSL qualifications-is allocated A Levels and credit value within this framework, which all partners have agreed to recognise.

Jeff McWhinney have pushed the transition of the British Deaf Association from a Deaf organisation ( with the ' Wheelchair Mentality ') into a BSL organisation.

The Let's Sign BSL and fingerspelling graphics are being developed for use in education by deaf educators and tutors and include many of the regional signs referred to above ...

For example, in the United Kingdom, Makaton uses signs from British Sign Language ( BSL ).

It uses more lip-patterns in conjunction with hand and facial movement to cue signs than BSL, reflecting New Zealand's history of oralist education of deaf people.

A model being currently created at the University of Reading is one of the few to utilise two hands, attempt signs that involve motion, and make it relevant to British Sign Language ( BSL ).

It uses more lip-patterns in conjunction with hand and facial movement to cue signs than BSL, reflecting New Zealand's history of oralist education of deaf people.

BSL signs are used in English grammar.

As with PSE the balance of BSL signs to English varies greatly depending on the signer's knowledge of the two languages.