Promoting better rights for deaf signers living in Scotland via opportunities, democracy and ScotsSL education. #ProtectScottishSignLanguage #AyeSign #ScotsSL

Scotland
Honestly, the likes of them can NEVER lecture us again about Scottish Sign Language from the Scottish independent education system EVER AGAIN. They’ve lost that argument 110%.
That’s interesting, because Mary Hare is FULLY COMMITTED to the pure oralism in the classroom ideology, and they had to “renew” their oralism mandate. Guess what? It went unchallenged by the likes of them, including the Westminster SESL board.
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What a try that was, literally world-class! Happy days! #SCOvENG
Scottish Rugby
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Has anyone even bothered to make sure that all the briefings for #StormBabet has been made accessible in Scottish Sign Language? No Scottish Sign Language interpretation for Scottish news unlike in England with strong English signing throughout there.
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It’s worth looking back at this from @jeffmcw and we can learn from this for Scotland because the way forward is a democratic Scottish language body led by Scottish deaf signers. Organisations cannot be involved at all.
Scottish Deaf Signers
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An amazing performance by the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scottish 🏉 rugby team tonight! Oh yes, there’s a Scottish sign for ‘rugby’ and it’s not recorded there unsurprisingly: bslsignbank.ucl.ac.uk/dictio…. #ENGSCO
Scottish Rugby
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That’s cool as seen on Google: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdin… It’s nice to see actual deaf people who advocated for deaf signing education being recognised.
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If you want to look like a boss whilst being a tourist in Edinburgh this week, we’d advise you to sign Edinburgh as in ED because it’s never been EDH for a very good reason. It’s disrespecting our Scottish heritage. Arguably one of the most famous deaf Scottish person signing.
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A very rare occurrence where there is a Scottish voiceover, it’s useful to see how quickly you can change whilst being educated in England. It’s a good TV series interviewing deaf signers but what is the problem? None of the deaf signers were educated in Scotland fully.
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OMG! The Chair of the @WFDeaf_org is undermining the vitality of Scottish Sign Language and does he not know how his alumni was influenced by Scotland’s first deaf Scottish Sign Language teacher as in Joseph Turner who met Thomas Gallaudet in Edinburgh. (We are not British!)
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Good luck to the players selected! C’mon Scotland, you can make history by beating the Auld Enemy in the Euros! Get yer fitness up to scratch and you’ll dae it, nae bother! #TartanArmy
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We’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns here in Scotland! 🙌🙌🏽🙌🏾🙌🏿 They were signing ‘birthday’ for the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 West Coast, we would say that ScotsSL has about three or four different dialects overall. Obv, we need to research on it, but it does surprise us that it’s not important to HW.
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The key question we’ll be asking people regularly is: Will you recognise Scottish Sign Language as signed by us? Yes or no? It’s simple as that. @BDA_Deaf @HeriotWattBSL
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With the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 squad announcement today for the Euro Deaf Football, we’re only 20 days away from that clash with the Auld Enemy. (23/5/24, Kick-off @ 3pm Scottish time) That’s now 100% participant from Scotland for the first time *ever* in an international tournament. #TartanArmy
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Translation: G1: Hame! (Gaidhlig style) G2: Hame! G1: Hospital (Scottish Sign Language) G2: Snap, and didn’t we see this sign differently? G1: Aye, it’s English. (Asking the interviewer for confirmation)
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He does look upset there, so we’re posting the video there as a matter of respect. Kudos to the man for signing up for deaf signed education unlike some.
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Seeing a red squirrel here in Scotland is the equivalent of seeing a Scottish Sign Language signer nowadays here in Scotland. Nae such luck with #FMQs today alas! (Red Squirrel Sign Language Project? 🤔)
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That’s a huge compliment there. @jeffmcw has a direct connection to Francis Maginn in a way. “He objected to the "benevolent paternalism" of the hearing friends of the deaf.”
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Heriot-Watt got told to sit down by them when they “proposed” a Scottish Sign Language Corpus, oh aye, they are really a group of independent mind of folk! Or unless, they are promoting that language? Serving us or them? 🤔
Scottish Deaf Signers
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Honestly, we haven’t taken it out of context, we don’t know if the voice-over is interpreting this spot-on? The same mentality is strong with them demanding it is 🇬🇧 Sign Language here in Scotland despite our own 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 education system developing ScotsSL.
Scottish Deaf Signers
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Having a Walter Geikie day on the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 East Coast! 🤩 (Walter Geikie was known to wander around in the Auld Toun and beyond observing and drawing people) Walter Geikie would have been a ScotsSL signer rather than being a SESL signer 110%.
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Gerry Hughes didn’t become the first deaf signing teacher in Scotland by being “positive” and instead of that he got his lawyer to take GTCS to the ECHR: bslzone.co.uk/watch/close-up… It’s a worry how deaf organisations are selling us out.
Scottish Deaf Signers
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Interesting to see the North Britain branch celebrating the news of getting funding to keep their North Britain propaganda going and envisaged by Mary Hare people who are on record in saying that they felt “fortunate” to go to a pure oralism school in England. 😂 Mary Hareism!
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Just a couple of Scottish signs there sprinkled whilst arguing on the merit of a Scottish Sign Language Corpus! 🤣 And why are you calling it Scottish British? Imagine calling it BAuslan? 🙃 Interesting to see his demeanour changing fast! 😭 #LanguageOppression
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Oh man, AV is using the same strategy deployed by staunch oralists decades ago, they bring deaf people who have a clear ish voice, and they approach politicians, it’s what the NDCS also do on a regular basis here in Scotland too. It’s a horrible tactic to use.
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Interesting to see the positionality there which makes itself obvious towards to the end of the video clip. Strong Southern-English Sign Language signing there as usual for #FMQs so we are not getting Scottish Sign Language signing for our Act!
BBC Scotland News
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SCOTTISH SIGN LANGUAGE IS ALIVE AND KICKING! A little known fact, the Scottish Sign Language signs from 10 to 16 is beautifully synchronised, you won’t really get it from there: bslsignbank.ucl.ac.uk/dictio…, it’s probably a corruption of the original sign.
Scottish Deaf Signers
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Hmm, it does certainly feel like HW is totally neutral on Scottish Sign Language, oh aye man, we’re *telling* you that they will be in our corner fighting for a Scottish Sign Language Corpus 💯 (They created a United Kingdom to keep a rebellious Ireland under control.)
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Wow! Published in 1818 and *Joseph* Turner is arguably Scotland’s first Scottish Sign Language deaf signing teacher. Thomas Pattison is credited with importing Scottish Sign Language to Sydney in Australia: awesomeauslan.com.au/dialect…
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It’s always weird when we see the anglicised sign for Edinburgh being used. It’s a relief to see someone using the Scottish sign for Edinburgh. Gerry Hughes is someone who we have the utmost respect for even he has different political views.
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Us: Scottish Sign Language came from the independent Scottish education system rather than the standard Southern-English signing known as British Sign Language nowadays. Them: (😂) (And we never signed up for Southern-English signing to be the standard here in Scotland)
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Why would they have BSL in Ireland? We can remember how a person from London trying to sign ISL from Red Bee Media. That was a mistake, all interpretations for ISL should be done in Ireland. Giving deaf signers fair opportunities in life like hearing people.
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HAULD OAN A MEENIT! Look at who jist signed up for TikTok? Are they getting worried at the Scottish Sensory? 🤔😂 Why not support a Scottish Sign Language Corpus? 🤔
Looking at the statistic for the video, people are *really* interested in watching that one, there’s something in that TikTok signing fad. They were really surprised to see the sign for ‘ten’ being signed differently.
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Why is @theSNP backing a British language board for deaf signers down at Westminster, but not for a Scottish language board for Scottish deaf signers at Holyrood? snp.org/delivering-fairness-… “... equality targets to help more disabled people serve on boards of organisations.” 🤔
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More confirmation that it’s a Southern-English sign, it’s now commonly seen in Edinburgh. It’s the same with the sign for ‘must’ as well. You get people arguing it’s a new sign when it’s clearly not.
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No Scottish Sign Language interpretation at all for yesterday’s FMQs so it’s quite symbolic actually with the *new* BDA travelling up to Glasgow to cement their thinking on Scotland being a region of Greater England politically and linguistically: piped.video/iFMgvFrPIyQ
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This is an explosive admission by Frances Elton that her team at Durham University wouldn’t allow her to say that or this sign is a ScotsSL sign or a SESL sign because it had to be called as “variation” instead. Imagine doing the same with the Scots leid? 🤯
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Aye, it’s what we have been telling folks on why Scottish Sign Language is so important to us because we beat the Milan folks with our independent Scottish education system. But now, the BSL establishment want to take that away from us. #MobileDeaf2023.
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The *new* BDA and Mary Hare this weekend! 🫶
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Interesting to see this person using that: bslsignbank.ucl.ac.uk/dictio… We never saw this growing up in Scotland. It’s like an alien sign to us with all due respect. Ours is this: bslsignbank.ucl.ac.uk/dictio… #OnlyFoundInScotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
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Highlight of the day so far! Good man. Be good to see him barracking the New Labour Party from the backbench! God knows England need him with Reform coming second in some areas. #GeneralElection2024
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Not sure if it is the “Scottish-British Sign Language” signing that Annelies Kusters was describing because you can find about three Scottish Sign Language signs but the rest of it is Southern-English Sign Language. #FMQs
BBC Scotland News
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They couldn’t even get that correct if it’s supposed to be Scottish when we know SignPort is just a front for their Greater England project. We never saw this Southern-English Sign Language sign for ADDRESS growing up here in Scotland: signd.co.uk/view/address?q=A…
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BSL Est in Scotland: Uh oh, we better stop using that sign and we’ll just carry on using SESL! They won’t know! 😂 (Phenomenal legacy of Frances Elton there, the more we think about it, it will be more respected as time goes on)
Scottish Deaf Signers
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Good man, Andy Murray! Never give up! That goes for you too Scottish deaf signers! 😉🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Tennis TV
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We’ve just seen a tweet suggesting that if the translation is done by a certain group of people from a country in another country then it’s fine. It’s not happening here in Scotland, and instead of that, it’s taking away the infrastructure opportunities in Scotland.
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That got us thinking because y’know, the British 🇬🇧 bias from the *new* BDA and Heriot-Watt. We’ve already posted Scottish Sign Language there on the Scottish Census, and clearly the *new* BDA is referring to Flemish Sign Language etc. Professor VGT is a SESL signer 110%.
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Of course, he’s making a good point where he’s describing the importance of having a linkage for our Scottish Sign Language history as seen with the likes of Joseph Turner etc. But he took a gift as in the tie despite that old saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch!
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Why do Scottish politicians actually ignore deaf signing lived life experience but listen to hearing people instead? Are they trying to emulate the Westminster model? 🤔 We actually were educated in Scotland fully and rejected a Mary Hare Grammar School offer. (Pure oralism)
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OMG: signature.org.uk/edinburgh-d… (🤨) An English deaf signer based in England is tasked with delivering the project…..funded by Creative Scotland. (Their target audience is folk living in England thus boosting their revenue and is being copied by their partners in England.)
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Mate, we ain’t British or even English. They are implying that we’re a region as part of Greater England. Why is it inevitable that we’re suddenly signing Southern-English Sign Language? #ProtectScottishSignLanguage!
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Talking about rapid mouthing, we can’t do it here because the way that we think, it’s signing first, it’s hardwired into our brain. It’s nothing to do with the quality of the speech, a person may have not got a clear voice but the person will still engage in rapid mouthing.
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It’s a big fat lie to claim that it’s a language of Great Britain when we know that the Scottish independent education system developed Scottish Sign Language and it’s even recognised in Australia. It’s likely that 🇬🇧 hearing late signers linguists pushed that narrative.
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Every time that they threaten the prospect of a Scottish independence referendum, the Southern-English Sign Language establishment under the banner of that given name as in Greater England Sign Language breaks out in a cold sweat! 😂 Bluff or not? 🤔
The SNP
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Another enduring sign as seen from the two auld deaf Londoners, it’s also now commonly seen in EDH nowadays. They were kinda of arguing that it’s a new sign, when in reality, it’s not.
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Nice to see the signing in English Sign Language for good luck. All the best Rose! #GoodLuckRose
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Right…. Let us get it correct: “…in the emergence of modern British Sign Language variety used in England. BSL may be ONE of the sign languages with the OLDEST tradition of use..” How does that work? It’s not an indigenous language of Scotland is it? 🙄
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It’s really that Frances Elton that understood the difference between Scottish and Southern-English signing far much better than hearing people who attended universities, it’s still happening today.
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Robert Kinniburgh lamenting on the approach taken by the English education system. He was building a different approach for the Scottish independent education system encouraging similar schools to be opened in Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow. Most folk are unaware of that.
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This is a good read, currently re-reading it, and the historian does an excellent job of dispelling certain Jacobite myths created by the British: goodreads.com/book/show/2886… The historian even argues against the idea of a Highland army by saying it was actually a Scottish army.
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Look, there is a simple strategy for ENGLAND as in their English education system, CALL OUT MARY HARE ON THEIR PURE ORALISM PHILOSOPHY IN THE CLASSROOM!
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It’s the standard in Edinburgh now officially as seen with HWSESL, we’re happy to post sources if you want us to do so.
Scottish Deaf Signers
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This might explain on why. Yes, Adam is correct that it was back in the 1980’s.
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It’s very relatable with Heriot-Watt being the real 🧠 behind the idea of Edinburgh Deaf Festival to promote their brand of Britishness 🇬🇧 as seen with heavy Southern-English Sign Language signing, it’s very soothing for the 🇬🇧 elite who are worried about Scottish Sign Language.
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Interesting to see the 🧠 from Heriot-Watt pushing for the full annihilation of Scottish Sign Language and they will be announcing it in Glasgow for November. The Megamind is pulling the strings behind the scene 110% in our opinion.
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Interesting to see how different it is for the numbers from ten to sixteen between Scottish Sign Language signs and SESL signs. You can learn a lot about it and speculate on the history of it. nitter.app/ScottishSL/status/1819…
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Alexander Drysdale would have been signing in Scottish Sign Language, a language unrelated to Southern-English Sign Language in terms of lexical signs. It’s sad that he passed away before the event in Milan 1880 where they tried to ban Scottish Sign Language being taught.
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You can see how the two Heriot-Watt interpreters has failed to capture the richness of Scottish Sign Language repeatedly on #FMQs and they are even doubling up on signing Southern-English Sign Language! 🤯 (signd.co.uk/view/shop?q=Shop…)
BBC Scotland News
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This is quite astonishing stuff where an English based organisation can feel compelled to annexe a Welsh organisation withoot a degree of reservation, you can see them faking the local written language as they do here in Scotland! instagram.com/reel/DPWDwzOiP…
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When we watched this, it’s for Flemish Sign Language with their Flemish Parliament, the optimistic seen there for bilingualism (deaf signing education etc) is inspiring to say the least: piped.video/YV-Qg5IU_Dg Literally night and day compared to them.
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The same people don’t know a lot about Scottish Sign Language overall, they are qualified linguists obviously but they do have a little understanding on Scottish Sign Language. You could see them promoting that strongly for the supposedly 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 National Plan. #ProtectScotsSL!
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“Scotland is a country not a county.” — Alex Salmond

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Scottish Sign Language emerged from the Scottish independent education system. We’ve never seen a single academic from them saying that on record. Why? British 🇬🇧 bias? 🤔
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Wow, that’s definitely NOT Scottish Sign Language at all. (signd.co.uk/view/morning?q=M…) We spotted that sign from the *new* BDA’s latest post dating back to at least 1945 and it was also documented by a deaf Londoner around the 1920’s and we never saw that sign growing up in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿.
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Wow: bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0… The oppression of Scottish Sign Language as seen from the interpretation from that episode and onwards is simply mind blowing. Remember, it’s not an accent there as seen with Auslan etc.
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We love Scottish Sign Language 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 here!
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William Sleight “beat” Francis Maginn to the role of the Greater England Deaf Association’s top dog and remained in charge for TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS. They wanted a deaf organisation for the British Empire and the attitude is not too different today TBF! (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_…)
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This is interesting @MobileDeaf & we had plenty of Scottish deaf signers disagreeing to lumping us together as in 🇬🇧 Sign Language, it was enforced on us by hearing professionals. Even we couldn’t have a clear option to put Scottish Sign Language in the Scottish Census.
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Man! This win over the #EURO2024 champion has aged like a fine wine! We did really upset them on the night, they have gone unbeaten since then.
Scotland National Team
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OMG, they are really shameless aren’t they because the *new* BDA’s CEO is a poster individual for Mary Hare Grammar School whereas Scottish Sign Language wasn’t affected by Mary Hare’s philosophy but they are oppressing Scottish Sign Language by denying its recognition.
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Hmm: arxiv.org/abs/2505.02519 It’s a bit hilarious seeing them talk about the erosion of linguistic rights when they are doing the same thing to Scottish Sign Language literally by endorsing an event in another country where there will be likely no Scottish Sign Language signing.
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Oh man, that stunning effort from Gilmour! Heartbreaking not to see such a gallus effort from him going in goal for Scotland! #POLSCO
Scotland National Team
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Aye man! “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” — Marcus Aurelius (You can see Jupiter there, it’s the biggest white blob out of them all, it’s near the bottom of the photo)
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There’s a bit of a myth that we are incapable of running our own independent deaf led signing language body here in Scotland. That’s definitely not true because we do have the talent and the intelligence to do it without a doubt, it’s just that blocking mentality in place.

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Really? That’s quite patronising stuff really to have a hearing non-signer talking to a Scottish politician about our language here in Scotland. 1) The guy cannae sign at all. 2) Support the AV method 💪 3) His 🇬🇧 organisation campaigned against a Scottish language body.
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No, it’s not controversial to compare Reform UK to the *new* BDA because at the core of their policies despite the fact we admit that certain people within their circles might baulk at some policies but nevertheless they are two peas in a pod with their Greater England ideology.
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We’re signing the ScotsSL numbers from ten to sixteen, it’s jist the pure basic stuff, we didn’t even see that at all from today’s FMQs interpretation so we weren’t joking when we said most of Heriot-Watt folk would fail a ScotsSL level one test badly.
Scottish Deaf Signers
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“Mr Humphreys continued to practise the system of teaching in every class. He received much assistance from (Joseph) Turner (deaf assistant teacher) whose quickness of mind and expression he often admired than the headmaster (Kinniburgh).” Joseph Humphreys was from Cork BTW.
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Thomas Pattison is credited with importing Scottish Sign Language to Sydney, Australia and that is set in stone 110%. It WAS NOT BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE and Joseph Turner, Scotland’s first Scottish Sign Language deaf teacher is credited with giving Thomas Pattison a reference.
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In England, the oppressed has become the oppressors sadly: freire.org/quotes-by-paulo-f… Mary Hare quickly implemented the Milan 1880 ruling and to this date, the *new* BDA is led by a Mary Hare alumni and staffed accordingly: thekeep.info/introducing-mar… (Mary Hare got started in 1885)
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This is definitely an English sign there: signd.co.uk/view/morning?q=M… We’ve just seen footage dating from the 1920’s with an unknown elderly deaf signer signing English, and it has aged very well. We also spotted the English sign for ‘finish’ as explained by Mary Brennan.
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Languages are supposed to change slowly, so for that to happen within a hundred year is brutal. Irish Sign Language managed to survive regardless so you can see how sign languages can escape from oppressive policies by “flying under the radar”.
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Scottish and British is plummeting here in Scotland, we have to remember that the BSL Establishment is very Unionist and they do use language like ‘NATIONALISM’ and so on which is very disrespectful in our opinion.
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Thinking about Audrey Cameron’s response and she said it was *important* for teachers and interpreters to know the difference here in Scotland but we’re confused here because the same person won with her science idea over a Scottish Sign Language Corpus? 🤔
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C’mon, even you are a neutral observer, you must be thinking it’s staggeringly bizarre stuff for an European organisation to be endorsing that *forever* statement in the light of Brexit and doubling up on it with the rise of the F*rage Party. How come they haven’t got a beamer?
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You do feel strongly vindicated watching some of the old episodes and also seeing the language attitude from them where they were quick to switch to Southern-English Sign Language signing. Even a slightly negative story about a devolved Scottish Parliament! 🤯
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You can see how his attitude has been largely shaped by his education in Berkshire, England and as a result, you lose your Scottishness 110% because you can see him taking a different approach in Flanders. He’s recognising Flemish Sign Language that was acknowledged in 2006.
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Let try and get this right, they are opposed to standardising English Sign Language but they are also in favour of standardising English Sign Language! 😂 That’s their policy, you don’t talk about standardising English Sign Language but you do it anyway.
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