As with any new subject there is new terminology that you will probably not have encountered before.  We will try to explain each in turn.  Before starting it may be best to explain what BSL actually is, and how it differs from other sign languages that you may have heard about.

BSL is a Visual Gestural language, and it is used by many British deaf people and their families. 

As the name suggests it uses signs (gestures) that others see (visual).  It is not simply a version of English that replaces words with signs or gestures. It has its own grammar and syntax very different from that of spoken or written English.  It evolved separately from English, and some of the signs are derived from a visual representation of what the object or action actually looks like. As with any language, there are a number of local accents in BSL.  This may mean that people from different parts of the country will use slightly different signs for the same thing.  Occasionally these signs are significantly different.  However, this does not mean that one sign is correct and the others are wrong.  It is simply the Regional Variations.  You will encounter these throughout your learning experience.  Simply learn to recognise the other persons sign, but use the dialect local to your own region.  If you meet, or work with someone from another region, you may decide to adopt their signs in order to prevent any confusion. It is used primarily here in the UK, but because of our historical links with countries such as Australia and New Zealand it is very closely related to Auslan (Australian Sign Language).  Curiously though, it is not closely related to American Sign Language (ASL) which developed from a French version. There are other forms of sign language used in the UK but generally these use signs borrowed from BSL and delivered in spoken English word order.  As such, they are often not nearly as efficient or fluent.

However, it is not a language that relies solely on manual handshapes and actions.  Much of the information is contained within facial expression and mouthpattern that are used simultaneously with the sign. These are known as non-manual features.  Don’t get too nervous at having to learn which mouthpattern etc goes with which sign and at what time.  Many of these are used everyday in spoken English, just take a look at someone describing something huge, or tiny or something travelling very, very slowly.  The fact that we have these other methods of providing information at the same time means that a proficient signer can often sign something using only a few signs that would have taken several spoken sentences in English.  In addition, the direction of the sign and its speed and duration can also be varied to contain yet more information.

Throughout the UK we have regional variation.  These can be thought of as accents or dialects.   Some signs change very slightly, others may change totally.   Generally, variations start from the main deaf school in each area.  Some cities such as Glasgow (and Liverpool?) have Deaf Schools with links to Ireland.  This resulted in variation heavily influenced by Irish “One-Handed Alphabet”.  This does not mean that one sign is correct, and all others are wrong.  All are acceptable

This is another sign language used in the UK.  It uses signs borrowed from BSL but delivers them in English word order.  It is often slower than BSL, particularly when signing longer phrases and sentences as it can lack the ability to deliver several units of information simultaneously.