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7 - Language attitudes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2009

By
Sarah Burns ,
Patrick Matthews  and
Evelyn Nolan-Conroy
Edited by
Ceil Lucas
Sarah Burns
Affiliation:
Senior Speech and Language Therapist, Lucena Clinic, Dublin, Ireland
Patrick Matthews
Affiliation:
researcher/lecturer on Deaf studies and an interpreter trainer, University of Bristol
Evelyn Nolan-Conroy
Affiliation:
interpreter, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and the University of Bristol, UK
Ceil Lucas
Affiliation:
Gallaudet University, Washington DC
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Summary

Which reminds me that the funniest thing I saw over the whole holiday period was the Queen's Speech as interpreted into sign language by a splendid blonde lady in a long blue dress. Her hands flew like birds to convey the message to the deaf; all the relevant emotions crossed her face in a constant flux of sun and cloud. It was an Oscar winner among sign language mimes and nailed alongside her by the miracle of TV technology, the royal visage spoke and stared out in granite immobility. I hope HM and millions of the deaf enjoyed it as much as we did. But my guess is some back-room electronic wizard is making urgent inquiries about emigration.

Reference to British Sign Language in The Guardian, 2 January 1989, reprinted in Gregory and Miles (1991)

The language stands for being Irish, the whole ethnic component, and it stands for one other thing. It stands for what is old-fashioned, agricultural, archaic, not entirely of this world or this time, and that doesn't help.

Reference to Irish in an interview with Joshua Fishman, 1975, reprinted in Ó Murchú (1994)

We all form attitudes and opinions – sometimes positive, sometimes negative – about languages, such as British Sign Language (BSL) or Irish referred to above, and varieties of languages, such as African American Vernacular English (AAVE) or Received Pronunciation (RP). We may feel that one language or variety is “elegant”, “expressive”, and “musical”, while another is “vulgar”, “backward” and “ugly”.

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Chapter
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The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages , pp. 181 - 216
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

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  • Language attitudes
    • By Sarah Burns, Senior Speech and Language Therapist, Lucena Clinic, Dublin, Ireland, Patrick Matthews, researcher/lecturer on Deaf studies and an interpreter trainer, University of Bristol, Evelyn Nolan-Conroy, interpreter, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and the University of Bristol, UK
  • Edited by Ceil Lucas, Gallaudet University, Washington DC
  • Book: The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages
  • Online publication: 24 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511612824.009
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  • Language attitudes
    • By Sarah Burns, Senior Speech and Language Therapist, Lucena Clinic, Dublin, Ireland, Patrick Matthews, researcher/lecturer on Deaf studies and an interpreter trainer, University of Bristol, Evelyn Nolan-Conroy, interpreter, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and the University of Bristol, UK
  • Edited by Ceil Lucas, Gallaudet University, Washington DC
  • Book: The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages
  • Online publication: 24 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511612824.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Language attitudes
    • By Sarah Burns, Senior Speech and Language Therapist, Lucena Clinic, Dublin, Ireland, Patrick Matthews, researcher/lecturer on Deaf studies and an interpreter trainer, University of Bristol, Evelyn Nolan-Conroy, interpreter, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and the University of Bristol, UK
  • Edited by Ceil Lucas, Gallaudet University, Washington DC
  • Book: The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages
  • Online publication: 24 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511612824.009
Available formats
×