Northern Ireland Sign Language

Northern Ireland Sign language (NISL) is a sign language used mainly by deaf people in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland Sign Language
NISL
Native to	United Kingdom and Ireland
Region	Northern Ireland
Native speakers	"BSL" is the native or preferred language of 3,500 in Northern Ireland (2007)[1]
Language family	BANZSL Family. Emerging from British, Irish, and American Sign. Northern Ireland Sign Language
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
IETF	isg-u-sd-gbnir

NISL is described as being related to Irish Sign Language (ISL) at the syntactic level while the lexicon is based on British Sign Language (BSL)^[2] and American Sign Language (ASL).^{[citation needed]}

A number of practitioners see Northern Ireland Sign Language as a distinct and separate language from both BSL and ISL though "many 'Anglo-Irish'^{[further explanation needed]} Northern Irish signers argue against the use of the acronym NISL and believe that while their variety is distinct, it is still a part of British Sign Language."^[2]

As of March 2004^[update] the British Government recognises only British Sign Language and Irish Sign Language as the official sign languages used in Northern Ireland.^[1][3]

BANZSL family tree
Old British Sign Language (c. 1760–1900) Maritime SL (c. 1860–present) Swedish SL family? (c. 1800–present) Papua NG SL (c. 1990–present) Auslan (c. 1860–present) New Zealand SL (c. 1870–present) British SL (c. 1900–present) Northern Ireland SL (c. 1920–present) South African SL (c. 1860–present)