video clip in British Sign Language. Jeff Brattan-Wilson discusses his linguistic background.

"I learnt BSL because my parents are deaf, my family’s deaf. I was born into a deaf world and I grew up signing. The community around me were using English, and everybody around me was hearing, but my family’s deaf.
"BSL is a real language. It has its own grammar structure, its own language structure, its own linguistic context. Now England and Wales, different countries, have their own language, their own spoken language. And BSL is the same. It has its own structure.
"Well, accents. Let’s talk about that. Now sign language actually has different regional variations. North Wales and South Wales has different regional variations, and it’s the same with west and east Wales. It’s quite similar as to spoken language, as there are regional differences in the spoken language of west and east, north and south Wales. BSL is the same. And also Welsh sign language is quite a lot different from the sign language used in England, although it is all British Sign Language.
"Now there are very different signs, yes. One sign is very different. It’s the sign for letter. Now the Welsh sign for letter is this, and the English sign for letter is this one. They are very different as you can see."