In this chapter, we give a brief overview of the structure, use, and history of British Sign Language and Irish Sign Language, the majority sign languages of the Deaf communities in the United Kingdom and Ireland respectively. After an introduction to the history and social context of each sign language, we present some key features of their grammar, before discussing sociolinguistic variation and change in the two varieties. We close with a discussion of the some of the key applied linguistics dimensions of research into the two sign languages.

This chapter addresses issues related to sign language standardization, a topic that has been approached from many different perspectives. To some members of the Deaf communities, language standardization represents a form of outsider oppression meant to ‘fill in gaps’ with the establishment of a ‘standard’ sign language that is ‘more consistent’. In this sense, there is a resistance in some Deaf communities against dictionaries or glossaries proposed for educational purposes or for teaching sign language. On the other hand, others in the Deaf communities discuss how to standardize their language(s) considering different motivations that are more inclusive, such as the recognition of the diverse varieties of a sign language and how to deal with them. These points are discussed considering the complex factors that are involved in the tentative language standardization processes of sign languages in many different countries. We present and discuss the different experiences and motivations of various language planning projects that include proposals of sign language standardization. We conclude that a successful language standardization process needs to include Deaf professionals as the protagonists.