Finding Our Funny Roots - film 04. Why do people from the Black Country speak funny?

[@susanthompson6053]

Godbless the yam yams 💖💋 a wrench from Walsall

[@RaefonB]

Cool video. This is gonna sound like a daft question, but is there a Black Country dialect in BSL or does a lot of the dialect/accent stuff get lost in translation?

[@realartsworkshops9819]

Its a great question! I worked on the BSL translation in consultation with a Deaf person - it was something of a challenge! There are regional dialects in BSL just the same as spoken English can sound different when spoken by people from London, Newcastle, Scotland. I'm signing in 'Wolverhampton voice' which has a rich Deaf profile, with the Deaf Studies and interpreting courses at the University and Deaf led businesses and a large Deaf community (though that has reduced in recent years). That said, it's not really 'Black Country Sign' words like 'Bostin' would be signed as 'fab' or 'great' for example (the same sign) - so in that sense it gets lost in translation although you could potentially introduce the lip pattern ('bostin') and sign it as 'fab' but you might need to explain that to the Deaf audience - it wouldn't be universally understood as such. That would be a video all of its own, which would make a very interesting project for someone to take on...