How different is American Sign Language from English (of England) Sign Language?
Are the differences between the two greater than the differences between American English and…English English?
Sign Language is not a universal language.
IT’S NOT…
Some people just give an opinion about things they don’t even know.
I’m LSA (Argentinian Sign Language) and ASL (American Sign Language) interpreter and have been around the Deaf community and different sign languages for the last 12 years.
LSA and ASL are two completely different languages. Even BLS (British Sign Language) is a separated language by its own. The fact that in both the States and in the UK speak English doesn’t mean that the sign language are the same.
Even the fingerspelled alphabets are different:
ASL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Aslfingerspellalpha.png
BSL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bsl.png
LSA: http://www.sitiodesordos.com.ar/alfabeto.htm
and so on…
Every language is tight to the local area community and specific culture and not to external factors. ASL and BSL developed from different background and have their own vocab, idioms and grammar.