During the Scottish Enlightenment, James Hutton analysed the rocks here, coming to a new and controversial realisation about the age of the Earth. See Trudi’s story of his discovery in British Sign Language (BSL), and explore the videos to learn how she uses this visual-spatial language.
A story of rocks and time
Trudi uses BSL to tell how James Hutton, ‘the father of Geology’, pioneered a new theory of the Earth’s age using observations of volcanic rocks in Holyrood Park.
Fingerspelling and creating signs in BSL
BSL linguist Robert Adam describes how signers respond when there isn’t an established sign for a noun or concept, or they don’t know its sign.
Using timelines in BSL
Robert shows how in BSL time can be described using directional lines in the signing space.
Qualifying verbs and adverbs in BSL
Robert describes how the way in which you perform a sign – for example, fast or slow, once or repeatedly – can add detail into a story in BSL.
Tell us what you think
Did you learn anything about BSL through these videos? Tell us more in our survey.
A partnership project
This project has been produced in partnership between Historic Environment Scotland and King’s College London, and aims to raise awareness of the performative richness of BSL as a visual language.