Call for legislation over sexist language

Efforts to establish linguistic rights in Northern Ireland should take account of groups such as women and the deaf community, a language specialist at Queen's University, Belfast, has proposed. John Kirk, of the school of English, highlighted the two language agencies set up under the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland: the Foras na Gaeilge to support Irish Gaelic and Tha Boord o Ulster-Scotch to support the traditional Scots dialect of Ulster. Dr Kirk said that the deaf community continued to suffer from a regular and widespread inability to communicate with the non-deaf community, while women suffered real grievances from the sexism of the English language