Just as minority spoken languages borrow from surrounding majority languages, so British Sign Language (BSL) borrows signs from English. BSL may borrow from both spoken and written English, but here we focus on the processes involved in borrowing from the written English word, using the manual alphabet. The end result of borrowing depends on an interaction of at least four variables: the form of the English word, the word-formation processes of BSL, the sociolinguistic attitudes of the signer, and the skills of the signer in BSL, English and fingerspelling. We can look at the features of language contact by studying the way British place names are represented in BSL. This paper reports the possible outcomes of using a British place-name within BSL discourse and demonstrates how the length of the English word, the number of syllables, the particular letters in the word and the morphology of the word all interact with BSL processes to dictate the signed outcome of the loan. (Contains nine references.) (Author)