What is the word it in sign language

All of us have a unique way to communicate in order to navigate the world around us and interpret life.

Even though speaking is considered the most common language mode among people, not everyone is able to exercise it. There are over 10 million individuals across Pakistan who live with some level of hearing loss. For someone who maintains the condition of deafness and can’t hear sound, the use of auditory language to exchange information is a no-way. A large number of the population is disconnected from the mainstream hearing-dominated society and lie at the risk of being marginalised, because people who are limited to using only speech can’t communicate with them. A lack of accessibility to support the conversation between both communities also adds to the problem.

Because of this, a huge challenge in the form of a communication gap between D/deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing people arises. To bridge this gap, a non-verbal language known as sign language exists.

So, you must now be wondering, what exactly is this sign language?

1. Sign language is a natural and visual form of language that uses movements and expression to convey meaning between people.

Sign language is a non-verbal language that Deaf persons exclusively count on to connect with their social environment. It is based on visual cues through the hands, eyes, face, mouth, and body. The gestures or symbols in sign language are organised in a linguistic way. It is a rich combination of finger-spelling, hand gestures, body language, facial expressions, timing, touch, and anything else that communicates thoughts or ideas without the use of speech.

Deaf people are the main users of sign language. Some hard of hearing people use it as a handy means of communication too. It is also used by those hearing individuals who can’t use speech, be it due to a disability or condition, or by those who have Deaf family members, and used even sometimes by monks who have taken a vow of silence.

2. No person or committee invented sign language.

No one knows for sure when the first Deaf person tried out visual gestures to express themselves. Many sources agree that using hand gestures and body language is one of the oldest and most basic forms of human communication, and it has been around just as long as spoken language.

The first written document of sign language is said to have come from Plato from Ancient Greece. In his Cratylus, he recorded Socrates saying:

If we had neither voice nor tongue, and yet wished to manifest things to one another, should we not, like those which are at present mute, endeavour to signify our meaning by our hands, head, and other parts of the body?

Native Americans also used sign language to communicate with other ethnic groups who spoke different languages. Even long after the European conquest, this system was in use. Another example is the case of a rare ethnic group that carried genes for deafness. Their island was isolated, so the trait spread among the locals at speed and a great population of Deaf people was formed. A local deaf culture developed and sign language arose so that the deaf could communicate with each other.

In South Asian literature history, there are hardly any mention of sign languages and Deaf people. If there are some, they all date back to ancient times. In religious subjects, symbolic hand gestures have been used for many centuries, but their customs often excluded Deaf participation. Classical Indian dance and theatre also sometimes uses hand and arm gestures that have specific meanings.

In the Hidayah, a 12th century Islamic legal commentary, there was a reference to visual signals used by Deaf people for communication. Deaf people were acknowledged to have legal standing in areas like bequests, marriage, divorce, and financial transactions if they could communicate with understandable signs.

Some say today that sign language came into form more than 200 years ago through the mixture of different cultures and local sign languages. As time went on, the mixed form changed into a vibrant, complex, and mature language in every region.

3. Different countries have different sign languages.

There are several thousand spoken languages across the world and all are different from each other in one sense or the other. In the same way, sign language has hand gestures and visual representations of many different types.

There is Pakistani Sign Language (PSL), American Sign Language (ASL), British Sign Language (BSL), French Sign Language (LSF), Indian Sign Language (ISL), and so on. American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) are both based on English language. Pakistani Sign Language (PSL) and Indian Sign Language (ISL) are also well-known sign languages in the South Asian region.

There are many varieties of sign language in the region, including several subsets of home and local sign languages. There is difference in the flow of signing, pronunciation, slang, and some gestures. These local signs also have distinct accents and dialects, similar to how certain English or Urdu words are spoken differently in separate parts of the country.

4. Sign language is different from spoken language.

Every language, whether verbal or non-verbal, has their own elements and functions and differ from each other in how they are used.

Even though sign language is another means of communication and also has every basic feature of language, it is still different from spoken language in many ways.

You can express your thoughts and ideas in sign language in different forms, just as you can with other languages like Urdu or English. Unlike in spoken languages where speakers may convey meaning by using their voice, sign language users may use hand gestures and facial expression to send a visual signal, use signs to wave hello or goodbye to someone, or point to something they want and use body language to emphasise any idea.

5. Sign languages have their own grammar.

It is said that sign languages are the manual representation of spoken languages, but that’s not true. In reality, both language modes have their own grammar structure, vocabulary, and syntax. The grammars of these visual and gesture-based sign languages are unlike the grammars of sound-based or written languages.

Unlike in spoken languages where grammar is expressed through sound-based signifiers for tense, aspect, mood and syntax (the way we organise individual words), sign languages use hand movements, sign order, as well as body and facial cues to create grammar. In ASL, certain mouth and eye movements act as adjectival or adverbial modifiers.

That is because gesture-based languages are concerned with appearance and concepts, whereas spoken and written languages are more about grammar rules.

6. Children learn sign languages the same way they learn spoken languages.

Parents are usually the power source of a child’s early language learning. Children learn how to do signs from a young age and as natural as they do with any spoken languages. There are also important sign language stages and baby babble. When babies are learning the visual language, they babble with their hands and over time, learn how to better express their signs.

If a hearing child is born to parents who are deaf and use sign language, the child will catch the mechanism the same way they would if the parents used a spoken language, and become fluent sign language users.

On the other hand, if a Deaf child has hearing parents, the learning of sign language may be different. In fact, studies suggest that 9 out of 10 children who are deaf are born to hearing parents. Some hearing parents are reluctant to introduce sign language to their Deaf child. Some of them who do choose to, they learn it along with their Deaf child so that they could communicate with them. Sometimes, the child may only learn sign language through their deaf peers, other Deaf family members, or community people.

7. Sign language is a visual language.

We all already know this fact, but it’s important to emphasise. Sign language may be like any other language in many ways and should be valued as such, but it’s also different.

Sign language is expressive and artistic in comparison to a spoken language’s auditory nature. The gestures of hands and body, facial expressions, and finger-spelling breathe life into its visual spirit. Sign language may be an animated way to convey meaning, but it can be quite easy and formal, as best shown in our video here:

Communication in sign language is like a dramatic arts performance − the rhythm of words, expressive facial cues, the little pauses in between, the breath intake, the emphasis and melody, body language, and head and hands gestures.

It is beautiful not only because it shows us what sign language has the power to do, but because it shows us what language does.

Want to learn sign language? You can easily learn the basics online from here.

For non-deaf or hard of hearing people, it is often a surprise to learn that there is more than a single sign language.

Today, there are anywhere up to 300 different types of sign language used around the world. Some are only used locally. Others are used by millions of people.

Most sign languages don’t aim to directly translate spoken words into signs you make with your hands either. Each is a true language, with its own vocabulary, grammar and syntax – often unrelated to those of oral languages spoken in the same region.

And yes, the position of the hands is important. Yet so are eyebrow position, eye position, body movement and much more besides. A little like tones in oral languages, their importance and the way they are used also vary between different sign languages.

It only takes a moment’s thought to realise that, with so much variation in oral forms of expression, wouldn’t it actually be more surprising if there was only one universal sign language?

The development of sign languages

Questions as to why there isn’t a single universal sign language only really make sense if you are picturing sign languages as a kind of helper aid “gifted” by hearing people to the deaf or hard of hearing.

However, in the real world, sign languages – almost universally – develop naturally among deaf or hard of hearing people and communities.

Even Charles Michel de l’Épée, often credited as being the “inventor” of one of the key ancestors of many modern sign languages – French Sign Language – actually overheard two deaf people using it first and then learned from them.

The origins of sign languages

Many of the sign languages spoken around the world today have their origins in:

1. British Sign Language: the British manual alphabet reached a format which would be familiar to many signers today as early as 1720. However, manual alphabets had been in use in daily British life even by many hearing people for centuries previously – at least as early as 1570. This then spread through the British Commonwealth and beyond in the 19th century.
2. French Sign Language: developed in the 1700s, French Sign Language was the root of American Sign Language and many other European sign languages.
3. Unique origins: yet many others – including Chinese, Japanese, Indo-Pakistani and Levantine Arabic sign languages – have their own unique origins completely unrelated to French or British roots.

But by 1880, different thoughts began to take shape. In that year, plans were announced at the Second International Congress of Education of the Deaf in Milan to reduce and eventually remove sign language from classrooms in favour of lip reading and other oral-based methods.

Known as oralism, these rules – which largely prioritised the convenience of hearing people – remained essentially in effect until the 1970s.

Today, however, the various sign languages naturally developed around the world are increasingly recognised as official languages. They are the preferred method of communication for many millions of deaf and hard of hearing people worldwide.

How do sign languages compare with written or spoken languages?

Just like written or spoken languages, sign languages have their own sentence structures, grammatical organisation and vocabulary. The way the hands are positioned in relation to the body can be almost important as the sign itself, for instance.

But signed languages don’t depend on the spoken or written languages of the same region. Nor do they usually mirror or represent them.

They even have some features which many spoken languages do not. For example, some signed languages have rules for indicating a question only has a yes or no answer.

Sign languages usually develop within deaf communities. Thus, they can be quite separate from the local oral language. The usual example given is that while American English and British English are largely identical, American Sign Language and British Sign Language have many differences.

However, spoken languages and signed languages do come into contact all the time. This means that oral languages do often have some influence on signed languages.

The different types of sign languages used around the world

If you are intending to do business with or advertise your products to deaf or hard of hearing people around the world, it is important to understand the type of sign language they prefer to use.

You can easily set up sign language interpreting services between a given oral language and a given signed language – as long as you know the specific language barrier you want to bridge the gap between.

Some of the most common sign languages in the world include:

British Sign Language, Auslan and New Zealand Sign Language (BANZSL)

The way in which British Sign Language (BSL), Australian Sign Language (Auslan) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) relate to each other is illustrative of the dynamic differences between even closely related signed languages.

British Sign Language, codified in British schools for the deaf in the 1700s, spread around the world as the British Empire and Commonwealth did. This included reaching both Australia and New Zealand.

Thus, New Zealand Sign Language and Auslan, Australian Sign Language, share the same manual alphabet, grammar and much of the same lexicon (that is to say the same signs) as BSL. So much so that a single phrase – BANZSL – was coined to represent them as a single language with three dialects.

1) Differences between dialects

But even within BANZSL, all three dialects of which evolved from the same roots, there are differences.

For example, a key difference between New Zealand Sign Language and the other dialects is that NZSL includes signs for Māori words. It is also heavily influenced by its Auslan roots.

Auslan is itself influenced by Irish Sign Language (which in turn, derives from a French Sign Language root).

2) Differences within dialects

Plus, within each of these dialects, there are other dialects, variants and even what might be considered accents.

Within Auslan, for instance, some dialects might include features taken from Indigenous Australian sign languages which are completely unrelated to Auslan.

Other variants are regional. Certain signs used by BSL speakers in Scotland are unlikely to be understood by BSL speakers in southern England, for instance.

Another example is the city of Manchester in England, whose BSL-speaking population often use their own signed numbering system.

3) Differences within regions

Despite the implications of the names, languages such as British Sign Language or Australian Sign Language are also not the only signed languages used in Britain or Australia.

Many Indigenous Australian groups have their own sign languages. Within the UK, while around 145 000 people have BSL as their first or preferred language, others prefer different ways of communicating.

For example, Sign-Supported English (SSE) is a signed language which uses many of the same signs as BSL but which is designed to be used in support of spoken English. Thus, it tends to follow the same grammatical rules as the oral language instead of those of BSL.

French Sign Language (LSF)

French Sign Language (LSF – Langue des Signes Française) is another origin point for many of the world’s most-used sign languages. It arose amongst the deaf community in Paris and was codified by Charles Michel de l’Épée in the 1770s.

Although de l’Epee added a whole host of extra and often overly complex rules to the existing system, he did at least popularise the idea that sign languages were actual languages – to the point they were accepted by educators up until the rise of oralism.

Today, LSF is spoken by around 100 000 people in France as their first or preferred language. It has also had a significant impact on the development of ASL, Irish Sign Language and Russian Sign Language among many others.

However, again, it would be a mistake to assume that French Sign Language is simply used everywhere French is spoken. Many French-speaking regions have their own sign languages, including:

• Canada: has LSQ (la Langue des Signes Québécois), also referred to as Quebec Sign Language or French Canadian Sign Language, in its francophone regions and ASL (American Sign Language) in its anglophone parts.
• Belgium: has Flemish Belgian Sign Language and French Belgian Sign Language.

There are also numerous regional dialects even within France. These include Southern French Language, also known as Marseilles Sign Language.

American Sign Language (ASL)

American Sign Language borrows a large number of its grammatical laws from LSF, French Sign Language. But it combines them with local signs first used in America.

Today, anywhere from 250 000 to 500 000 use ASL as their preferred or first language. This is because, as well as being widely used by deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States, the language is also used in:

• English-speaking parts of Canada
• Parts of West Africa
• Parts of South-East Asia

Irish Sign Language (ISL)

Irish Sign Language also derives from LSF, French Sign Language. There are certainly influences from the BSL spoken in nearby regions, but ISL remains its own language.

Somewhere around 5000 deaf and hard of hearing people in the Republic of Ireland, as well as some in Northern Ireland, have ISL as their first or preferred language

A dialect difference almost unique to ISL is that which once existed between male and female ISL speakers. This came about through deaf or hard of hearing Irish Catholic students who leaned in schools which operated on lines of gender segregation.

These differences are almost entirely absent from modern ISL. Yet they are one more illustration of the way signed languages can develop in different ways among different groups from the same root.

Japanese Sign Language (JSL)

It has been said that Japanese Sign Language (Nihon Shuwa, 日本手話) reflects oral Japanese more closely than British Sign Language or American Sign Language reflect spoken English.

Speakers of JSL often mouth the way Japanese characters are spoken orally to make it clear which sign they are using. This is an important distinction from languages like ASL or BSL, where gestures and facial expressions are often more important.

Somewhere around 60 000 of the 300 000 deaf or hard of hearing people in Japan use JSL and there are several regional dialects. Many of the 200 000 or more others use:

• Taiou Shuwa: Sign-Supported Speech which works in something of the same manner as Sign-Supported English.
• Chuukan Shuwa: contact sign language. These languages include both oral and manual parts. The “contact” refers to the way they develop in the space where manual and oral languages come into contact.

Chinese Sign Language (CSL or ZGS)

Chinese Sign Language (CSL, written as 中国手语 in simplified Chinese and 中國手語 in traditional Chinese) is sometimes abbreviated as ZGS because of the Hanyu Pinyin romanised name of the language, Zhōngguó Shǒuyǔ.

The History of Chinese Sign Language

Although in recent years Chinese Sign Language has started to become more accepted in China, it remains unknown how many deaf or hard of hearing in the country actually use or prefer it.

This is largely because, up until very recently, many deaf Chinese children were taught in special schools using an oralist approach. This practice was strictly encouraged for the last half-century or more.

However, throughout the time when the oralist approach was the only standard in Chinese education for the deaf, CSL was still spread through smaller schools and workshops in various communities.

Today, there are around 20 million deaf or hard of hearing people in China. It’s estimated that around 1 in 20 or possibly more use CSL.

Chinese Sign Language – a unique language

Chinese Sign Language is a language isolate, meaning it is a natural language which has no other antecedents.

The language does have some parallels with oral Chinese. For example, there are two different signs for “older brother” and “younger brother”. This mirrors the fact that there are distinct words for each in oral Chinese too, instead of a generic word for “brother”.

CSL also includes pictorial representations as part of the language. This includes gesturing the use of chopsticks as the sign for eat.

Is there a universal sign language?

Strictly speaking, yes. International Sign – sometimes referred to as Gestuno, International Sign Pidgin or International Gesture – is a theoretically universal sign language used at the Deaflympics and other international deaf events.

That said, International Sign has been criticised for drawing heavily from European and North American sign languages at the possible expense of deaf and hard of hearing people from other parts of the world.

International Sign also may not, strictly speaking, meet the requirements for being counted a true language. It has recently been argued that International Sign is more like a complex pidgin – a term often used to describe a somewhat simplified form of communication developed between groups which speak different languages – rather than a complete language in and of itself.

International Sign Language Day

International Sign Language Day takes place every year on September 23rd. If nothing else this year, it’s worth thinking a little about how signed communication really works.

The differences between the sign languages spoken around the world are just as diverse and intriguing as those between spoken languages.

Do you need to set up sign language interpreting for your physical or virtual event, appointment or business meeting?

Asian Absolute works with individuals and businesses in every industry to bridge language gaps both spoken and signed.

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This article is about primary sign languages of the deaf. For signed versions of spoken languages, see manually coded language.

Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign languages are full-fledged natural languages with their own grammar and lexicon.^[1] Sign languages are not universal and are usually not mutually intelligible,^[2] although there are also similarities among different sign languages.

Linguists consider both spoken and signed communication to be types of natural language, meaning that both emerged through an abstract, protracted aging process and evolved over time without meticulous planning.^[3] This is supported by the fact that there is substantial overlap between the neural substrates of sign and spoken language processing, despite the obvious differences in modality.^[4] Sign language should not be confused with body language, a type of nonverbal communication.

Wherever communities of deaf people exist, sign languages have developed as useful means of communication and form the core of local Deaf cultures. Although signing is used primarily by the deaf and hard of hearing, it is also used by hearing individuals, such as those unable to physically speak, those who have trouble with oral language due to a disability or condition (augmentative and alternative communication), and those with deaf family members including children of deaf adults.

The number of sign languages worldwide is not precisely known. Each country generally has its own native sign language; some have more than one. The 2021 edition of Ethnologue lists 150 sign languages,^[5] while the SIGN-HUB Atlas of Sign Language Structures lists over 200 and notes that there are more which have not been documented or discovered yet.^[6] As of 2021, Indo Sign Language is the most used sign language in the world, and Ethnologue ranks it as the 151st most «spoken» language in the world.^[7]

Some sign languages have obtained some form of legal recognition.^[8]

Linguists distinguish natural sign languages from other systems that are precursors to them or obtained from them, such as constructed manual codes for spoken languages, home sign, «baby sign», and signs learned by non-human primates.

History[edit]

Groups of deaf people have used sign languages throughout history. One of the earliest written records of a sign language is from the fifth century BC, in Plato’s Cratylus, where Socrates says: «If we hadn’t a voice or a tongue, and wanted to express things to one another, wouldn’t we try to make signs by moving our hands, head, and the rest of our body, just as dumb people do at present?»^[9] Until the 19th century, most of what is known about historical sign languages is limited to the manual alphabets (fingerspelling systems) that were invented to facilitate the transfer of words from a spoken language to a sign language, rather than documentation of the language itself. Debate around the monastic sign-language developed in the Middle Ages has come to regard it as a gestural system rather than a true sign language. ^[10]

The earliest records of contact between Europeans and Indigenous peoples of the Gulf Coast region in what is now Texas and northern Mexico note a fully formed sign language already in use by the time of the Europeans’ arrival there.^[11] These records include the accounts of Cabeza de Vaca in 1527 and Coronado in 1541.

Spanish monk Pedro Ponce de León (1520–1584) developed the first manual alphabet.^[12] This alphabet was based, in whole or in part, on the simple hand gestures used by monks living in silence.

In 1620, Juan Pablo Bonet published Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos (‘Reduction of letters and art for teaching mute people to speak’) in Madrid.^[13] It is considered the first modern treatise of sign language phonetics, setting out a method of oral education for deaf people and a manual alphabet.

In Britain, manual alphabets were also in use for a number of purposes, such as secret communication,^[14] public speaking, or communication by or with deaf people.^[15] In 1648, John Bulwer described «Master Babington», a deaf man proficient in the use of a manual alphabet, «contryved on the joynts of his fingers», whose wife could converse with him easily, even in the dark through the use of tactile signing.^[16]

In 1680, George Dalgarno published Didascalocophus, or, The deaf and dumb mans tutor,^[17] in which he presented his own method of deaf education, including an «arthrological» alphabet, where letters are indicated by pointing to different joints of the fingers and palm of the left hand. Arthrological systems had been in use by hearing people for some time;^[18] some have speculated that they can be traced to early Ogham manual alphabets.^[19][20]

The vowels of this alphabet have survived in the modern alphabets used in British Sign Language, Auslan and New Zealand Sign Language. The earliest known printed pictures of consonants of the modern two-handed alphabet appeared in 1698 with Digiti Lingua (Latin for Language [or Tongue] of the Finger), a pamphlet by an anonymous author who was himself unable to speak.^[21][22] He suggested that the manual alphabet could also be used by mutes, for silence and secrecy, or purely for entertainment. Nine of its letters can be traced to earlier alphabets, and 17 letters of the modern two-handed alphabet can be found among the two sets of 26 handshapes depicted.

Charles de La Fin published a book in 1692 describing an alphabetic system where pointing to a body part represented the first letter of the part (e.g. Brow=B), and vowels were located on the fingertips as with the other British systems.^[23] He described such codes for both English and Latin.

By 1720, the British manual alphabet had found more or less its present form.^[24] Descendants of this alphabet have been used by deaf communities (or at least in classrooms) in the former British colonies India, Australia, New Zealand, Uganda and South Africa, as well as the republics and provinces of the former Yugoslavia, Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean, Indonesia, Norway, Germany and the United States. During the Polygar Wars against the British, Veeran Sundaralingam communicated with Veerapandiya Kattabomman’s mute younger brother, Oomaithurai, by using their own sign language.^{[clarification needed]}

Frenchman Charles-Michel de l’Épée published his manual alphabet in the 18th century, which has survived largely unchanged in France and North America until the present time. In 1755, Abbé de l’Épée founded the first school for deaf children in Paris; Laurent Clerc was arguably its most famous graduate. Clerc went to the United States with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to found the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1817.^[25][26] Gallaudet’s son, Edward Miner Gallaudet, founded a school for the deaf in 1857 in Washington, D.C., which in 1864 became the National Deaf-Mute College. Now called Gallaudet University, it is still the only liberal arts university for deaf people in the world.

Sign languages generally do not have any linguistic relation to the spoken languages of the lands in which they arise. The correlation between sign and spoken languages is complex and varies depending on the country more than the spoken language. For example, although Australia, English Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. all have English as their dominant language, American Sign Language (ASL), derived from French Sign Language,^[26] is the main sign language used in the U.S. and English Canada, whereas the other three countries use varieties of British, Australian and New Zealand Sign Language, unrelated to ASL.^[27] Similarly, the sign languages of Spain and Mexico are very different, despite Spanish being the national language in each country,^[28] and the sign language used in Bolivia is based on ASL rather than any sign language that is used in any other Spanish-speaking country.^[29] Variations also arise within a ‘national’ sign language which do not necessarily correspond to dialect differences in the national spoken language; rather, they can usually be correlated to the geographic location of residential schools for the deaf.^[30][31]

International Sign, formerly known as Gestuno, is used mainly at international deaf events such as the Deaflympics and meetings of the World Federation of the Deaf. While recent studies claim that International Sign is a kind of a pidgin, they conclude that it is more complex than a typical pidgin and indeed is more like a full sign language.^[32][33] While the more commonly used term is International Sign, it is sometimes referred to as Gestuno,^[34] International Sign Pidgin^[33] or International Gesture (IG).^[35] International Sign is a term used by the World Federation of the Deaf and other international organisations.

Linguistics[edit]

In linguistic terms, sign languages are as rich and complex as any spoken language, despite the common misconception that they are not «real languages». Professional linguists have studied many sign languages and found that they exhibit the fundamental properties that exist in all languages.^[36][1][37] Such fundamental properties include duality of patterning^[38] and recursion.^[39] Duality of patterning means that languages are composed of smaller, meaningless units which can be combined into larger units with meaning (see below). The term recursion means that languages exhibit grammatical rules and the output of such a rule can be the input of the same rule. It is, for example, possible in sign languages to create subordinate clauses and a subordinate clause may contain another subordinate clause.

Sign languages are not mime—in other words, signs are conventional, often arbitrary and do not necessarily have a visual relationship to their referent, much as most spoken language is not onomatopoeic. While iconicity is more systematic and widespread in sign languages than in spoken ones, the difference is not categorical.^[40] The visual modality allows the human preference for close connections between form and meaning, present but suppressed in spoken languages, to be more fully expressed.^[41] This does not mean that sign languages are a visual rendition of a spoken language. They have complex grammars of their own and can be used to discuss any topic, from the simple and concrete to the lofty and abstract. Sign languages are not inventions of educators, or ciphers of the spoken language of the surrounding community.^[42]

Sign languages, like spoken languages, organize elementary, meaningless units into meaningful semantic units. This type of organization in natural language is often called duality of patterning. As in spoken languages, these meaningless units are represented as (combinations of) features, although coarser descriptions are often also made in terms of five «parameters»: handshape (or handform), orientation, location (or place of articulation), movement, and non-manual expression. (These meaningless units in sign languages were initially called cheremes,^[43] from the Greek word for hand, by analogy to the phonemes, from Greek for voice, of spoken languages. Now they are sometimes called phonemes when describing sign languages too, since the function is the same, but more commonly discussed in terms of «features»^[1] or «parameters».)^[44] More generally, both sign and spoken languages share the characteristics that linguists have found in all natural human languages, such as transitoriness, semanticity, arbitrariness, productivity, and cultural transmission.^{[clarification needed]}

Common linguistic features of many sign languages are the occurrence of classifier constructions, a high degree of inflection by means of changes of movement, and a topic-comment syntax. More than spoken languages, sign languages can convey meaning by simultaneous means, e.g. by the use of space, two manual articulators, and the signer’s face and body. Though there is still much discussion on the topic of iconicity in sign languages, classifiers are generally considered to be highly iconic, as these complex constructions «function as predicates that may express any or all of the following: motion, position, stative-descriptive, or handling information».^[45] It needs to be noted that the term classifier is not used by everyone working on these constructions. Across the field of sign language linguistics the same constructions are also referred with other terms such as depictive signs.

Today, linguists study sign languages as true languages, part of the field of linguistics. However, the category «sign languages» was not added to the Linguistic Bibliography/Bibliographie Linguistique until the 1988 volume,^[46] when it appeared with 39 entries.

Relationships with spoken languages[edit]

There is a common misconception^[47] that sign languages are somehow dependent on spoken languages: that they are spoken language expressed in signs, or that they were invented by hearing people.^[48] Similarities in language processing in the brain between signed and spoken languages further perpetuated this misconception. Hearing teachers in deaf schools, such as Charles-Michel de l’Épée or Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, are often incorrectly referred to as «inventors» of sign language. Instead, sign languages, like all natural languages, are developed by the people who use them, in this case, deaf people, who may have little or no knowledge of any spoken language.

As a sign language develops, it sometimes borrows elements from spoken languages, just as all languages borrow from other languages that they are in contact with. Sign languages vary in how much they borrow from spoken languages. In many sign languages, a manual alphabet (fingerspelling) may be used in signed communication to borrow a word from a spoken language, by spelling out the letters. This is most commonly used for proper names of people and places; it is also used in some languages for concepts for which no sign is available at that moment, particularly if the people involved are to some extent bilingual in the spoken language. Fingerspelling can sometimes be a source of new signs, such as initialized signs, in which the handshape represents the first letter of a spoken word with the same meaning.

On the whole, though, sign languages are independent of spoken languages and follow their own paths of development. For example, British Sign Language (BSL) and American Sign Language (ASL) are quite different and mutually unintelligible, even though the hearing people of the United Kingdom and the United States share the same spoken language. The grammars of sign languages do not usually resemble those of spoken languages used in the same geographical area; in fact, in terms of syntax, ASL shares more with spoken Japanese than it does with English.^[49]

Similarly, countries which use a single spoken language throughout may have two or more sign languages, or an area that contains more than one spoken language might use only one sign language. South Africa, which has 11 official spoken languages and a similar number of other widely used spoken languages, is a good example of this. It has only one sign language with two variants due to its history of having two major educational institutions for the deaf which have served different geographic areas of the country.

Spatial grammar and simultaneity[edit]

Sign languages exploit the unique features of the visual medium (sight), but may also exploit tactile features (tactile sign languages). Spoken language is by and large linear; only one sound can be made or received at a time. Sign language, on the other hand, is visual and, hence, can use a simultaneous expression, although this is limited articulatorily and linguistically. Visual perception allows processing of simultaneous information.

One way in which many sign languages take advantage of the spatial nature of the language is through the use of classifiers. Classifiers allow a signer to spatially show a referent’s type, size, shape, movement, or extent.

The large focus on the possibility of simultaneity in sign languages in contrast to spoken languages is sometimes exaggerated, though. The use of two manual articulators is subject to motor constraints, resulting in a large extent of symmetry^[50] or signing with one articulator only. Further, sign languages, just like spoken languages, depend on linear sequencing of signs to form sentences; the greater use of simultaneity is mostly seen in the morphology (internal structure of individual signs).

Non-manual elements[edit]

Sign languages convey much of their prosody through non-manual elements. Postures or movements of the body, head, eyebrows, eyes, cheeks, and mouth are used in various combinations to show several categories of information, including lexical distinction, grammatical structure, adjectival or adverbial content, and discourse functions.

At the lexical level, signs can be lexically specified for non-manual elements in addition to the manual articulation. For instance, facial expressions may accompany verbs of emotion, as in the sign for angry in Czech Sign Language. Non-manual elements may also be lexically contrastive. For example, in ASL (American Sign Language), facial components distinguish some signs from other signs. An example is the sign translated as not yet, which requires that the tongue touch the lower lip and that the head rotate from side to side, in addition to the manual part of the sign. Without these features the sign would be interpreted as late.^[51] Mouthings, which are (parts of) spoken words accompanying lexical signs, can also be contrastive, as in the manually identical signs for doctor and battery in Sign Language of the Netherlands.^[52]

While the content of a signed sentence is produced manually, many grammatical functions are produced non-manually (i.e., with the face and the torso).^[53] Such functions include questions, negation, relative clauses and topicalization.^[54] ASL and BSL use similar non-manual marking for yes/no questions, for example. They are shown through raised eyebrows and a forward head tilt.^[55][56]

Some adjectival and adverbial information is conveyed through non-manual elements, but what these elements are varies from language to language. For instance, in ASL a slightly open mouth with the tongue relaxed and visible in the corner of the mouth means ‘carelessly’, but a similar non-manual in BSL means ‘boring’ or ‘unpleasant’.^[56]

Discourse functions such as turn taking are largely regulated through head movement and eye gaze. Since the addressee in a signed conversation must be watching the signer, a signer can avoid letting the other person have a turn by not looking at them, or can indicate that the other person may have a turn by making eye contact.^[57]

Iconicity[edit]

Iconicity is similarity or analogy between the form of a sign (linguistic or otherwise) and its meaning, as opposed to arbitrariness. The first studies on iconicity in ASL were published in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Many early sign language linguists rejected the notion that iconicity was an important aspect of sign languages, considering most perceived iconicity to be extralinguistic.^[58][36] However, mimetic aspects of sign language (signs that imitate, mimic, or represent) are found in abundance across a wide variety of sign languages. For example, when deaf children learning sign language try to express something but do not know the associated sign, they will often invent an iconic sign that displays mimetic properties.^[59] Though it never disappears from a particular sign language, iconicity is gradually weakened as forms of sign languages become more customary and are subsequently grammaticized. As a form becomes more conventional, it becomes disseminated in a methodical way phonologically to the rest of the sign language community.^[60] Nancy Frishberg concluded that though originally present in many signs, iconicity is degraded over time through the application of natural grammatical processes.^[58]

In 1978, psychologist Roger Brown was one of the first to suggest that the properties of ASL give it a clear advantage in terms of learning and memory.^[61] In his study, Brown found that when a group of six hearing children were taught signs that had high levels of iconic mapping they were significantly more likely to recall the signs in a later memory task than another group of six children that were taught signs that had little or no iconic properties. In contrast to Brown, linguists Elissa Newport and Richard Meier found that iconicity «appears to have virtually no impact on the acquisition of American Sign Language».^[62]

A central task for the pioneers of sign language linguistics was trying to prove that ASL was a real language and not merely a collection of gestures or «English on the hands.» One of the prevailing beliefs at this time was that ‘real languages’ must consist of an arbitrary relationship between form and meaning. Thus, if ASL consisted of signs that had iconic form-meaning relationship, it could not be considered a real language. As a result, iconicity as a whole was largely neglected in research of sign languages for a long time. However, iconicity also plays a role in many spoken languages. Spoken Japanese for example exhibits many words mimicking the sounds of their potential referents (see Japanese sound symbolism). Later researchers, thus, acknowledged that natural languages do not need to consist of an arbitrary relationship between form and meaning.^[63] The visual nature of sign language simply allows for a greater degree of iconicity compared to spoken languages as most real-world objects can be described by a prototypical shape (e.g., a table usually has a flat surface), but most real-world objects do not make prototypical sounds that can be mimicked by spoken languages (e.g., tables do not make prototypical sounds). It has to be noted, however, that sign languages are not fully iconic. On the one hand, there are also many arbitrary signs in sign languages and, on the other hand, the grammar of a sign language puts limits to the degree of iconicity: All known sign languages, for example, express lexical concepts via manual signs. From a truly iconic language one would expect that a concept like smiling would be expressed by mimicking a smile (i.e., by performing a smiling face). All known sign languages, however, do not express the concept of smiling by a smiling face, but by a manual sign.^[64]

The cognitive linguistics perspective rejects a more traditional definition of iconicity as a relationship between linguistic form and a concrete, real-world referent. Rather it is a set of selected correspondences between the form and meaning of a sign.^[41] In this view, iconicity is grounded in a language user’s mental representation («construal» in cognitive grammar). It is defined as a fully grammatical and central aspect of a sign language rather than a peripheral phenomenon.^[65]

The cognitive linguistics perspective allows for some signs to be fully iconic or partially iconic given the number of correspondences between the possible parameters of form and meaning.^[66] In this way, the Israeli Sign Language (ISL) sign for ask has parts of its form that are iconic («movement away from the mouth» means «something coming from the mouth»), and parts that are arbitrary (the handshape, and the orientation).^[67]

Many signs have metaphoric mappings as well as iconic or metonymic ones. For these signs there are three-way correspondences between a form, a concrete source and an abstract target meaning. The ASL sign LEARN has this three-way correspondence. The abstract target meaning is «learning». The concrete source is putting objects into the head from books. The form is a grasping hand moving from an open palm to the forehead. The iconic correspondence is between form and concrete source. The metaphorical correspondence is between concrete source and abstract target meaning. Because the concrete source is connected to two correspondences linguistics refer to metaphorical signs as «double mapped».^[41][66][67]

Classification[edit]

Although sign languages have emerged naturally in deaf communities alongside or among spoken languages, they are unrelated to spoken languages and have different grammatical structures at their core.

Sign languages may be classified by how they arise.

In non-signing communities, home sign is not a full language, but closer to a pidgin. Home sign is amorphous and generally idiosyncratic to a particular family, where a deaf child does not have contact with other deaf children and is not educated in sign. Such systems are not generally passed on from one generation to the next. Where they are passed on, creolization would be expected to occur, resulting in a full language. However, home sign may also be closer to full language in communities where the hearing population has a gestural mode of language; examples include various Australian Aboriginal sign languages and gestural systems across West Africa, such as Mofu-Gudur in Cameroon.

A village sign language is a local indigenous language that typically arises over several generations in a relatively insular community with a high incidence of deafness, and is used both by the deaf and by a significant portion of the hearing community, who have deaf family and friends.^[68] The most famous of these is probably the extinct Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language of the U.S., but there are also numerous village languages scattered throughout Africa, Asia, and America.

Deaf-community sign languages, on the other hand, arise where deaf people come together to form their own communities. These include school sign, such as Nicaraguan Sign Language, which develop in the student bodies of deaf schools which do not use sign as a language of instruction, as well as community languages such as Bamako Sign Language, which arise where generally uneducated deaf people congregate in urban centers for employment. At first, Deaf-community sign languages are not generally known by the hearing population, in many cases not even by close family members. However, they may grow, in some cases becoming a language of instruction and receiving official recognition, as in the case of ASL.

Both contrast with speech-taboo languages such as the various Aboriginal Australian sign languages, which are developed by the hearing community and only used secondarily by the deaf. It is doubtful whether most of these are languages in their own right, rather than manual codes of spoken languages, though a few such as Yolngu Sign Language are independent of any particular spoken language. Hearing people may also develop sign to communicate with users of other languages, as in Plains Indian Sign Language; this was a contact signing system or pidgin that was evidently not used by deaf people in the Plains nations, though it presumably influenced home sign.

Language contact and creolization is common in the development of sign languages, making clear family classifications difficult – it is often unclear whether lexical similarity is due to borrowing or a common parent language, or whether there was one or several parent languages, such as several village languages merging into a Deaf-community language. Contact occurs between sign languages, between sign and spoken languages (contact sign, a kind of pidgin), and between sign languages and gestural systems used by the broader community. One author has speculated that Adamorobe Sign Language, a village sign language of Ghana, may be related to the «gestural trade jargon used in the markets throughout West Africa», in vocabulary and areal features including prosody and phonetics.^[69][70]

• BSL, Auslan and NZSL are usually considered to be a language known as BANZSL. Maritime Sign Language and South African Sign Language are also related to BSL.^[71]
• Danish Sign Language and its descendants Norwegian Sign Language and Icelandic Sign Language are largely mutually intelligible with Swedish Sign Language. Finnish Sign Language and Portuguese Sign Language derive from Swedish SL, though with local admixture in the case of mutually unintelligible Finnish SL.^{[clarification needed]} Danish SL has French SL influence and Wittmann (1991) places them in that family,^[70] though he proposes that Swedish, Finnish, and Portuguese SL are instead related to British Sign Language.
• Indian Sign Language ISL is similar to Pakistani Sign Language. (ISL fingerspelling uses both hands, similarly to British Sign Language.).
• Japanese Sign Language, Taiwanese Sign Language and Korean Sign Language are thought to be members of a Japanese Sign Language family.^[72]
• French Sign Language family. There are a number of sign languages that emerged from French Sign Language (LSF), or are the result of language contact between local community sign languages and LSF. These include: French Sign Language, Italian Sign Language, Quebec Sign Language, American Sign Language, Irish Sign Language, Russian Sign Language, Dutch Sign Language (NGT), Spanish Sign Language, Mexican Sign Language, Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS), Catalan Sign Language, Ukrainian Sign Language, Austrian Sign Language (along with its twin Hungarian Sign Language and its offspring Czech Sign Language) and others.
  • A subset of this group includes languages that have been heavily influenced by American Sign Language (ASL), or are regional varieties of ASL. Bolivian Sign Language is sometimes considered a dialect of ASL. Thai Sign Language is a mixed language derived from ASL and the native sign languages of Bangkok and Chiang Mai, and may be considered part of the ASL family. Others possibly influenced by ASL include Ugandan Sign Language, Kenyan Sign Language, Philippine Sign Language and Malaysian Sign Language.
  • According to an SIL report,^[73] the sign languages of Russia, Moldova and Ukraine share a high degree of lexical similarity and may be dialects of one language, or distinct related languages. The same report suggested a «cluster» of sign languages centered around Czech Sign Language, Hungarian Sign Language and Slovak Sign Language. This group may also include Romanian, Bulgarian, and Polish sign languages.
• German Sign Language (DGS) gave rise to Polish Sign Language; it also at least strongly influenced Israeli Sign Language, though it is unclear whether the latter derives from DGS or from Austrian Sign Language, which is in the French family.
• The southern dialect of Chinese Sign Language gave rise to Hong Kong Sign Language, spoken in Hong Kong and Macau
• Lyons Sign Language may be the source of Flemish Sign Language (VGT) though this is unclear.
• Sign languages of Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq (and possibly Saudi Arabia) may be part of a sprachbund, or may be one dialect of a larger Eastern Arabic Sign Language.
• Known isolates include Nicaraguan Sign Language, Turkish Sign Language, Armenian Sign Language, Kata Kolok, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language and Providence Island Sign Language.

The only comprehensive classification along these lines going beyond a simple listing of languages dates back to 1991.^[74] The classification is based on the 69 sign languages from the 1988 edition of Ethnologue that were known at the time of the 1989 conference on sign languages in Montreal and 11 more languages the author added after the conference.^[76]

Wittmann classification of sign languages

	Primary language	Primary group	Auxiliary language	Auxiliary group
Prototype-A[77]	5	1	7	2
Prototype-R[78]	18	1	1	–
BSL-derived	8	–	–	–
DGS-derived	1 or 2	–	–	–
JSL-derived	2	–	–	–
LSF-derived	30	–	–	–
LSG-derived	1?	–	–	–

In his classification, the author distinguishes between primary and auxiliary sign languages^[79] as well as between single languages and names that are thought to refer to more than one language.^[80] The prototype-A class of languages includes all those sign languages that seemingly cannot be derived from any other language.^[77] Prototype-R languages are languages that are remotely modelled on a prototype-A language (in many cases thought to have been French Sign Language) by a process Kroeber (1940) called «stimulus diffusion».^[78] The families of BSL, DGS, JSL, LSF (and possibly LSG) were the products of creolization and relexification of prototype languages.^[81] Creolization is seen as enriching overt morphology in sign languages, as compared to reducing overt morphology in spoken languages.^[82]

Typology[edit]

Linguistic typology (going back to Edward Sapir) is based on word structure and distinguishes morphological classes such as agglutinating/concatenating, inflectional, polysynthetic, incorporating, and isolating ones.

Sign languages vary in word-order typology. For example, Austrian Sign Language, Japanese Sign Language and Indo-Pakistani Sign Language are Subject-object-verb while ASL is Subject-verb-object. Influence from the surrounding spoken languages is not improbable.

Sign languages tend to be incorporating classifier languages, where a classifier handshape representing the object is incorporated into those transitive verbs which allow such modification. For a similar group of intransitive verbs (especially motion verbs), it is the subject which is incorporated. Only in a very few sign languages (for instance Japanese Sign Language) are agents ever incorporated. In this way, since subjects of intransitives are treated similarly to objects of transitives, incorporation in sign languages can be said to follow an ergative pattern.

Brentari^[83][84] classifies sign languages as a whole group determined by the medium of communication (visual instead of auditory) as one group with the features monosyllabic and polymorphemic. That means, that one syllable (i.e. one word, one sign) can express several morphemes, e.g., subject and object of a verb determine the direction of the verb’s movement (inflection).

Another aspect of typology that has been studied in sign languages is their systems for cardinal numbers.^[85] Typologically significant differences have been found between sign languages.

Acquisition[edit]

Children who are exposed to a sign language from birth will acquire it, just as hearing children acquire their native spoken language.^[86]

The Critical Period hypothesis suggests that language, spoken or signed, is more easily acquired as a child at a young age versus an adult because of the plasticity of the child’s brain. In a study done at the University of McGill, they found that American Sign Language users who acquired the language natively (from birth) performed better when asked to copy videos of ASL sentences than ASL users who acquired the language later in life. They also found that there are differences in the grammatical morphology of ASL sentences between the two groups, all suggesting that there is a very important critical period in learning signed languages.^[87]

The acquisition of non-manual features follows an interesting pattern: When a word that always has a particular non-manual feature associated with it (such as a wh-question word) is learned, the non-manual aspects are attached to the word but don’t have the flexibility associated with adult use. At a certain point, the non-manual features are dropped and the word is produced with no facial expression. After a few months, the non-manuals reappear, this time being used the way adult signers would use them.^[88]

Written forms[edit]

Sign languages do not have a traditional or formal written form. Many deaf people do not see a need to write their own language.^[89]

Several ways to represent sign languages in written form have been developed.

• Stokoe notation, devised by Dr. William Stokoe for his 1965 Dictionary of American Sign Language,^[90] is an abstract phonemic notation system. Designed specifically for representing the use of the hands, it has no way of expressing facial expression or other non-manual features of sign languages. However, his was designed for research, particularly in a dictionary, not for general use.
• The Hamburg Notation System (HamNoSys), developed in the early 1990s, is a detailed phonetic system, not designed for any one sign language, and intended as a transcription system for researchers rather than as a practical script.
• David J. Peterson has attempted to create a phonetic transcription system for signing that is ASCII-friendly known as the Sign Language International Phonetic Alphabet (SLIPA).
• SignWriting, developed by Valerie Sutton in 1974, is a system for representing sign languages phonetically (including mouthing, facial expression and dynamics of movement). The script is sometimes used for detailed research, language documentation, as well as publishing texts and works in sign languages.
• si5s is another orthography which is largely phonemic. However, a few signs are logographs and/or ideographs due to regional variation in sign languages.
• ASL-phabet is a system designed primarily for education of deaf children by Dr. Sam Supalla which uses a minimalist collection of symbols in the order of Handshape-Location-Movement. Many signs can be written the same way (homograph).
• The Alphabetic Writing System for sign languages (Sistema de escritura alfabética, SEA, by its Spanish name and acronym), developed by linguist Ángel Herrero Blanco and two deaf researchers, Juan José Alfaro and Inmacualada Cascales, was published as a book in 2003^[91] and made accessible in Spanish Sign Language on-line.^[92] This system makes use of the letters of the Latin alphabet with a few diacritics to represent sign through the morphemic sequence S L C Q D F (bimanual sign, place, contact, handshape, direction and internal form). The resulting words are meant to be read by signing. The system is designed to be applicable to any sign language with minimal modification and to be usable through any medium without special equipment or software. Non-manual elements can be encoded to some extent, but the authors argue that the system does not need to represent all elements of a sign to be practical, the same way written oral language doesn’t. The system has seen some updates which are kept publicly on a wiki page.^[93] The Center for Linguistic Normalization of Spanish Sign Language has made use of SEA to transcribe all signs on its dictionary.^[94]

So far, there is no consensus regarding the written form of sign language. Except for SignWriting, none are widely used. Maria Galea writes that SignWriting «is becoming widespread, uncontainable and untraceable. In the same way that works written in and about a well developed writing system such as the Latin script, the time has arrived where SW is so widespread, that it is impossible in the same way to list all works that have been produced using this writing system and that have been written about this writing system.»^[95] In 2015, the Federal University of Santa Catarina accepted a dissertation written in Brazilian Sign Language using Sutton SignWriting for a master’s degree in linguistics. The dissertation «The Writing of Grammatical Non-Manual Expressions in Sentences in LIBRAS Using the SignWriting System» by João Paulo Ampessan states that «the data indicate the need for [non-manual expressions] usage in writing sign language».^[96]

Sign perception[edit]

For a native signer, sign perception influences how the mind makes sense of their visual language experience. For example, a handshape may vary based on the other signs made before or after it, but these variations are arranged in perceptual categories during its development. The mind detects handshape contrasts but groups similar handshapes together in one category.^[97][98][99] Different handshapes are stored in other categories. The mind ignores some of the similarities between different perceptual categories, at the same time preserving the visual information within each perceptual category of handshape variation.

In society[edit]

Deaf communities and Deaf culture[edit]

When Deaf people constitute a relatively small proportion of the general population, Deaf communities often develop that are distinct from the surrounding hearing community.^[100]
These Deaf communities are very widespread in the world, associated especially with sign languages used in urban areas and throughout a nation, and the cultures they have developed are very rich.

One example of sign language variation in the Deaf community is Black ASL. This sign language was developed in the Black Deaf community as a variant during the American era of segregation and racism, where young Black Deaf students were forced to attend separate schools than their white Deaf peers.^[101]

Use of sign languages in hearing communities[edit]

On occasion, where the prevalence of deaf people is high enough, a deaf sign language has been taken up by an entire local community, forming what is sometimes called a «village sign language»^[102] or «shared signing community».^[103] Typically this happens in small, tightly integrated communities with a closed gene pool. Famous examples include:

• Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language, United States
• Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language, Israel
• Kata Kolok, Bali
• Adamorobe Sign Language, Ghana
• Yucatec Maya Sign Language, Mexico

In such communities deaf people are generally well-integrated in the general community and not socially disadvantaged, so much so that it is difficult to speak of a separate «Deaf» community.^[100]

Many Australian Aboriginal sign languages arose in a context of extensive speech taboos, such as during mourning and initiation rites. They are or were especially highly developed among the Warlpiri, Warumungu, Dieri, Kaytetye, Arrernte, and Warlmanpa, and are based on their respective spoken languages.

A sign language arose among tribes of American Indians in the Great Plains region of North America (see Plains Indian Sign Language) before European contact. It was used by hearing people to communicate among tribes with different spoken languages, as well as by deaf people. There are especially users today among the Crow, Cheyenne, and Arapaho.

Sign language is also used as a form of alternative or augmentative communication by people who can hear but have difficulties using their voices to speak.^[104]

Increasingly, hearing schools and universities are expressing interest in incorporating sign language. In the U.S., enrollment for ASL (American Sign Language) classes as part of students’ choice of second language is on the rise.^[105] In New Zealand, one year after the passing of NZSL Act 2006 in parliament, a NZSL curriculum was released for schools to take NZSL as an optional subject. The curriculum and teaching materials were designed to target intermediate schools from Years 7 to 10, (NZ Herald, 2007).

Legal recognition[edit]

Some sign languages have obtained some form of legal recognition, while others have no status at all. Sarah Batterbury has argued that sign languages should be recognized and supported not merely as an accommodation for those with disabilities, but as the communication medium of language communities.^[106]

Legal requirements covering sign language accessibility in media vary from country to country. In the United Kingdom, the Broadcasting Act 1996 addressed the requirements for blind and deaf viewers,^[107] but has since been replaced by the Communications Act 2003.

Interpretation[edit]

In order to facilitate communication between deaf and hearing people, sign language interpreters are often used. Such activities involve considerable effort on the part of the interpreter, since sign languages are distinct natural languages with their own syntax, different from any spoken language.

The interpretation flow is normally between a sign language and a spoken language that are customarily used in the same country, such as French Sign Language (LSF) and spoken French in France, Spanish Sign Language (LSE) to spoken Spanish in Spain, British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English in the U.K., and American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken English in the U.S. and most of anglophone Canada (since BSL and ASL are distinct sign languages both used in English-speaking countries), etc. Sign language interpreters who can translate between signed and spoken languages that are not normally paired (such as between LSE and English), are also available, albeit less frequently.

Sign language is sometimes provided for television programmes that include speech. The signer usually appears in the bottom corner of the screen, with the programme being broadcast full size or slightly shrunk away from that corner. Typically for press conferences such as those given by the Mayor of New York City, the signer appears to stage left or right of the public official to allow both the speaker and signer to be in frame at the same time. Live sign interpretation of important televised events is increasingly common but still an informal industry ^[108] In traditional analogue broadcasting, some programmes are repeated outside main viewing hours with a signer present.^[109] Some emerging television technologies allow the viewer to turn the signer on and off in a similar manner to subtitles and closed captioning.^[109]

Technology[edit]

One of the first demonstrations of the ability for telecommunications to help sign language users communicate with each other occurred when AT&T’s videophone (trademarked as the Picturephone) was introduced to the public at the 1964 New York World’s Fair – two deaf users were able to freely communicate with each other between the fair and another city.^[110] However, video communication did not become widely available until sufficient bandwidth for the high volume of video data became available in the early 2000s.

The Internet now allows deaf people to talk via a video link, either with a special-purpose videophone designed for use with sign language or with «off-the-shelf» video services designed for use with broadband and an ordinary computer webcam. The special videophones that are designed for sign language communication may provide better quality than ‘off-the-shelf’ services and may use data compression methods specifically designed to maximize the intelligibility of sign languages. Some advanced equipment enables a person to remotely control the other person’s video camera, in order to zoom in and out or to point the camera better to understand the signing.

Interpreters may be physically present with both parties to the conversation but, since the technological advancements in the early 2000s, provision of interpreters in remote locations has become available. In video remote interpreting (VRI), the two clients (a sign language user and a hearing person who wish to communicate with each other) are in one location, and the interpreter is in another. The interpreter communicates with the sign language user via a video telecommunications link, and with the hearing person by an audio link. VRI can be used for situations in which no on-site interpreters are available.

However, VRI cannot be used for situations in which all parties are speaking via telephone alone. With video relay service (VRS), the sign language user, the interpreter, and the hearing person are in three separate locations, thus allowing the two clients to talk to each other on the phone through the interpreter.

With recent developments in artificial intelligence in computer science, some recent deep learning based machine translation algorithms have been developed which automatically translate short videos containing sign language sentences (often simple sentence consists of only one clause) directly to written language.^[111]

Sign Union flag[edit]

The Sign Union flag was designed by Arnaud Balard. After studying flags around the world and vexillology principles for two years, Balard revealed the design of the flag, featuring the stylized outline of a hand. The three colors which make up the flag design are representative of Deafhood and humanity (dark blue), sign language (turquoise), and enlightenment and hope (yellow). Balard intended the flag to be an international symbol which welcomes deaf people.^[112]

Language endangerment and extinction[edit]

As with any spoken language, sign languages are also vulnerable to becoming endangered.^[113] For example, a sign language used by a small community may be endangered and even abandoned as users shift to a sign language used by a larger community, as has happened with Hawai’i Sign Language, which is almost extinct except for a few elderly signers.^[114][115] Even nationally recognised sign languages can be endangered; for example, New Zealand Sign Language is losing users.^[116] Methods are being developed to assess the language vitality of sign languages.^[117]

Communication systems similar to sign language[edit]

There are a number of communication systems that are similar in some respects to sign languages, while not having all the characteristics of a full sign language, particularly its grammatical structure. Many of these are either precursors to natural sign languages or are derived from them.

Manual codes for spoken languages[edit]

When Deaf and Hearing people interact, signing systems may be developed that use signs drawn from a natural sign language but used according to the grammar of the spoken language. In particular, when people devise one-for-one sign-for-word correspondences between spoken words (or even morphemes) and signs that represent them, the system that results is a manual code for a spoken language, rather than a natural sign language. Such systems may be invented in an attempt to help teach Deaf children the spoken language, and generally are not used outside an educational context.

«Baby sign language» with hearing children[edit]

Some hearing parents teach signs to young hearing children. Since the muscles in babies’ hands grow and develop quicker than their mouths, signs are seen as a beneficial option for better communication.^[122] Babies can usually produce signs before they can speak.^{[citation needed]} This reduces the confusion between parents when trying to figure out what their child wants. When the child begins to speak, signing is usually abandoned, so the child does not progress to acquiring the grammar of the sign language.^{[citation needed]}

This is in contrast to hearing children who grow up with Deaf parents, who generally acquire the full sign language natively, the same as Deaf children of Deaf parents.

Home sign[edit]

Informal, rudimentary sign systems are sometimes developed within a single family. For instance, when hearing parents with no sign language skills have a deaf child, the child may develop a system of signs naturally, unless repressed by the parents. The term for these mini-languages is home sign (sometimes «kitchen sign»).^[123]

Home sign arises due to the absence of any other way to communicate. Within the span of a single lifetime and without the support or feedback of a community, the child naturally invents signs to help meet his or her communication needs, and may even develop a few grammatical rules for combining short sequences of signs. Still, this kind of system is inadequate for the intellectual development of a child and it comes nowhere near meeting the standards linguists use to describe a complete language. No type of home sign is recognized as a full language.^[124]

Primate use[edit]

There have been several notable examples of scientists teaching signs to non-human primates in order to communicate with humans,^[125] such as
chimpanzees,^{[126][127][128][129][130][131][132]} gorillas^[133] and orangutans.^[134] However, linguists generally point out that this does not constitute knowledge of a human language as a complete system, rather than simply signs/words.^{[135][136][137][138][139]} Notable examples of animals who have learned signs include:

• Chimpanzees: Washoe, Nim Chimpsky and Loulis
• Gorillas: Koko and Michael

Gestural theory of human language origins[edit]

One theory of the evolution of human language states that it developed first as a gestural system, which later shifted to speech.^{[140][141][142][143][70][144]} An important question for this gestural theory is what caused the shift to vocalization.^{[145][146][147]}

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Aronoff, Mark; Meir, Irit; Sandler, Wendy (2005). «The Paradox of Sign Language Morphology». Language. 81 (2): 301–44. doi:10.1353/lan.2005.0043. PMC 3250214. PMID 22223926.
• Branson, J., D. Miller, & I G. Marsaja. (1996). «Everyone here speaks sign language, too: a deaf village in Bali, Indonesia.» In: C. Lucas (ed.): Multicultural aspects of sociolinguistics in deaf communities. Washington, Gallaudet University Press, pp. 39+
• Deuchar, Margaret (1987). «Sign languages as creoles and Chomsky’s notion of Universal Grammar.» Essays in honor of Noam Chomsky, 81–91. New York: Falmer.
• Emmorey, Karen; & Lane, Harlan L. (Eds.). (2000). The signs of language revisited: An anthology to honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-3246-7.
• Fischer, Susan D. (1974). «Sign language and linguistic universals.» Actes du Colloque franco-allemand de grammaire générative, 2.187–204. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
• Fischer, Susan D. (1978). «Sign languages and creoles». Siple. 1978: 309–31.
• Goldin-Meadow, Susan (2003), The Resilience of Language: What Gesture Creation in Deaf Children Can Tell Us About How All Children Learn Language, Psychology Press, a subsidiary of Taylor & Francis, New York, 2003
• Gordon, Raymond, ed. (2008). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th edition. SIL International, ISBN 978-1-55671-159-6, 1-55671-159-X. Archived January 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Sections for primary sign languages Browse by Language Family and alternative ones Browse by Language Family.
• Groce, Nora E. (1988). Everyone here spoke sign language: Hereditary deafness on Martha’s Vineyard. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-27041-X.
• Healy, Alice F. (1980). «Can Chimpanzees learn a phonemic language?» In: Sebeok, Thomas A. & Jean Umiker-Sebeok, eds, Speaking of apes: a critical anthology of two-way communication with man. New York: Plenum, 141–43.
• Kamei, Nobutaka (2004). The Sign Languages of Africa, «Journal of African Studies» (Japan Association for African Studies) Vol. 64, March, 2004. [NOTE: Kamei lists 23 African sign languages in this article].
• Kegl, Judy (1994). «The Nicaraguan Sign Language Project: An Overview». Signpost. 7 (1): 24–31.
• Kegl, Judy, Senghas A., Coppola M (1999). «Creation through contact: Sign language emergence and sign language change in Nicaragua.» In: M. DeGraff (ed.), Comparative Grammatical Change: The Intersection of Language Acquisition, Creole Genesis, and Diachronic Syntax, pp. 179–237. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
• Kegl, Judy (2004). «Language Emergence in a Language-Ready Brain: Acquisition Issues.» In: Jenkins, Lyle (ed.), Biolinguistics and the Evolution of Language. John Benjamins.
• Kendon, Adam. (1988). Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Kroeber, Alfred L. (1940). «Stimulus diffusion». American Anthropologist. 42: 1–20. doi:10.1525/aa.1940.42.1.02a00020.
• Lane, Harlan L. (Ed.). (1984). The Deaf experience: Classics in language and education. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-19460-8.
• Lane, Harlan L. (1984). When the mind hears: A history of the deaf. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-50878-5.
• Madell, Samantha (1998). Warlpiri Sign Language and Auslan – A Comparison. M.A. Thesis, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Archived June 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
• Madsen, Willard J. (1982), Intermediate Conversational Sign Language. Gallaudet University Press. ISBN 978-0-913580-79-0.
• O’Reilly, S. (2005). Indigenous Sign Language and Culture; the interpreting and access needs of Deaf people who are of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander in Far North Queensland. Sponsored by ASLIA, the Australian Sign Language Interpreters Association.
• Padden, Carol; & Humphries, Tom. (1988). Deaf in America: Voices from a culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-19423-3.
• Pfau, Roland, Markus Steinbach & Bencie Woll (eds.), Sign language. An international handbook (HSK – Handbooks of linguistics and communication science). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Poizner, Howard; Klima, Edward S.; & Bellugi, Ursula. (1987). What the hands reveal about the brain. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Premack, David, & Ann J. Premack (1983). The mind of an ape. New York: Norton.

• Premack, David (1985). «‘Gavagai!’ or the future of the animal language controversy». Cognition. 19 (3): 207–96. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(85)90036-8. PMID 4017517. S2CID 39292094.
• Sacks, Oliver W. (1989). Seeing voices: A journey into the world of the deaf. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-06083-0.
• Sandler, Wendy (2003). «Sign Language Phonology». In William Frawley (Ed.), The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Linguistics.[2]
• Sandler, Wendy & Lillo-Martin, Diane (2001). «Natural sign languages». In M. Aronoff & J. Rees-Miller (Eds.), Handbook of linguistics (pp. 533–562). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-20497-0.
• Stiles-Davis, Joan; Kritchevsky, Mark; & Bellugi, Ursula (Eds.). (1988). Spatial cognition: Brain bases and development. Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-0046-8; ISBN 0-8058-0078-6.
• Stokoe, William C. (1960, 1978). Sign language structure: An outline of the visual communication systems of the American deaf. Studies in linguistics, Occasional papers, No. 8, Dept. of Anthropology and Linguistics, University at Buffalo. 2d ed., Silver Spring: Md: Linstok Press.
• Stokoe, William C. (1974). Classification and description of sign languages. Current Trends in Linguistics 12.345–71.
• Twilhaar, Jan Nijen, and Beppie van den Bogaerde. 2016. Concise Lexicon for Sign Linguistics. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
• Valli, Clayton, Ceil Lucas, and Kristin Mulrooney. (2005) Linguistics of American Sign Language: An Introduction, 4th Ed. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
• Van Deusen-Phillips S.B., Goldin-Meadow S., Miller P.J., 2001. Enacting Stories, Seeing Worlds: Similarities and Differences in the Cross-Cultural Narrative Development of Linguistically Isolated Deaf Children, Human Development, Vol. 44, No. 6.
• Wilbur, R.B. (1987). American Sign Language: Linguistic and applied dimensions. San Diego, CA: College-Hill.

Further reading[edit]

• Fox, Margalit (2007) Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind , Simon & Schuster ISBN 978-0-7432-4712-2
• Quenqua, Douglas. Pushing Science’s Limits in Sign Language Lexicon, The New York Times, December 4, 2012, p. D1 and published online at NYTimes.com on December 3, 2012. Retrieved on December 7, 2012.

[edit]

• American Annals of the Deaf, Gallaudet University Press
• Journal of American Sign Language and Literature, ASLized!
• Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Oxford University Press
• Sign Language Studies, Gallaudet University Press
• Sign Language & Linguistics, John Benjamins Publishing Company

External links[edit]

Note: the articles for specific sign languages (e.g. ASL or BSL) may contain further external links, e.g. for learning those languages.

• Langue:Signes du Monde, directory for all online Sign Languages dictionaries (in French and English)
• List Serv for Sign Language Linguistics
• The MUSSLAP Project, Multimodal Human Speech and Sign Language Processing for Human-Machine Communication
• Mallery, Garrick. 1879–1880. Sign Language among North American Indians, by Garrick Mallery. Sign language among North American Indians compared with that among other peoples and deaf-mutes. A first annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution]. Project Gutenberg.
• Pablo Bonet, J. de (1620) Reduction de las letras y Arte para enseñar á ablar los Mudos, Biblioteca Digital Hispánica (BNE).
• Watch the Bible and other video publications in 99 sign languages. Bibles and sign-language study material by Jehovah’s Witnesses.
• Science in Sign (video, 3 min. 48 secs.), by Davis, Leslye & Huang, Jon & Xaquin, G.V.; interpreted by Callis, Lydia, on NYTimes.com website, December 4, 2012. Retrieved December 13, 2012. The video translates a shortened version of a N.Y. Times science article on how new signs are being developed to enhance communication in the sciences, extracted from:
  • Quenqua, Douglas. Pushing Science’s Limits in Sign Language Lexicon, The New York Times, December 4, 2012, p.D1 and published online at NYTimes.com on December 3, 2012. Retrieved on December 7, 2012.
• signlangtv.org, a project documenting sign language television shows for the deaf around the world
• Sign language at Curlie

ASL Grammar:

A
«grammar» is a set of rules for using a language.  These rules guide users
in the correct speaking or signing of a language.

The
grammar of a language is decided by the group of people who use the
language. New grammar rules come into existence when enough members of the
group have spoken (signed)  their language a particular way often enough and
long enough that it would seem odd to speak the language in some other way.
 

American Sign Language is tied to the Deaf Community.   We use our language
in a certain way.  That «certain way» is what constitutes ASL grammar.

American Sign Language has its own grammar system that is different in many
ways from that of English.  What this means is ASL grammar has its own rules for how
signs are built (phonology),
what signs mean (morphology), the order in which signs should be signed (syntax),
and the way context influences signing (pragmatics).
 

Let’s
briefly discuss «topic-comment» sentence structure and topicalization. 

 

What
is Your Topic?

A topic
is what you are talking about. You can use either a subject or object as the
«topic» in a sentence.

A.    If you use
the subject as your topic, then you are using an active voice.

BOY THROW BALL.                   The boy threw the ball.

B.     If you
use the object as your topic, then you are using a passive voice.

BALL, BOY THROW.                  The ball was thrown by the boy.

Note
that the active voice is in Subject-Verb-Object word order:   BOY THROW
BALL.  The passive voice is in Object, Subject-Verb word order:  BALL BOY
THROW. 
 

What
is Topic-Comment Format?

Both of
the aforementioned sentences are in Topic-Comment format.  As we’ve already
established, the topic is what you are talking about and the comment makes
observations about that topic.  Topic is for the first item mentioned in a
sentence (whether it is the subject or object) and the comment is the
latter, and it makes a comment about the topic.  So let’s take a look
at those sentences again:
 

A.    Active
Voice, using the subject as your topic.

BOY THROW BALL.                  
Topic: BOY 
Comment: 
THROW BALL

What is the topic?  Boy
What
is the comment saying about the boy?  He threw the ball.

B.     Passive
Voice, using the object as your topic.

BALL, BOY THROW.                 
Topic: BALL
Comment: 
BOY THROW

What is the topic?  Ball
What is the comment saying about the
ball?  It was thrown by the boy.

So, as
you can see, the topic can be either a subject or an object.  Now
that we’ve established the topic can be a «BOY» or it can be the «BALL» he
is throwing, and it can either be the subject or object of the sentence. 

 

A.    The BOY
can be:

�       
The subject of the sentence: 
BOY THROW BALL.

�       
The object of the sentence: BALL,
HIT BOY.

B.     The BALL
can be:

�       
The subject of the sentence: 
BALL, HIT BOY.

�       
The object of the sentence: BOY
THROW BALL.

In each of these examples, the comment
is either THROW BALL» or HIT BOY.

A
Topic-Comment sentence structure can use either a Subject-Verb-Object or an
Object-Subject-Verb word order. 
SVO is perfectly acceptable in ASL (regardless of what your ASL 1 teacher
may tell you).
 

Sign Order:

Imagine
two people are sitting somewhat near each other at a bar.  For this
story we will suppose one is a man and one is a woman.  The man decides that
the woman is really cool and he’d like to ask her on a date. But first he
leans over and asks, «You married?»

To his
relief she replies, «No, I’m not.»

She
then leans toward him and asks, «Are you married?»

To her
relief he replies, «No.»

They
start dating, get married, and have a wonderful life. End of story.

Did you
see what happened there? Let’s take a look at those English sentences
again.  He didn’t use the word «are» in his sentence, but she did:
 

He leans over and asks, «You
married?»
(The tone of his voice rising toward the end of the sentence to indicate
it is a question.)

�..

She then leans toward him and asks,
«Are you married?»
(She stresses the word «you» in her sentence and raises her tone at the
end of the sentence.)He
didn’t use the words «I’m not» in his sentence but she did:
 

To his relief she replies, «No, I’m
not.»

��

To her relief he replies, «No.»

She
probably used «are» in «Are you married?» so that she could emphasize the word «you.» 
Why did she do that?  It is likely she wanted to make it clear that she
expected equal exchange of information and no «funny business.»

All
human languages possess a variety of right ways to say things.  The
same is true of ASL.  There are a variety of «right ways» to
structure your sentences in ASL. You
can use more or fewer signs and rearrange them depending on the context of
your sentence and what you want to emphasize.  To ask the equivalent of «Are
you married?» you can sign in any of the formats:
 

YOU MARRIED?

MARRIED YOU?

YOU MARRIED YOU?
 

Topicalization

Now
let’s talk more about the
Object, Subject, Verb (OSV) order. As a general rule, when we use that particular
signing order, we tend to use topicalization. 

Another
way to ask that same question is, «When should you use topicalization?»

Specifically, «When should you sign the object at
the beginning of your sentence while raising your eyebrows?»

There
are several situations when you should topicalize. A few examples applying
to ASL are:

A.  When the subject is unknown: MY WALLET? GONE!

I don’t
know why it is missing, if it was stolen, or who stole it.

To sign
this with active voice I would sign something to the effect of, «SOMEONE
STOLE MY WALLET» — which requires more signing.

B.  Irrelevancy: MY CAR? SOLD!

It
doesn’t really matter who sold it. Just that the process is over. So why
should I waste time explaining who sold it?

C.  Efficiency and/or Expediency: MY CELL PHONE? FOUND!

If I
explained to you last week that was at the county fair and lost my text
messaging device I don’t want to have to explain it to you again if you
still remember what had happened. So I sign «CELLPHONE» with my eyebrows up
and if you nod in recognition, I go ahead and tell you that it was found.

D.  Clarification:  MY SISTER SON? HE GRADUATE.
Perhaps you know that I have more than one nephew.  If I signed «MY NEPHEW
GRADUATE» you still don’t know for sure «who» graduated.  It is more
effective to clarify that it was my sister’s son that graduated and not my
brother’s son. 

 Some
instructors overemphasize topicalization or give the impression that the
majority of ASL communication is topicalized. The fact is many ASL sentences
are simply «Subject, Verb-(transitive), Object» example: «INDEX BOY THROW
BALL» («The boy threw the ball.») or are Subject-Verb (intransitive), for
example: «HE LEFT.»

So,
let’s review that again.  Topicalization means that you are using the object
of the sentence as the topic and introducing it using a «yes/no question
expression» (raised eye brows and head slightly tilted forward) followed by a
comment.

A
sentence using Topic-Comment sentence structure can either topicalized or non-topicalized:
 

A.   
Topicalized

1.     YOUR MOM?
I MET YESTERDAY! 

Your mom is the topic and the sentence is in Object-Verb-Subject word
order

2.     MY CAT?
DIED!

My cat is the topic and the sentence is in Object-Verb word order. The
word, MY, is an attributive adjective.

B.     Non-topicalized

1.      I MET
YOUR MOM YESTERDAY!

I am the topic and the sentence is in Subject-Verb-Object word order.

2.     MY CAT
DIED!  [Note there is no comma or question mark after «CAT.»]

My cat is the topic and the sentence is in Subject-Verb word order. The
word, MY, is an attributive adjective.

If the following question were to appear on an exam, which answer should you
select?

Which of the following sentences uses topicalization?

A.   
Subject-Verb-Object:  BOY THROW BALL.          

B.    
Subject-Verb: BOY RUN.                                  

C.   
Subject-Noun:  HE HOME.                                

D.   
Subject-Adjective:  HE TALL .                                     

E.     Object,
Subject-Verb:  MONEY?  she-GIVE-me.

The right answer is:  MONEY? 
she-GIVE-me.

Please
keep in mind that you don’t have to use topicalization. 

Topicalization is not the norm
in extended Deaf conversations and is reserved for specific purposes such
as emphasis, expediency, clarification, or efficiency.

---

---

---

Additional notes:

The term «grammar» is typically used to refer to «the
proper use of language.»  More specifically «a grammar» is a set
of rules for using a language.  These rules guide users in
the correct speaking or signing of a language.  

Who decides what is correct and incorrect grammar?  

The
grammar (set of rules for proper use) of a language is developed by the group of people who use the
language. New grammar rules come into existence when enough members of the
group have spoken (signed)  their language a particular way often
enough and long enough that it would seem odd to speak the language in some
other way.

If you don’t want to seem odd to others in your group, you’ve got to speak (sign)
a language according to the rules which have been developed by the community
which uses the language.

American Sign Language is tied to the Deaf
Community.   We use our language in a certain way.  That
«certain way» is what constitutes ASL grammar.

American Sign Language has its own grammar system,
separate from that of English.

What this means is ASL grammar has its own rules for phonology, morphology,
syntax, and pragmatics.

In general, ASL sentences follow a «TOPIC» «COMMENT» arrangement.
Another name for  a «comment» is the term «predicate.»  A
predicate is simply a word or phrase that says something about a topic. In
general, the subject of a sentence is your topic. The predicate is your
comment. 

When discussing past and future events we tend to establish a time-frame before the rest of the sentence.

That gives us a «TIME» «TOPIC» «COMMENT» structure.

For example:
or «WEEK-PAST  Pro1  WASH MY CAR » 

[The «Pro1» term means to use a first-person pronoun. A first-person
pronoun means «I or me.» So «Pro1» is just a fancy way of saying «I» or
«me.» In the above example you would simply point at yourself to
mean «Pro1.»]

Quite often ASL signers will use the object of their sentence as
the topic.  For example:

«MY CAR, WEEK-PAST I WASH»
[Note: The eyebrows are raised and the head is tilted slightly forward
during the «MY CAR» portion of that sentence.]

Using the object of your sentence as the topic of the sentence is called
«topicalization.» In this example, «my car» becomes the subject
instead of «me.» The fact that «I washed it last week» becomes the comment. 

There is more than one sign for
«WASH.»  Washing
a car or a window is different from the generic sign for «WASH»
to wash-in-a-machine, or to
wash
a dish. The real issue here isn’t so much the order of the words as it
is choosing appropriate ASL sign to accurately represent the concept. 

There are a number of «correct» variations of
word order in American Sign Language (Humphries & Padden, 1992).

For example you could say: «I STUDENT I» or, «I STUDENT» or even,
«STUDENT I.» 
Note: The concept of «I» in these sentences is done by pointing an index
finger at your chest and/or touching the tip of the index finger to your
chest.

You could sign:

«I FROM U-T-A-H I.»
«I FROM U-T-A-H.»
«FROM U-T-A-H I.»

All of the above
statements are «ASL.»

I notice that some «ASL» teachers tend to become fanatical about encouraging
their students to get as far away from English word order as possible and
thus focus on the version «FROM U-T-A-H I.»

It has been my experience during my various travels across
the U.S. that the versions «I STUDENT» and «I FROM U-T-A-H» work great and
are less confusing to the majority of people.

The version «FROM UTAH I» tends to be used
only after the
subject of the conversation has been introduced.  For example, suppose
two people are talking about a man named Bob.  If one of them says he
«thought Bob was from California» and I happen to know he is really from
Utah, I would sign «FROM UTAH HE» while nodding.

Think for a moment about how English uses the phrases:
«Do you…____?»
«Did you…_____?»
«Are you…_____?»

For example, «Are you going?»

A «hearing» English speaker might also say to
his/her friend in regard to a party which has recently been brought up as a
conversation topic: «You going?»

Woah! Think about that for a moment. Have you ever asked an English teacher
what is wrong with English since English sometimes uses the
word «are» and doesn’t the word «are» at other times? 

In ASL «You going?» — tends to be expressed as «YOU GO?»
In ASL «Are you going?» — tends to be expressed as, «YOU GO YOU?»
Think of the second «YOU» as being «are you?» For example: «YOU GO
(are)-YOU?»
So, the second «YOU» actually means «are.»  Heh.

ASL doesn’t use «state of being» verbs.

The English sentence «I am a
teacher» could be signed: «TEACHER ME » [while nodding your
head] or even «ME TEACHER»
[while nodding your head]. Both are correct, my suggestion is to choose the second version. 
You might even see: PRO-1 TEACHER PRO-1 (which can also be written as I/ME
TEACHER I/ME since PRO-1 means first person pronoun).  Or think of it
as meaning «I TEACHER AM» with the concept of «am» just happening to be
expressed via nodding while pointing at yourself.

If you are striving to pass an «ASL
test» like the American Sign Language Teachers Association certification test
(ASLTA), or the Sign Communication Proficiency Interview (SCPI), sure, go
ahead and use a version such as «TEACHER ME» —not because it is any more ASL but because it
«looks» less like English.  Test evaluators are only human.
[And remember to use appropriate facial expressions!] 

---

Dr. Vicars: Let’s discuss indexing, personal
pronouns, and directionality.

First off, indexing: It is when you point your index at a person who is or
isn’t in the signing area. Sometimes we call that present referent or absent referent.

If the person is there, you can just point at him to mean «HE»

If the person is not there, if you have identified him by spelling his name
or some other method of identification, (like a «name sign»), then you can «index»
him to a point in space. Once you have set up a referent, you can refer back to that same point each time you want to
talk about that person.

Need clarification on that ?

Students: [a lot of «no» answers]

[Topic:  «Personal Pronouns»]

Dr. Vicars: Now lets talk about personal pronouns.

The simplest way is to just point. If I am talking to you and want to say
«YOU» then I point. To pluralize a personal pronoun, you sweep it. For example the concept of «THEY.» I
would point slightly off to the right and sweep it more to the right. For «YOU ALL» I would
point slightly to the left and sweep to slightly to the right, (crossing my sight line).

Of course if the people are present then you can simply point to them. The
more people there are the bigger the sweep. Any questions about personal pronouns?

Art: Does the sweep dip?

Dr. Vicars: It stays on a horizontal plane most of the time. If I am talking about a
group that is
organized vertically then I will sign (sweep) from top to bottom in an vertical motion.
But that is
rare.

Dr. Vicars: Okay now let’s see how this all ties into the principle of
«directionality.»

Suppose I index BOB on my right and FRED on my left. Then I sign «GIVE-TO»
from near my body to the place where I indexed Bob. That means «I give
(gave) (something) to Bob.»

If I sign GIVE TO starting the movement from the place off to the right and move it to
the left it means Bob gave to Fred. If I sign starting from off to the left and bring the sign GIVE TO toward my body what
would it mean?

Sandy: «Fred give to me?»

Dr. Vicars: Right.

Sandy: How do you establish tense at that point?

Dr. Vicars: Tense would be established before signing the rest of the sentence. I would
say, «YESTERDAY ME-GIVE-TO B-0-B» The fingerspelling of BOB would be immediately
after the ME-GIVE-TO and I would spell B-O-B slightly more to the right than normal. That way I
wouldn’t need to point to Bob. However there are three or four other acceptable ways to
sign the above sentence. You could establish Bob then indicate that yesterday you gave it to
him, etc.

Lii: Can tense be done at end of sentence, or is that confusing?

Dr. Vicars: That is confusing—I don’t recommend it. I can however give you an example of
«appropriately» using a time sign at the end of a sentence. Suppose I’m talking
with a friend about a problem that occurred yesterday and I sign: TRY FIND-OUT WHAT-HAPPEN
YESTERDAY

Dr. Vicars: That sentence talks about a situation that happened before now, but the
current conversation is happening now. Some people might try to put the sign «YESTERDAY»
at the beginning of that sentence, but I wouldn’t—it feels awkward.

Dr. Vicars: You can directionalize many different verbs. Hand-to is
probably the best example, but
«MEET» is also common. [To sign MEET, you hold both index fingers out in front
of you about a foot apart, pointed up, palms facing each other. Then you bring them together—it looks
like two people meeting. Note: The index fingers do not touch, just the lower parts of the hands.]

For example ME-MEET-YOU can be done in one motion. I don’t need to sign «I»
«MEET» «YOU» as three separate words. But rather I hold my right Index finger near me,
palm facing you, and my left index finger near you, palm facing me. Then I bring my right to my left.
One motion is all it took.

Monica: How do we know which verbs to use?

Dr. Vicars: That is the challenging part. Some just aren’t directional in nature. For example:
«WANT.» You have to sign it normal and indicate who wants what.

Dr. Vicars: But if you are in doubt about whether or not to use indexing or
directionality, go ahead and index it works every time even though it takes more effort. 
(If you are taking an «in-person» class and prepping for an ASL
test, it is in your best interest to become familiar with which of your
vocabulary words can be directionalized or else you might lose points for
not demonstrating proper ASL grammar.)

Monica:

Art: Could you give examples for sweep, chop, and inward sweep diagrams used in [the
«Basic Sign Communication» book] please.

[Note, I used to use BSC as a of the text in one of my classes. I’ve used many
other texts as well.  They all have their good points.]

Dr. Vicars: Sure. The sweep would be to pluralize a sign like THEY.

Dr. Vicars: The chop I’m not sure what you’re referring to is it …

[Clarification was made. The diagram in question is in the Basic Sign Communication
text, ISBN 0-913072-56-7, Level1, module 4, page 17]

Art: Yes, the center at the bottom

Dr. Vicars: Hold…okay…got it. You are talking about the three diagrams below the
slightly larger one is that right?

Art: Yes

Dr. Vicars: Good…we’re making progress… If I were handing a paper to a number of
individuals, I would use several short ME-GIVE-TO-YOU motions strung
together in a left to right sweeping motion.

If I were talking about passing a piece of paper to the class in general I would use
a sweeping motion from left to right. If I were giving the paper to just two
people, I’d use two ME-GIVE-TO-YOU motions one slightly to the left, then
one slightly to the right.

Art: Thanks

[…various discussion…]

 Lii: How does one go about using «ing, s, and ed endings?» Does it need to be done?

Dr. Vicars: Good question Lii. Can I answer that next week during the grammar discussion?

Lii: You bet.

Dr. Vicars: Thanks Lii

Sandy: Similar question — how do we use punctuation? Just pause — other than emphasis
with face?

Dr. Vicars: Again a good question. Okay then, let me go ahead and answer both questions
now, then we’ll hear comments from those of you who have them.

Dr. Vicars: When you ask about «s,» you are asking about pluralization.
In ASL you can pluralize any particular
concept in a number of ways. So far in our lessons we have been using a sweeping motion, (for
example we turn the sign
«HE» into the word «THEY» by adding a sweeping movement). 

The suffix «ed» is established by using a «tense
marker» like the sign PAST or is understood by context. For example if I know you are talking about a trip you went on last week, You
don’t need to keep signing «PAST,» I would understand it was past tense. You could
sign «TRUE GOOD» and I would know you meant «The trip went really well.» 
If I sign, «YESTERDAY ME WALK SCHOOL,» the word «walk»
would be understood as «walked.»

About punctuation, you are right, you punctuate a sentence via your pauses and
facial expressions.  One common type of punctuation is that of adding a
question mark at the end of a question by drawing a question mark in the air
or by holding the index finger in front of you in an «x» shape
then straightening and bending it a few times. This is called a
«Question Mark Wiggle.» Most of the time people don’t use Question
Mark Wiggle at the end of a question.  Instead they rely on facial
expression to indicate that a question has been asked.

Suffixes such as «ing,» «ed,» and others are not used in ASL in the
sense that they are not separate signs that are added to a word. If I want to change
«learn» into
«learning» I simply sign it twice to show it is a process. Many times the
«ing» is implied. For example, «YESTERDAY I RUN» could be interpreted as «Yesterday I went for a
run,» or you could interpret it as, «Yesterday I was running.» How you interpret it would
depend on the rest of the message (context).  …more >

Grammar 2 |
3
Inflection

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Notes: 
What equals «correct grammar» is
determined by a type of group consensus.  Consensus occurs when an
opinion or decision is reached by a group as a whole. Political or
governmental bodies try to «come to a consensus» on issues. For
example, I was a student senator for a while.  Occasionally as a
group we would «come to a consensus» on some topic.  Coming
to a consensus didn’t mean that everyone agreed with every aspect of the
decision, but we were willing to go along with the group and support the
decision.

That is how it is in ASL.  The older folks don’t always
agree with signs used by the younger folks. Those who teach ASL classes
often don’t agree with the general use of certain signs that they consider
to be «signed English.» But it isn’t «one person’s or one instructor’s
opinion» that determines what constitutes ASL — it is the group.

Note:  In this discussion the phrase «speaking a
language» is not limited to «voicing» but rather it also
includes signing or producing a language.

 

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References:
Humphries, T., & Padden, C. (1992). Learning American sign
language. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall.