A sign language (also signed language) is a language which, instead of acoustically

conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns (manual

communication, body language) to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand
shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions
to fluidly express a speaker's thoughts.

Wherever communities of deaf people exist, sign languages develop. Their complex
spatial grammars are markedly different from the grammars of spoken languages.[1][2]
Hundreds of sign languages are in use around the world and are at the cores of local
Deaf cultures. Some sign languages have obtained some form of legal recognition,
while others have no status at all.

History of sign language

Juan Pablo Bonet, Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos
(‘Reduction of letters and art for teaching mute people to speak’) (Madrid, 1620).

One of the earliest written records of a signed language occurred in 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?" [3] It seems
that groups of deaf people have used signed languages throughout history.

In the 2nd century Judea, the recording in the Mishnah tractate Gittin[4] stipulated that
for the purpose of commercial transactions "A deaf-mute can hold a conversation by
means of gestures. Ben Bathyra says that he may also do so by means of lip-motions."
This teaching was well known in the Jewish society where study of Mishnah was
compulsory from childhood.

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. It is considered the first modern treatise of Phonetics and Logopedia,
setting out a method of oral education for the deaf people by means of the use of
manual signs, in form of a manual alphabet to improve the communication of the
mute or deaf people.

From the language of signs of Bonet, Charles-Michel de l'Épée published his manual
alphabet in the 18th century, which has survived basically unchanged in France and
North America until the present time.

Sign languages have often evolved around schools for deaf students. 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.[5] 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.
Generally, each spoken language has a sign language counterpart in as much as each
linguistic population will contain Deaf members who will generate a sign language. In
much the same way that geographical or cultural forces will isolate populations and
lead to the generation of different and distinct spoken languages, the same forces
operate on signed languages and so they tend to maintain their identities through time
in roughly the same areas of influence as the local spoken languages. This occurs
even though sign languages do not necessarily have any linguistic relation to the
spoken languages of the lands in which they arise. There are notable exceptions to this
pattern, however: the US, the UK, and Australia all have English as their dominant
language, but American, British, and Australian Sign Languages are all very different.
[citation needed]
Variations within a 'national' sign language can usually be correlated to the
geographic location of residential schools for the deaf.[citation needed]

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.
Recent studies claim that while 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 signed
language.[6]

[edit] Linguistics of sign

In linguistic terms, sign languages are as rich and complex as any oral language,
despite the common misconception that they are not "real languages". Professional
linguists have studied many sign languages and found them to have every linguistic
component required to be classed as true languages.[7]

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.[8]
Nor are they a visual rendition of an oral 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, like oral languages, organize elementary, meaningless units

(phonemes; once called cheremes in the case of sign languages) into meaningful
semantic units. The elements of a sign are Handshape (or Handform), Orientation (or
Palm Orientation), Location (or Place of Articulation), Movement, and Non-manual
markers (or Facial Expression), summarised in the acronym HOLME.

Common linguistic features of deaf sign languages are extensive use of classifiers, a
high degree of inflection, and a topic-comment syntax. Many unique linguistic
features emerge from sign languages' ability to produce meaning in different parts of
the visual field simultaneously. For example, the recipient of a signed message can
read meanings carried by the hands, the facial expression and the body posture in the
same moment. This is in contrast to oral languages, where the sounds that compose
words are mostly sequential (tone being an exception).

[edit] Sign languages' relationships with oral languages

A common misconception is that sign languages are somehow dependent on oral
languages, that is, that they are oral language spelled out in gesture, or that they were
invented by hearing people. Hearing teachers in deaf schools, such as Thomas
Hopkins Gallaudet, are often incorrectly referred to as “inventors” of sign language.

Manual alphabets (fingerspelling) are used in sign languages, mostly for proper names
and technical or specialised vocabulary borrowed from spoken languages. The use of
fingerspelling was once taken as evidence that sign languages were simplified
versions of oral languages, but in fact it is merely one tool among many.
Fingerspelling can sometimes be a source of new signs, which are called lexicalized
signs.

On the whole, deaf sign languages are independent of oral languages and follow their
own paths of development. For example, British Sign Language and American Sign
Language are quite different and mutually unintelligible, even though the hearing
people of Britain and America share the same oral language. The grammar of sign
languages does not necessarily resemble that 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.[9]

Similarly, countries which use a single oral language throughout may have two or
more sign languages; whereas an area that contains more than one oral language
might use only one sign language. South Africa, which has 11 official oral languages
and a similar number of other widely used oral 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.

In 1972 Ursula Bellugi, a cognitive neuroscientist and psycholinguist, asked several

people fluent in English and American Sign Language to tell a story in English, then
switch to ASL or vice versa. The results showed an average of 4.7 words per second
and 2.3 signs per second. However, only 122 signs were needed for a story, whereas
210 words were needed; thus the two versions of the story took almost the same time
to finish. Bellugi then tested to see if ASL omitted any crucial information. A
bilingual person was given a story to translate into ASL. A second bilingual signer
who could only see the signs then translated them back into English: the information
conveyed in the signed story was identical to the original story. This study, although
limited in scope, suggests that ASL signs have more information than spoken English:
1.5 propositions per second compared to 1.3 for spoken English.[10]

[edit] Spatial grammar and simultaneity

Sign languages exploit the unique features of the visual medium (sight). Oral
language is linear; only one sound can be made or received at a time. Sign language,
on the other hand, is visual; hence a whole scene can be taken in at once. Information
can be loaded into several channels and expressed simultaneously. As an illustration,
in English one could utter the phrase, "I drove here". To add information about the
drive, one would have to make a longer phrase or even add a second, such as, "I drove
here along a winding road," or "I drove here. It was a nice drive." However, in
American Sign Language, information about the shape of the road or the pleasing
nature of the drive can be conveyed simultaneously with the verb 'drive' by inflecting
the motion of the hand, or by taking advantage of non-manual signals such as body
posture and facial expression, at the same time that the verb 'drive' is being signed.
Therefore, whereas in English the phrase "I drove here and it was very pleasant" is
longer than "I drove here," in American Sign Language the two may be the same
length.

[edit] Classification of sign languages

See also: List of sign languages

Although deaf 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. A group of sign "languages" known as
manually coded languages are more properly understood as signed modes of spoken
languages, and therefore belong to the language families of their respective spoken
languages. There are, for example, several such signed encodings of English.

There has been very little historical linguistic research on sign languages, and few
attempts to determine genetic relationships between sign languages, other than simple
comparison of lexical data and some discussion about whether certain sign languages
are dialects of a language or languages of a family. Languages may be spread through
migration, through the establishment of deaf schools (often by foreign-trained
educators), or due to political domination.

Language contact is common, making clear family classifications difficult — it is

often unclear whether lexical similarity is due to borrowing or a common parent
language. Contact occurs between sign languages, between signed and spoken
languages (Contact Sign), and between sign languages and gestural systems used by
the broader community. One author has speculated that Adamorobe Sign Language
may be related to the "gestural trade jargon used in the markets throughout West
Africa", in vocabulary and areal features including prosody and phonetics.[11]

 BSL, Auslan and NZSL are usually considered to belong to a language family
known as BANZSL. Maritime Sign Language and South African Sign
Language are also related to BSL.[12]
 Japanese Sign Language, Taiwanese Sign Language and Korean Sign
Language are thought to be members of a Japanese Sign Language family.
 French Sign Language family. There are a number of sign languages that
emerged from French Sign Language (LSF), or were 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, Flemish Sign Language, Belgian-French Sign
Language, Spanish Sign Language, Mexican Sign Language, Brazilian Sign
Language (LIBRAS), Catalan Sign Language and others.
o 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.
 Anecdotal evidence suggests that Finnish Sign Language, Swedish Sign
Language and Norwegian Sign Language belong to a Scandinavian Sign
Language family.
 Icelandic Sign Language is known to have originated from Danish Sign
Language, although significant differences in vocabulary have developed in
the course of a century of separate development.
 Israeli Sign Language was influenced by German Sign Language.
 According to a SIL report, 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 Slovakian Sign Language. This group may also include Romanian,
Bulgarian, and Polish sign languages.
 Known isolates include Nicaraguan Sign Language, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign
Language, and Providence Island Sign Language.
 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.

The only comprehensive classification along these lines going beyond a simple listing
of languages dates back to 1991.[13] 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.[14]

Classification of sign languages[15]

Primary Primary Alternative Alternative
Single Group Single Group
Prototype-A 7 1 7 2
Prototype-R 18 1 1 -
BSL(bfi)-derived 8 - - -
DGS(gsg)-derived 2 - - -
JSL-derived 2 - - -
LSF(fsl)-derived 30 - - -
LSG-derived 1 - - -

In his classification, the author distinguishes between primary and alternative sign
languages[16] and, subcategorically, between languages recognizable as single
languages and languages thought to be composite groups.[17] The prototype-A class of
languages includes all those sign languages that seemingly cannot be derived from
any other language. Prototype-R languages are languages that are remotely modelled
on prototype-A language by a process Kroeber (1940) called "stimulus diffusion".
The classes of BSL(bfi)-, DGS(gsg)-, JSL-, LSF(fsl)- and LSG-derived languages
represent "new languages" derived from prototype languages by linguistic processes
of creolization and relexification.[18] Creolization is seen as enriching overt
morphology in "gesturally signed" languages, as compared to reducing overt
morphology in "vocally signed" languages.[19]

[edit] Typology of sign languages

See also: Linguistic typology

Linguistic typology (going back on 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 syntactic typology as there are different word orders in
different languages. For example, ÖGS is Subject-Object-Verb while ASL is Subject-
Verb-Object. Correspondence to the surrounding spoken languages is not improbable.

Morphologically speaking, wordshape is the essential factor. Canonical wordshape

results from the systematic pairing of the binary values of two features, namely
syllabicity (mono- or poly-) and morphemicity (mono- or poly-). Brentari[20][21]
classifies sign languages as a whole group determined by the medium of
communication (visual instead of auditive) as one group with the features
monosyllabic and polymorphemic. That means, that via one syllable (i.e. one word,
one sign) several morphemes can be expressed, like subject and object of a verb
determine the direction of the verb's movement (inflection). This is necessary for sign
languages to assure a comparible production rate to spoken languages, since
producing one sign takes much longer than uttering one word - but on a sentence to
sentence comparison, signed and spoken languages share approximately the same
speed.[22]

[edit] Written forms of sign languages

Sign language differs from oral language in its relation to writing. The phonemic
systems of oral languages are primarily sequential: that is, the majority of phonemes
are produced in a sequence one after another, although many languages also have
non-sequential aspects such as tone. As a consequence, traditional phonemic writing
systems are also sequential, with at best diacritics for non-sequential aspects such as
stress and tone.

Sign languages have a higher non-sequential component, with many "phonemes"

produced simultaneously. For example, signs may involve fingers, hands, and face
moving simultaneously, or the two hands moving in different directions. Traditional
writing systems are not designed to deal with this level of complexity.

Partially because of this, sign languages are not often written. In those few countries
with good educational opportunities available to the deaf, many deaf signers can read
and write the oral language of their country at a level sufficient to consider them as
"functionally literate." However, in many countries, deaf education is very poor and /
or very limited. As a consequence, most deaf people have very little to no literacy in
their country's spoken language.
However, there have been several attempts at developing scripts for sign languages.
The Stokoe notation is a phonemic alphabet devised by William Stokoe for his 1965
Dictionary of American Sign Language. Designed specifically for ASL, it is limited in
that it has no way of expressing facial expression. The more recent ASL-phabet is a
minimal derivative of Stokoe along the lines of shorthand. The Hamburg Notation
System (HamNoSys), on the other hand, is a detailed phonetic system that is not
designed for any one sign language, and intended as a transcription system for
researchers rather than as a practical script. SignWriting, a practical and by far the
most popular system, can also be used for any sign language, and has adequate means
of handling mouthing and facial expression. However, since it is iconic and not
phonemic, there is no one-to-one correspondence with signs, which can often be
written in multiple ways.

These systems are based on iconic symbols. Some, such as SignWriting and
HamNoSys, are pictographic, being conventionalized pictures of the hands, face, and
body; others, such as the Stokoe notation, are more iconic. Stokoe used letters of the
Latin alphabet and Arabic numerals to indicate the handshapes used in fingerspelling,
such as 'A' for a closed fist, 'B' for a flat hand, and '5' for a spread hand; but non-
alphabetic symbols for location and movement, such as '[]' for the trunk of the body,
'×' for contact, and '^' for an upward movement. 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, being pictographic, is able to represent simultaneous elements in a

single sign. The Stokoe notation, on the other hand, is sequential, with a
conventionalized order of a symbol for the location of the sign, then one for the hand
shape, and finally one (or more) for the movement. The orientation of the hand is
indicated with an optional diacritic before the hand shape. When two movements
occur simultaneously, they are written one atop the other; when sequential, they are
written one after the other. Neither the Stokoe nor HamNoSys scripts are designed to
represent facial expressions or non-manual movements, both of which SignWriting
accommodates easily, although this is being gradually corrected in HamNoSys.
HamNoSys, however, is a linguistic notational system for research rather than a
practical script.

[edit] Sign languages in society

[edit] Telecommunications facilitated signing

Video Interpreter sign used at VRS/VRI service locations

Main articles: Video Remote Interpreting and Video Relay Service

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.[23] Various organizations have also conducted
research on signing via videotelephony.
Sign language interpretation services via Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) or a Video
Relay Service (VRS) are useful in the present-day where one of the parties is deaf,
hard-of-hearing or speech-impaired (mute) and the other is Hearing. In VRI, a sign-
language user and a Hearing person are in one location, and the interpreter is in
another (rather than being in the same room with the clients as would normally be the
case). The interpreter communicates with the sign-language user via a video
telecommunications link, and with the Hearing person by an audio link. In 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.

In such cases the interpretation flow is normally between a signed language and an
oral language that are customarily used in the same country, such as French Sign
Language (FSL) to spoken French, Spanish Sign Language (SSL) to spoken Spanish,
British Sign Language (BSL) to spoken English, and American Sign Language (ASL)
also to spoken English (since BSL and ASL are completely distinct), etc. Multilingual
sign language interpreters, who can also translate as well across principal languages
(such as to and from SSL, to and from spoken English), are also available, albeit less
frequently. Such activities involve considerable effort on the part of the interpreter,
since sign languages are distinct natural languages with their own construction and
syntax, different from the oral language used in the same country.

A deaf person using a Video Relay Service to communicate with a hearing person

With video interpreting, sign language interpreters work remotely with live video and
audio feeds, so that the interpreter can see the deaf party, and converse with the
hearing party, and vice versa. Much like telephone interpreting, video interpreting can
be used for situations in which no on-site interpreters are available. However, video
interpreting cannot be used for situations in which all parties are speaking via
telephone alone. VRI and VRS interpretation requires all parties to have the necessary
equipment. Some advanced equipment enables interpreters to remotely control the
video camera, in order to zoom in and out or to point the camera toward the party that
is signing.

[edit] Home sign

Main article: Home sign

Sign systems are sometimes developed within a single family. For instance, when
hearing parents with no sign language skills have a deaf child, an informal system of
signs will naturally develop, unless repressed by the parents. The term for these mini-
languages is home sign (sometimes homesign or kitchen sign).[24]

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 signals to facilitate the meeting of his or her communication
needs. Although this kind of system is grossly inadequate for the intellectual
development of a child and it comes nowhere near meeting the standards linguists use
to describe a complete language, it is a common occurrence. No type of Home Sign is
recognized as an official language.

[edit] Use of signs in hearing communities

Gesture is a typical component of spoken languages. More elaborate systems of

manual communication have developed in places or situations where speech is not
practical or permitted, such as cloistered religious communities, scuba diving,
television recording studios, loud workplaces, stock exchanges, baseball, hunting (by
groups such as the Kalahari bushmen), or in the game Charades. In Rugby Union the
Referee uses a limited but defined set of signs to communicate his/her decisions to the
spectators. Recently, there has been a movement to teach and encourage the use of
sign language with toddlers before they learn to talk, because such young children can
communicate effectively with signed languages well before they are physically
capable of speech. This is typically referred to as Baby Sign. There is also movement
to use signed languages more with non-deaf and non-hard-of-hearing children with
other causes of speech impairment or delay, for the obvious benefit of effective
communication without dependence on speech.

On occasion, where the prevalence of deaf people is high enough, a deaf sign
language has been taken up by an entire local community. Famous examples of this
include Martha's Vineyard Sign Language in the USA, Kata Kolok in a village in
Bali, Adamorobe Sign Language in Ghana and Yucatec Maya sign language in
Mexico. In such communities deaf people are not socially disadvantaged.

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 pidgin sign language arose among tribes of American Indians in the Great Plains
region of North America (see Plains Indian Sign Language). It was used to
communicate among tribes with different spoken languages. There are especially
users today among the Crow, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Unlike other sign languages
developed by hearing people, it shares the spatial grammar of deaf sign languages.