History of sign language

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The recorded history of sign language in Western societies starts in the 17th century, as a visual language or method of communication, although references to forms of communication using hand gestures date back as far as 5th century BC Greece. Sign language is composed of a system of conventional gestures, mimic, hand signs and finger spelling, plus the use of hand positions to represent the letters of the alphabet. Signs can also represent complete ideas or phrases, not only individual words.

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Most sign languages are natural languages, different in construction from oral languages used in proximity to them, and are employed mainly by deaf people in order to communicate. Many sign languages have developed independently throughout the world, and no first sign language can be identified. Both signed systems and manual alphabets have been found worldwide. Until the 19th century, most of what we know about historical sign languages is limited to the manual alphabets (fingerspelling systems) that were invented to facilitate transfer of words from an oral to a sign language, rather than documentation of the sign language itself.

History of known sign languages

Juan Pablo Bonet, Reduccion de las letras y arte para ensenar a hablar a los mudos (Madrid, 1620). Arte para ensenar a hablar a los mudos.jpg
Juan Pablo Bonet, Reduccion de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos (Madrid, 1620).

One of the earliest written references to 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?" [1]

In the Middle Ages, monastic sign languages were used by a number of religious orders in Europe since at least the 10th century. These are not true "sign languages", however, but well-developed systems of gestural communication. [2] [3] [4] [5]

In Native American communities prior to 1492, it seems that Plains Indian Sign Language existed as an extensive lingua franca used for trade and possibly ceremonies, story-telling and also daily communication by deaf people. [6] Accounts of such signing indicate these languages were fairly complex, as ethnographers such as Cabeza de Vaca described detailed communications between them and Native Americans that were conducted in sign. In the 1500s, a Spanish expeditionary, Cabeza de Vaca, observed natives in the western part of modern-day Florida using signs, [7] and in the mid-16th century Coronado mentioned that communication with the Tonkawa using signs was possible without a translator.[ citation needed ]

The earliest concrete reference to sign language in Britain is from the wedding of a deaf man named Thomas Tillseye in 1575. [8] Descendants of British Sign Language have been used by deaf communities (or at least in classrooms) in 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, and Germany.[ citation needed ]

Between 1500 and 1700, it seems that members of the Turkish Ottoman court were using a form of signed communication. [9] Many sought-after servants were deaf, as, some argue, they were seen as more quiet and trustworthy. Many diplomats and other hearing members of the court, however, also learned and communicated amongst one another through this signing system, which was passed down through the deaf members of the court. [9]

In the 18th century, Paris was home to a small deaf community that signed among themselves in Old French Sign Language. This was referenced by l'Abbé Charles Michel de l'Épée who created the first school for the deaf in Paris in the 18th century. He defined his own manual alphabet and synthesized signs with French grammar. With consistent use among the community these two sources evolved into the French Sign Language. [10] American Sign Language is heavily based on French Sign Language due to the presence of teachers from France in the first American schools for the deaf.

Some sign languages are known to have developed spontaneously in small communities with a high number of deaf members. Martha's Vineyard, an island in Massachusetts, USA was settled by people carrying a gene causing deafness in the late 17th century. Limited outside contact and high inter-marriage on the island led to a high density of deaf individuals on the island, peaking around 1840. [11] This environment proved ideal for the development of what is today known as Martha's Vineyard Sign Language, which was used by hearing and deaf islanders alike until increased mixing with the outside world reduced the incidence of deafness on the island. They created a sign language that had specific signs relevant to that area, such as native types of fish and berries. [12] Almost all of the school-aged population became students at ASD, which led to mutual influence of American Sign Language and Martha's Vineyard Sign Language on each other.

Perception of sign language through history

In Europe, Aristotle and other prominent philosophers [13] believed that deafness was intrinsically connected to mutism and lack of intelligence, which was codified in Roman law; therefore they were considered incapable of being educated. [14] When John of Beverley, Bishop of York, taught a deaf person to speak in 685 AD, it was deemed a miracle, and he was later canonized. [11]

European education for the deaf is not recorded until the 16th century, when Pedro Ponce de León began tutoring deaf children of wealthy patrons –in some places, literacy was a requirement for legal recognition as an heir. The first book on deaf education, published in 1620 by Juan Pablo Bonet in Madrid, included a detailed account of the use of a manual alphabet to teach deaf students to read and speak. [15] It is considered the first modern treatise on phonetics and speech therapy, setting out a method of oral education for deaf children. In Britain, Thomas Braidwood founded the first school for the deaf in the late 1700s. He was secretive about his teaching methods but probably used sign language, finger spelling and lip reading.[ citation needed ]

l'Abbé Charles Michel de l'Épée started the first school for deaf children in Paris, in 1755.[ citation needed ] Laurent Clerc was arguably the most famous graduate of L'Épee's school; Clerc went to the United States with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to found the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1817. In France and the United States, sign language, or "manualism" was initially the favored communication method for education of deaf students, firmly supported by Clerc and therefore Gallaudet. [16] In England and Germany oralism was considered to be superior - sign language was thought to be a mere collection of gestures, and a barrier between deaf people and hearing society. [17] [18] In 1880, the International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED) met in Milan with 164 educators attending (only one of them being deaf). At this meeting they passed a resolution removing the use of sign language from deaf education, and establishing the solely oralist classroom as standard. [19] In line with this philosophy, manually coded languages have been created and used for education instead of sign language, such as Signing Exact English.

The debate between oralism and manualism remained active after Milan. In the late 20th century educators and researchers began to understand the importance of sign language to language acquisition. In 1960 when the linguist William Stokoe published Sign Language Structure, it advanced the idea that American Sign Language was a complete language. Over the next few decades sign language became accepted as a valid first language and schools shifted to a philosophy of "Total Communication", [20] instead of banning sign language.

Wyatte C. Hall says that sign language is important for the development of deaf children growing up because without it, they could be at risk of many health difficulties. Studies have shown that the development of neuro-linguistic structures of the brain can be affected if there is a language delay. A study showed that there is an "age of acquisition" that affects adults' ability to understand grammar based on when they were introduced to sign language. [21] Data now shows that children who are heavily exposed to sign language as early as possible are better at reading English than children who are not exposed to sign language. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Sign Language</span> Sign language used predominately in the US

American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is expressed by employing both manual and nonmanual features. Besides North America, dialects of ASL and ASL-based creoles are used in many countries around the world, including much of West Africa and parts of Southeast Asia. ASL is also widely learned as a second language, serving as a lingua franca. ASL is most closely related to French Sign Language (LSF). It has been proposed that ASL is a creole language of LSF, although ASL shows features atypical of creole languages, such as agglutinative morphology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fingerspelling</span> Form of communication using one or both hands

Fingerspelling is the representation of the letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands. These manual alphabets have often been used in deaf education and have subsequently been adopted as a distinct part of a number of sign languages. There are about forty manual alphabets around the world. Historically, manual alphabets have had a number of additional applications—including use as ciphers, as mnemonics and in silent religious settings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sign language</span> Language that uses manual communication and body language to convey meaning

Sign 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. Sign languages are not universal and are usually not mutually intelligible, although there are similarities among different sign languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Sign Language</span> Sign language used in the United Kingdom

British Sign Language (BSL) is a sign language used in the United Kingdom and is the first or preferred language among the deaf community in the UK. While private correspondence from William Stokoe hinted at a formal name for the language in 1960, the first usage of the term "British Sign Language" in an academic publication was likely by Aaron Cicourel. Based on the percentage of people who reported 'using British Sign Language at home' on the 2011 Scottish Census, the British Deaf Association estimates there are 151,000 BSL users in the UK, of whom 87,000 are Deaf. By contrast, in the 2011 England and Wales Census 15,000 people living in England and Wales reported themselves using BSL as their main language. People who are not deaf may also use BSL, as hearing relatives of deaf people, sign language interpreters or as a result of other contact with the British Deaf community. The language makes use of space and involves movement of the hands, body, face and head.

A spoken language is a language produced by articulate sounds or manual gestures, as opposed to a written language. An oral language or vocal language is a language produced with the vocal tract in contrast with a sign language, which is produced with the body and hands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French Sign Language</span> Sign language used predominately in France and French-speaking Switzerland

French Sign Language is the sign language of the deaf in France and French-speaking parts of Switzerland. According to Ethnologue, it has 100,000 native signers.

Oralism is the education of deaf students through oral language by using lip reading, speech, and mimicking the mouth shapes and breathing patterns of speech. Oralism came into popular use in the United States around the late 1860s. In 1867, the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts, was the first school to start teaching in this manner. Oralism and its contrast, manualism, manifest differently in deaf education and are a source of controversy for involved communities. Listening and Spoken Language, a technique for teaching deaf children that emphasizes the child's perception of auditory signals from hearing aids or cochlear implants, is how oralism continues on in the current day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manualism</span> Method of educating deaf students through the use of sign language

Manualism is a method of education of deaf students using sign language within the classroom. Manualism arose in the late 18th century with the advent of free public schools for the deaf in Europe. These teaching methods were brought over to the United States where the first school for the deaf was established in 1817. Today manualism methods are used in conjunction with oralism methods in the majority of American deaf schools.

Tactile signing is a common means of communication used by people with deafblindness. It is based on a sign language or another system of manual communication.

Japanese Sign Language, also known by the acronym JSL, is the dominant sign language in Japan and is a complete natural language, distinct from but influenced by the spoken Japanese language.

The history of deaf people and deaf culture make up deaf history. The Deaf culture is a culture that is centered on sign language and relationships among one another. Unlike other cultures the Deaf culture is not associated with any native land as it is a global culture. While deafness is often included within the umbrella of disability, many view the Deaf community as a language minority. Throughout the years many accomplishments have been achieved by deaf people. To name the most famous, Ludwig van Beethoven and Thomas Alva Edison were both deaf and contributed great works to culture.

Manually coded languages (MCLs) are a family of gestural communication methods which include gestural spelling as well as constructed languages which directly interpolate the grammar and syntax of oral languages in a gestural-visual form—that is, signed versions of oral languages. Unlike the sign languages that have evolved naturally in deaf communities, these manual codes are the conscious invention of deaf and hearing educators, and as such lack the distinct spatial structures present in native deaf sign languages. MCLs mostly follow the grammar of the oral language—or, more precisely, of the written form of the oral language that they interpolate. They have been mainly used in deaf education in an effort to "represent English on the hands" and by sign language interpreters in K-12 schools, although they have had some influence on deaf sign languages where their implementation was widespread.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dutch Sign Language</span> Predominant deaf sign language of the Netherlands

Dutch Sign Language is the predominant sign language used by deaf people in the Netherlands.

In the United States, deaf culture was born in Connecticut in 1817 at the American School for the Deaf, when a deaf teacher from France, Laurent Clerc, was recruited by Thomas Gallaudet to help found the new institution. Under the guidance and instruction of Clerc in language and ways of living, deaf American students began to evolve their own strategies for communication and for living, which became the kernel for the development of American Deaf culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deaf education</span> Education of the deaf and hard of hearing

Deaf education is the education of students with any degree of hearing loss or deafness. This may involve, but does not always, individually-planned, systematically-monitored teaching methods, adaptive materials, accessible settings, and other interventions designed to help students achieve a higher level of self-sufficiency and success in the school and community than they would achieve with a typical classroom education. There are different language modalities used in educational setting where students get varied communication methods. A number of countries focus on training teachers to teach deaf students with a variety of approaches and have organizations to aid deaf students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles-Michel de l'Épée</span> French priest and educator of the deaf (1712–1789)

Charles-Michel de l'Épée was an 18th-century French philanthropic educator who has become known as the "Father of the Deaf". He founded Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris, the first public school for the deaf, in 1760.

The history of deaf education in the United States began in the early 1800s when the Cobbs School of Virginia, an oral school, was established by William Bolling and John Braidwood, and the Connecticut Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, a manual school, was established by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. When the Cobbs School closed in 1816, the manual method, which used American Sign Language, became commonplace in deaf schools for most of the remainder of the century. In the late 1800s, schools began to use the oral method, which only allowed the use of speech, as opposed to the manual method previously in place. Students caught using sign language in oral programs were often punished. The oral method was used for many years until sign language instruction gradually began to come back into deaf education.

Ukrainian Sign Language (USL) (Ukrainian: Українська жестова мова (УЖМ), romanized: Ukrayinska zhestova mova (UZhM)) is the sign language of the deaf community of Ukraine. Ukrainian Sign Language belongs to the family of French sign languages. Worldwide awareness of Ukrainian Sign Language rose sharply in 2014 after the release of a Ukrainian film The Tribe, where actors communicated in Ukrainian Sign Language with no spoken dialogue.

Language acquisition is a natural process in which infants and children develop proficiency in the first language or languages that they are exposed to. The process of language acquisition is varied among deaf children. Deaf children born to deaf parents are typically exposed to a sign language at birth and their language acquisition follows a typical developmental timeline. However, at least 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who use a spoken language at home. Hearing loss prevents many deaf children from hearing spoken language to the degree necessary for language acquisition. For many deaf children, language acquisition is delayed until the time that they are exposed to a sign language or until they begin using amplification devices such as hearing aids or cochlear implants. Deaf children who experience delayed language acquisition, sometimes called language deprivation, are at risk for lower language and cognitive outcomes. However, profoundly deaf children who receive cochlear implants and auditory habilitation early in life often achieve expressive and receptive language skills within the norms of their hearing peers; age at implantation is strongly and positively correlated with speech recognition ability. Early access to language through signed language or technology have both been shown to prepare children who are deaf to achieve fluency in literacy skills.

The establishment of schools and institutions specializing in deaf education has a history spanning back across multiple centuries. They utilized a variety of instructional approaches and philosophies. The manner in which the language barrier is handled between the hearing and the deaf remains a topic of great controversy. Many of the early establishments of formalized education for the deaf are currently acknowledged for the influence they've contributed to the development and standards of deaf education today.

References

  1. ↑ Bauman, Dirksen (2008). Open your eyes: Deaf studies talking. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN   978-0-8166-4619-7.[ page needed ]
  2. ↑ Stokoe, William C. (1988). "Approaching Monastic Sign Language". Sign Language Studies. 1058 (58): 37–47. doi:10.1353/sls.1988.0005. JSTOR   26203846. S2CID   144705137.
  3. ↑ Bragg, L. (1997). "Visual-Kinetic Communication in Europe Before 1600: A Survey of Sign Lexicons and Finger Alphabets Prior to the Rise of Deaf Education". Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. 2 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.deafed.a014306. PMID   15579832.
  4. ↑ Bruce, Scott G. (2007). Silence and Sign Language in Medieval Monasticism. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511496417. ISBN   978-0-521-86080-2.[ page needed ]
  5. ↑ Tirosh, Yoav (January 2020). "Deafness and Nonspeaking in Late Medieval Iceland (1200–1550)". Viator. 51 (1): 311–344. doi:10.1484/J.VIATOR.5.127050. S2CID   245187538.
  6. ↑ Nielsen, Kim (2012). A Disability History of the United States. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press. ISBN   978-0-8070-2204-7.[ page needed ]
  7. ↑ Bonvillian, John D.; Ingram, Vicky L.; McCleary, Brendan M. (2009). "Observations on the Use of Manual Signs and Gestures in the Communicative Interactions between Native Americans and Spanish Explorers of North America: The Accounts of Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca". Sign Language Studies. 9 (2): 132–165. doi:10.1353/sls.0.0013. JSTOR   26190668. S2CID   144794381. Project MUSE   259439 ProQuest   222696273.
  8. ↑ "Session 9".
  9. 1 2 Miles, M. (January 2000). "Signing in the Seraglio: Mutes, dwarfs and jesters at the Ottoman Court 1500-1700". Disability & Society. 15 (1): 115–134. doi:10.1080/09687590025801. S2CID   145331019.
  10. ↑ Judéaux, Alice (3 November 2015). "French Sign Language: a language in its own right". Tradonline.
  11. 1 2 Groce, Nora Ellen (1985). Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard . Harvard University Press. ISBN   978-0-674-27040-4.[ page needed ]
  12. ↑ Groce, Nora Ellen (24 November 2016). "Deafness on Martha's Vineyard". Britannica.
  13. ↑ Gracer, Bonnie (15 April 2003). "What the Rabbis Heard: Deafness in the Mishnah". Disability Studies Quarterly. 23 (2). doi: 10.18061/dsq.v23i2.423 .
  14. ↑ Ferreri, Giulio (1906). "The deaf in antiquity". American Annals of the Deaf. 51 (5): 460–473. JSTOR   44463121.
  15. ↑ Bonet, Juan Pablo (1992). Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos [Reduction of letters and art to teach the mute to speak](PDF) (in Spanish). CEPE. ISBN   978-84-7869-071-8.[ page needed ]
  16. ↑ Edwards, R. A. R. (2012). Words Made Flesh. doi:10.18574/nyu/9780814722435.001.0001. ISBN   978-0-8147-2243-5.[ page needed ]
  17. ↑ "Session 2A".
  18. ↑ "Oral Education as Emancipation".
  19. ↑ "21st International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED) in July 2010 in Vancouver, Canada". 10 January 2011.
  20. ↑ "Hands & Voices :: Communication Considerations".
  21. ↑ Hall, Wyatte C. (May 2017). "What You Don't Know Can Hurt You: The Risk of Language Deprivation by Impairing Sign Language Development in Deaf Children". Maternal and Child Health Journal. 21 (5): 961–965. doi:10.1007/s10995-017-2287-y. PMC   5392137 . PMID   28185206.
  22. ↑ Goldin-Meadow, Susan; Mayberry, Rachel I. (November 2001). "How Do Profoundly Deaf Children Learn to Read?". Learning Disabilities Research and Practice. 16 (4): 222–229. doi:10.1111/0938-8982.00022. S2CID   1578483.
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