Sign language- Linguistics

INTRO
A sign language (also signed language) is a language which uses manual communication instead of sound to convey meaning - simultaneously combining handshapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to express fluidly a speaker's thoughts. Sign languages commonly develop in deaf communities, which can include interpreters and friends and families of deaf people as well as people who are deaf or hard of hearing themselves.
As is the case in spoken language, sign language differs from one region to another. However, when people using different signed languages meet, communication is significantly easier than when people of different spoken languages meet. Sign language, in this respect, gives access to an international deaf community. However, sign language is not universal, and many different sign languages exist that are mostly mutually (nawzajem, wzajemnie) unintelligible (niezrozumiałe).
Wherever communities of deaf people exist, sign languages develop, in fact their complex spatial grammars are markedly different than spoken language. In many cases, various signed "modes" of spoken languages have been developed, such as Signed English and Warlpiri Sign Language (a sign language used by the Warlpiri, an Aboriginal community in the central desert region of Australia). Hundreds of sign languages are in use around the world and are at the core of local Deaf cultures. Some sign languages have obtained some form of legal recognition, while others have no status at all.
Exemplary for the mature status of sign languages is the growing body of sign language poetry, and other stage performances. The poetic mechanisms available to signing poets are not all available to a speaking poet. This offers new, exciting ways for poems to reach and move the audience.

HISTORY OF SIGN LANGUAGE
The recorded history of sign language in Western society extends from the 18th century. In 1755, Abb de l'pe founded the first public school for deaf children in Paris; pe decided to dedicate himself to the education and salvation of the deaf, and sometime in the 1750s he founded a shelter which he ran with his own private income. In line with emerging philosophical thought of the time, pe came to believe that deaf people were capable of language, and concluded that they should be able to receive the sacraments and thus avoid going to hell. He began to develop a system of instruction of the French language and religion. In the early 1760s, his shelter became the world's first free school for the deaf, open to the public. Laurent Clerc was arguably its most famous graduate. He went to the United States with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to found the American School for the Deaf. It evolved into Gallaudet University, the only liberal arts university for the deaf in the world.
USE OF SIGNS IN HEARING COMMUNITIES
Gesture is a typical component of spoken languages. More elaborate systems of manual communication have developed in situations where speech is not practical or permitted, such as cloistered religious communities, scuba diving, television recording studios, loud workplaces, stock exchanges, in baseball, while 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 and with non-deaf or hard-of-hearing children with other causes of speech impairment or delay. This is typically
referred to as Baby Sign.

BABY SIGN
Children of an early age have a desire to communicate their needs and wishes, but lack the ability to do so clearly. This often leads to frustration and tantrums. With practice parents, infants and toddlers can communicate fluently and clearly. Hand-eye coordination is easier than the coordination of speech, which requires coordinating the lips, tongue, breath, and vocal chords simultaneously. By using simple signs for common words such as "eat", "sleep", "more", "hug", "play", "cookie", "teddy bear", etc., infants can learn to express their needs before they are able to produce understandable speech. Babies in deaf families, immersed in a signing environment, use simple signs from as early as 6 weeks. Some parents feel that they don't have enough time to teach their baby sign language, but by using sign with each other in front of the baby, they will need to spend little time in actual instruction.

ALTERNATE & PRIMARY SIGN LANGUAGE
The older concept of a sign language as a limited set of gestures being used in place of a 'real' language is close to what is now technically known as an alternate sign language. By definition, an alternate sign language is a system of gestures developed by speakers for limited communication in a specific context where speech cannot be used. In some religious orders, there are rules of silence and a very restricted alternate sign language is employed by the monks.
In contrast, a primary sign language is the first language of a group that does not have access to a spoken language. ASL is a primary sign language. Yet, for a very long time, it was not considered to be a possible natural language at all.

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.
Sign languages are not pantomime - in other words, signs are largely arbitrary and have no necessary visual relationship to their referent, much as most spoken language is not onomatopoeic. Nor are they a visual rendition of an oral language. They have rich, 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 comprise words are mostly sequential (tone being an exception).

WRITTEN FORMS OF SIGN LANGUAGE
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. Most deaf signers read and write the oral language of their country. However, there have been several attempts at developing scripts for sign language. These have included both "phonetic" systems, such as HamNoSys (the Hamburg Notational System) and SignWriting, which can be used for any sign language, and "phonemic" systems such as the one used by William Stokoe in his 1965 Dictionary of American Sign Language, which are designed for a specific language.
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.
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.

MANUALISM, ORALISM and TOTAL COMMUNICATION

They are the methods of communication and education deaf or Hard-of-hearing people (most commonly children).

The Oral method is a method for communication and educating deaf and Hard-of-hearing children using only the spoken language, lip reading, and voice training. The goal of this method is for Deaf child to be able to overcome their deafness and learn how to speak and “hear” (whether hearing is from a hearing aid or lip reading or both). Training begins at an early age and begins with children learning to match pictures and objects with a word that is spoken and shown on a printed card.
This method works well for children who have only mild – moderate hearing loss. The explanation for this is that they usually can learn to hear with a hearing aid and it is easier for them to learn how to use the voice. Also, this method works very well for children who for some reason loose their hearing later in their childhood, after they have learned to speak and have heard sounds. Older children are more likely to be able to redevelop the language skills they had before they lost their hearing and so this method can work very suitably. The Oral method is strongly advised by hearing people who don’t want children to have to rely on Sign language and/or interpreters to communicate with others. Also, some supporters of the Oral method feel that if a child is allowed to use Sign language that they will stop trying to learn to lip read and speak. It is understandable that hearing parents of Deaf children would consider this method the best for communicating and teaching their child, but there are several cons to this method of communicating/educating.
Children who have moderate – severe hearing loss or are what is known as profoundly deaf will struggle with using the Oral method. Since the Oral method is based on only using spoken language, children who have severe hearing loss, might not be able to “hear” even with a hearing aid. Also, it will take a lot of patience, work, training, and time before a child will be able to lip read well enough to understand conversations and even then they might not have developed their vocal skills to be able to be understood.
The Manual method or manualism is based totally on Sign language and using the hands or physical ways to communicate. The goal of this method is to provide a way for Deaf people to interact with one another without the aid of hearing people. Children taught using this method don’t need to worry about learning to speak or develop lip reading skills. This method is considered the natural way that deaf children learn to communicate. Furthermore, it encourages a sense of pride in being Deaf.
If a child is moderately – severely deaf the Manual method will probably be the easiest way for the child to learn and communicate. Children who are deaf use their vision to compensate for their lack of hearing, thus making Sign language an easy, visual way to understand and communicate with others. Manualism puts no pressure on a child to struggle to understand sounds and how to forms words. The Deaf community uses the Manual method a lot and as a result, provides a sense of belonging, inclusion, plus a feeling of being normal and not weird just because a child can’t hear.
However, the Manual method does have some severe limitations. For example, a child taught with this method will never be able to participate in a conversation with a hearing person, without the aid of an interpreter. The Manual method tends to exclude hearing people from the Deaf world, and the only way to communicate is either by writing things down on paper or by knowing Sign language. Hearing parents with Deaf children may also find this method of communication frustrating, since they will have to learn Sign language in order to communicate with their child. The Manual method is a very useful way to educate and communicate with Deaf and Hard-of-hearing children, but many people feel it’s not the best way.
Total Communication is a fairly new method for educating and communicating with Deaf and Hard-of-hearing children. The goal of this method is to incorporate lip-reading, speech, and Sign language so that a child can communicate effectively in almost any setting. Children taught using this method are given an opportunity to develop their voice as much as possible, as well as allowed to use the more natural, manual/visual way of communicating. The results are amazing, since children are taught how to interact in both the hearing and the Deaf world.
Total Communication works well to educate Deaf and Hard-of-hearing children, since it doesn’t matter if a child has a mild hearing loss problem or is profoundly deaf. This method works with the child, the parents, and the educators, so that everyone can learn and communicate to the best of their ability. Children are allowed to be themselves and learn in a way that suits their needs. Total Communication includes everyone the hearing world and the Deaf world.


MCE – Manually Coded English

FINGERSPELLING
Fingerspelling is the process of spelling out words by using signs that correspond to the letters of the word. An ASL user would use the American Fingerspelled Alphabet, (also called the American Manual Alphabet). There are many different manual alphabets throughout the world.
The American Fingerspelled Alphabet consists of 26 handshapes that--when held in certain positions and/or are produced with certain movements-- represent the 26 letters of the American alphabet.
Note that different regions use different manual alphabets to represent English - a two-handed system is used in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and one-handed systems are used in North America (see ASL alphabet), Ireland (see Irish Sign Language), Singapore and the Philippines. Both one and two handed alphabets are used in South Africa.

SIGNED ENGLISH
This is essentially a means of producing signs which correspond to the words in an English sentence, in English word order. In many ways, Signed English is designed to facilitate interaction between the deaf and the hearing community. Its greatest advantage is that it seems to present a much less formidable learning task for the hearing parent of a deaf child and provides that parent with a 'language' to use with the child.

ASL and BSL
Just as most children of English-speaking or French-speaking parents naturally acquire English or French at an early age, so the deaf children of deaf parents naturally acquire sign language. If those deaf children grow up in American homes, they will typically acquire American Sign Language, also known as Ameslan or ASL. With a signing population of almost 500,000, ASL is the third most commonly used non-English language (after Spanish and Italian) in the United States. The size of this number is quite remarkable since, until very recently, the use of ASL was discouraged in most educational institutions for the deaf. In fact, historically, very few teachers of the deaf knew anything about ASL, or even considered it to be a 'real’ language at all.
In comparison with ASL, British Sign Language is the preferred language of over 70,000 Deaf people, for whom English may be a second or third language, although over 100,000 hearing people who have a proficiency in the language also use it.

ASL and BSL are not the same. They are seperate and completely unitelligable between a user of ASL and a user of BSL. ASL uses one hand only whereas BSL uses both. This is probably due to the incorporation of indigenous natural sign languages.

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).
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 is forced to invent 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.

Nancy Frishberg set out a framework for identifying and describing home-based sign systems in 1987. She states that home signs differ from sign languages in that they:
· do not have a consistent meaning-symbol relationship,
· do not pass on from generation to generation,
· are not shared by one large group,
· and are not considered the same over a community of signers.
However, home sign is often the starting point for new deaf sign languages that emerge when deaf people come together. For example, following the establishment of the first deaf schools in Nicaragua in the 1970s, the previously isolated deaf children quickly developed their own sign language, now known as Nicaraguan Sign Language, from the building blocks of their own diverse home sign systems.
Home sign also played a part in the formation of American Sign Language, which is a blend of home sign, Old French Sign Language, Martha's Vineyard Sign Language and Plains Indian Sign Language.
PRIMATE SIGN LANGUAGE

ASL has been taught to both species of chimpanzee, the bonobo and common chimpanzee, as well as to gorillas, though to what extent they actually use it is debatable. Several of the animals have been said to have mastered more than one hundred signs, though there is disagreement about the primates' ability to sign. For example, the Washoe research team asked Washoe's handlers to write signs down whenever they witnessed them being produced by Washoe. The hearing signers on the team turned in long lists of signs while the only deaf native speaker of ASL on the team turned in a blank list, explaining that what she saw were not signs at all, simply gestures. Further fomenting the controversy, the researchers in the studies of Koko and Washoe refused to share their raw data with the scientific community. The claim that non-human primates have learned ASL, or the extent to which they are capable of learning ASL or any other natural language, is not universally accepted by linguists — including some who accept similar but better-documented claims of rudimentary language acquisition by birds. However, the claim that chimpanzees and gorillas are somewhat capable of learning languages has generally found more support among experimental psychologists and biological scientists than linguists. Research on the ability of primates to learn sign language continues.

POETRY

Just as the study of ASL as a language has had a very short recent history, the specific analysis of how the structure of ASL can be utilized for effect is also very recent. The original work in analyzing ASL’s poetic devices was done by Clayton Valli. Upon receiving the Stokoe Scholarship in 1983, Valli began his research into the technical nature of poetry. He began by making analogies with poetic devices in English poetry, such as rhyme and line division. For example, just as the words of an English poem rhyme because they share similar features, signs with similar features can have similar poetic properties. In ASL, there are many features which can cause signs to “rhyme,” such as the sign’s direction or quality of movement, handshape, orientation of the hands, the signer’s facial expression and other non-manual signals, and so on. In addition, the signer may vary the poem’s prosodic features and rhythm, as well as using traditional poetic devices such as metaphor. Poetry in ASL may also make use of the spatial medium, creating poetic effects unique to sign languages. For instance, a poem may relate the passage of time, or the different seasons, by the controlled use of space.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

BEETHOVEN
Maybe you've heard of Ludvig van Beethoven. He was a German composer and pianist. He started going deaf at the age of 28 and by the time he was 49, he could no longer hear. Even though he continued to get worse, he kept composing music. Beethoven died in 1827 when he was 57 years old. He is now buried in Central Friedhof, Vienna. You've probably heard the song Ode to Joy, right? Beethoven wrote that.
HELEN KELLER
Helen Keller was only 8 weeks old when she became deaf and blind at the same time. Her mom and dad heard about someone in Philadelphia who could work with Helen, so they asked her to come. Then when Anne Sullivan got there, Helen learned to communicate. After a while Helen could learn and communicate well. She grew up, went to college and became an advocate for deaf people.