Sign Language | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Sign Language

The most familiar sign language systems today are those developed for the deaf and hearing-impaired. However, non-verbal communication through bodily movements is much older than these relatively recent systems. The need for secrecy, vows of silence, and language barriers between people of different cultures have spurred people to invent non-verbal language systems. Members of religious orders sworn to silence often rely on simple gestures rather than a coded system to communicate with one another; the English historian and cleric Venerable Bede (673-735) devised a system in which manually signed numbers, representing letters, were used to spell out words. Chinese and Japanese, whose languages use the same written characters but pronounce them differently, will sometimes trace characters onto another's palms to communicate. In the nineteenth century, North American Plains Indians developed a system of signs bridging tribal language barriers. The system did not match words directly with signs, but instead used gestures to stand for common concepts; for example, one would sign a circle in the air to represent the moon.

However, only sign languages conceived for the deaf have attained the complexity, versatility, and depth of vocabulary of spoken languages. Deaf and mute people have long devised systems of signing, but the first such language to be fully schematized was devised by Charles-Michel, Abbé de l'Epée, a French teacher of deaf children, in the mid-eighteenth century. His system combined a manual alphabet with a vocabulary of gestures that stood for whole concepts. L'Epée's system evolved into French Sign Language (FSL), which in 1816 was brought to the United States by Thomas Gallaudet (1787-1851), who founded the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. Various elements of rudimentary systems used in the United States were incorporated into the language to form American Sign Language (ASL).

In addition to hand gestures, ASL uses facial expressions and body posturing for inflection and grammar; signers use these to construct complex sentences just as punctuation and word order is used in written language. A change in the signer's head position and expression can change two sentences ("Your keys are in the living room. You lost them last week.") into one, complex sentence (" Your keys, which you lost last week, are in the living room."). Changes in inflection can change the meaning of signs, so a single sign can represent multiple phrases and concepts. Various national sign languages have been adapted from ASL, but there is considerable overlap between them, as signs represent concepts, not words.

Prior to the invention of these language systems, deaf children were simply never educated, with the rare exception of the children of the wealthy. However, as sign language gained in popularity and teachers of the deaf grew in number, many of these teachers resisted its use. Opponents of sign language hoped that deaf children eventually could be taught to speak and lip-read effectively, and that sign language would further isolate the deaf from hearing society. In 1880, an international congress of teachers for the deaf passed a resolution against its use, keeping it out of most schools for decades; in many American states the language was banned from schools by law. However, deaf people and their families continued to use the language, and it maintained a flourishing, underground existence until the 1960s, when linguists began to accept the utility of sign language. In 1965, A Dictionary of American Sign Language was published. With the increased scientific respectability of sign language, more schools began to accommodate demands for signing teachers, and sign-language interpreters became increasingly visible on television and at public events. Deaf artists began to use the special properties of signing creatively, notably in the drama Children of a Lesser God. It is now widely acknowledged, despite the well-intentioned objections of early educators, that sign language has been indispensable in improving educational and social opportunities for the deaf.