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American Sign Language ('''ASL''', also '''Amslan''' obs., '''Ameslan''' obs.) is the dominant Sign Language of the Deaf Community in the United States , in the English-speaking parts of Canada , and in parts of Mexico . Although the United Kingdom and the United States share English as a spoken and written language, British Sign Language (BSL) is quite different from ASL, and not mutually intelligible. ASL is also used (sometimes alongside indigenous sign languages) in the Philippines , Singapore , Hong Kong , Dominican Republic , Haiti , Puerto Rico , Côte D'Ivoire , Burkina Faso , Ghana , Togo , Benin , Nigeria , Chad , Gabon , Democratic Republic Of The Congo , Central African Republic , Mauritania , Kenya , Madagascar , and Zimbabwe . Like other sign languages, its Grammar and Syntax are distinct from any Spoken Language in its area of influence. While there has been no reliable survey of the number of people who use ASL as their primary language, estimates range from 500,000 to 2 million in the U.S.A. alone {Link without Title} . American Sign Language has been said (by Trudy Suggs in her book) to be the third-most-used language in the United States after English and Spanish. HISTORY OF ASL In the United States , as in most of the world, hearing families with deaf children often employ ad-hoc Home Sign for simple communications. Today though, ASL classes are offered in many secondary and postsecondary schools. ASL is a language distinct from spoken English—replete with its own syntax and grammar and supporting its own culture. The origin of modern ASL is ultimately tied to the confluence of many events and circumstances, including historical attempts at Deaf Education ; possibly the sign used by the indigenous nations of North America; the unique situation present on a small island in Massachusetts; the attempts of a father to enlist a local minister to help educate his deaf daughter; and in no small part the ingenuity and genius of people (in this case deaf people) for language itself. Standardized sign languages have been used in Italy since the 17th Century and in France since the 18th Century for the instruction of the deaf. Old French Sign Language was developed and used in Paris by the Abbé De L'Épée in his school for the deaf. These languages were always modeled after the natural sign languages already in use by the deaf cultures in their area of origin, often with additions to show aspects of the grammar of the local spoken languages. American Plains Indians used Plains Indian Sign Language as an Interlanguage for communication between people/tribes not sharing a common spoken language; its influence on ASL, if any, is unknown. Off the coast of Massachusetts , on the island of Martha's Vineyard in the 18th century, the population had a much higher rate of deafness than the general population of the continental United States because of the Founder Effect and the island's isolation. Martha's Vineyard Sign Language was well known by almost all islanders since so many families had deaf members. It afforded almost everyone the opportunity to have frequent contact with ASL while at an age most conducive to effortlessly learning a language. Congregationalist minister and deaf educator , to teach sign language to American deaf students. It was at this school that all these influences would intermingle, interact and what would become ASL was born. Many of the school's students were from Martha's Vineyard, and they mixed their "native" sign language with Clerc's OFSL. Other students probably brought their own highly localized sign language or "home sign" systems to the mix. Undoubtedly, spontaneous lexicon developed at the school as well. If there was any influence from sign language of Indigenous People , it may have been here that it was absorbed into the language. Interestingly, because of the early influence of the sign language of France upon the school, the vocabularies of ASL and modern French Sign Language are approximately 60% shared, whereas ASL and British Sign Language , for example, are almost completely dissimilar. From its synthesis at this first public school for the deaf in North America, the language went on to grow. Many of the graduates of this school went on to found schools of their own in many other states, thus spreading the methods of Gallaudet and Clerc and serving to expand and standardize the language; as with most languages though, there are regional variations. After being strongly established in this country there was a bitter fight between those who supported Oralism over Manualism in the late 1800s. Many notable individuals of high standing contributed to this row, such as Alexander Graham Bell . The oralists won many battles and for a long time the use of sign was suppressed, socially and pedagogically. Many considered sign to not even be a language at all. This situation was changed by William Stokoe , a professor of English hired at Gallaudet University in 1955. He immediately became fascinated by ASL and began serious study of it. Eventually, through publication in linguistics journals of articles containing detailed linguistic analysis of ASL, he was able to convince the scientific mainstream that ASL was indeed a natural language on a par with any other. The language continues to grow and change like any living language. In particular, ASL constantly adds new signs in an attempt to keep up with constantly changing technology. LINGUISTICS ASL is a Natural Language as proved to the satisfaction of the linguistic community by William Stokoe , and contains Phonology , Morphology , Semantics , Syntax and Pragmatics just like Spoken Languages . It is a Manual Language meaning that the information is expressed not with combinations of sounds but with combinations of handshapes, palm orientations, movements of the hands, arms and body, and facial expressions. It is used natively and predominantly by the Deaf and Hard-of-hearing of the United States and Canada. Iconicity Although it often seems as though the signs are meaningful of themselves, in fact they can be as arbitrary as words in spoken language. For example, hearing children often make the mistake of using "you" to refer to themselves, since others refer to them as "you." Children who acquire the sign YOU (pointing at one's interlocutor) make similar mistakes – they will point at others to mean themselves, indicating that even something as seemingly explicit as pointing is an arbitrary sign in ASL, like words in a spoken language. However, Edward Klima and Ursula Bellugi have modified the common theory that signs can be self-explanatory by grouping signs into three categories:
Klima and Bellugi used American Sign Language in formulating that classification. The theory that signs are self-explanatory can be conclusively disproved by the fact that non-signers cannot understand fluent, continuous sign language. The majority of signs are opaque. Generally, signs that are "Transparent" are signs of objects or words that became popular after the basics of ASL were established. There are, of course, exceptions to this. Grammar The grammar of ASL uses spatial locations, motion, and context to indicate Syntax . For example:
WRITING SYSTEMS ASL is often glossed with English words written in all capital letters. This is however a method used simply to teach the structure of the language. ASL is a visual language, not a written language. There is no one-to-one correspondence between words in ASL and English, and much of the inflectional modulation of ASL signs is lost. There are two true writing systems in use for ASL: a Phonemic Stokoe Notation , which has a separate symbol or diacritic mark for every phonemic hand shape, motion, and position (though it leaves something to be desired in the representation of facial expression), and a more popular iconic system called SignWriting , which represents each sign with a rather abstract illustration of its salient features. SignWriting is commonly used for student newsletters and similar purposes. "BABY SIGN" See Also: Baby Sign In recent years, it has been shown that exposure to sign language has a positive impact on the socialization of hearing children. When infants are taught to sign, parents are able to converse with them at a Developmental Stage when they are not yet capable of producing verbal speech, which requires fine control of both breathing and the vocal tract. The ability of a child to actively communicate earlier than would otherwise be possible appears to accelerate language development and to decrease the frustrations of communication. Many parents use a collection of simplified or ''ad hoc'' signs called "baby sign", as infants do not have the dexterity required for true ASL. However, parents can learn to recognize their baby's approximations of adult ASL signs, just as later on they will learn to recognize their approximations of verbal language, so teaching an infant ASL is also possible. Typically young children will make an ASL sign in the correct location and use the correct hand motion, but may be able only to approximate the handshape, for example, using one finger instead of three in signing ''water''. PRIMATE USAGE ASL has allegedly been taught to both species of Chimpanzee , the Bonobo and Common Chimpanzee , as well as to Gorilla s. Several of the animals have been said to have mastered more than one hundred signs, though not all agree with the ability of the Primate s to sign. For example, when the Washoe research team asked the handlers of the chimp to write signs down whenever they witnessed them being produced by Washoe, the hearing people on the team turned in long lists of signs while the only deaf Native Speaker of ASL on the team turned in blank lists, explaining that what she saw were not signs at all, but 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 theory that non-human primates have learned ASL, or that they are even capable of learning ASL or any other natural language, is not currently accepted by linguists—including linguists who accept similar but better documented claims of rudimentary human language acquisition by birds. Despite this, however, research on the ability of primates to learn symbol systems continues and receives occasional publicity in the media. SEE ALSO
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