Author: Jack SlemendaConverse College, SC

Date submitted to deafed.net – March 20, 2008

To contact the author for permission to use this PowerPoint, please e-mail: slemenjc@spart5.k12.sc.us

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Sign Languages Around the World

Jack Slemenda

Converse College

A look at France, China and South Africa

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Did you know?

Contrary to popular belief, sign languages are not universal.

Each country or culture has its own gestures or hand shapes for words and sentences.

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Introduction

Sign languages are either the main or only languages used by certain members of society. Considered its own language Has its own set of rules

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More about Sign

Each society, then, has its own primary sign language

Variations in dialect just as in spoken language

As many sign languages as there are spoken languages.

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Just to name a few…

French Sign Language South African Sign Language Chinese Sign Language

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French Sign Language –

Langue des Signes Francaise (LSF) 1st known sign language identified as a

true language Discovered by accident

Abbe’ Eppe Met twin sisters who were deaf Developed interest in their communication

(OFSL)

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Development of LSF

Epee created “methodical signs” Very difficult First attempt for a sign language to have

spoken language appearance Started a school for the deaf

Located in Paris Deaf students in one place

Continuous communication Accelerated the language

Deaf could still be intelligent without using spoken language

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Transformation of LSF

Abbe’ Sicard Student of Abbe’ Epee Headmaster of Paris school

following Epee Theory of Ciphers

Code system to help put language into patterns

Helped students create sentences using grammatical French

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Other Instrumental Individuals

Jean Massieu Born deaf Head Teaching Assistant at the Paris

school Laurent Clerc

Studied under Jean Massieu Met Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet Decided to go to America to help establish

The American School for the Deaf

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Spread of Sign Language

Schools for the deaf Graduates took what they learned

and found new schools Contributed to transformation of

sign language into other “dialects”

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The Battle: LSF vs. Oralism Round 1

Milan Congress 1880 LSF banned from classrooms Only allowed to use oral approach

Round 2 1970’s - Deaf began fighting for use of LSF Fabius law passed

1991 Allowed use of LSF to educate deaf children

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And the Winner is…

2004 - LSF officially recognized as a language

Oralism still used

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South African Sign Language – SASL Introduction to South Africa

1881 Deaf school established by W.

Murray• Children from Afrikaans-speaking

families• British Sign Language first used

By 1900’s three deaf schools existed in SA

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Communication

Between Hearing and Deaf Few hearing people know SASL Mix of speech, signs, and fingerspelling

Between Deaf Adults Sign and fingerspelling Some confusion

Residential schools develop own dialects Passed down to each generation Individuals leave schools

• Still use their own dialect• Can create misunderstanding

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Norman Neider- Heitmann 1974 – Appointed to research

sign languages used in South AfricaHoped to standardize the

signsHelp all language groups

communicate better

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7 years later… Talking to the Deaf was published

1st sign dictionary in SA Further research to test validity of

signs Seven deaf groups from SA

questioned 95% of signs recognized by groups Not necessarily used

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What’s happening now?

Talking to the DeafPrimary method in many

schoolsFollows grammatical rules of

languageDesigned to teach children

spoken languagePart of both communities

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Chinese Sign Language – CSL First deaf school in China

1887 American missionary C.R. Mills and his

wife Focused on oral methods ASL had no influence on CSL

CSL fairly new Proposed in 1950 by SL Reform

Committee 1961 – sign language book published

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Chinese Sign Language

Shapes and motions along with facial expressions

Signs resemble written pictorial characters

Manual alphabet Used only to fingerspell words Rarely used among deaf Write characters on palm or air

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Some Statistics Approximately 21 million people in China

with hearing loss 3 million are deaf Last 50 years

CSL discouraged Banned from some classrooms Oral-only policy

1500 hearing rehabilitation centers For preschool children <10% of children leaving hearing

rehabilitation centers are able to grasp enough CSL for school

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Why so few?

Chinese is a tonal language Same phonetic pronunciations with

different intonations have different meanings

Deaf children cannot hear to distinguish tones

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The Deaf are disabled?

Chinese view deafness as a disability Deaf view themselves as disabled

Parents aim to cure deafness Spend 10s of thousands of yen Acupuncture Hearing Aids Rehabilitation Centers

Deaf students prefer hearing teacher to a deaf one

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Is there hope for CSL?

Schools aiming to embrace deaf culture Tianjin

Third largest city Working to create jobs for deaf 2001 Tianjin School for the Deaf

Adopted CSL as primary communication method

Aim to have deaf employees Tianjin Technical College for the Deaf

First technical college for deaf Chinese Focuses on computer technology

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References

Chinese Sign Language. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [online]. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 2007 [cited 8 July, 2007] http://en.wikipedia.org

French Sign Language. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [online]. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 2007 [cited 8 July, 2007] http://en.wikipedia.org

Herbst, Johan M. “South African Sign Languages”. Cleve, John V. van (ed): Gallaudet encyclopedia of deaf people and deafness (Vol. 3. S-Z. New York, NY: McGraw Hill (1987) pp. 106-108

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References (continued) J., Julie “Sign language – Can Deaf People from

Different Countries Understand Each Other?” Online posting. February 2007. Yahoo! Answers. 8 July 2007. http://answers.yahoo.com

Moody, William. “French Sign Languages”. Cleve, John V. van (ed): Gallaudet Encyclopedia of deaf people and deafness (Vol. 3. S-Z. New York, NY: McGraw Hill (1987) pp. 74-77.

Singer, M., Afsari, N., Michaut, Frederik, & Lamit, Virginia. “L’Alphabet en LSF.” [online] The DESS Nouvelles Technologies and Handicaps Sensory and Physical at Paris8 University. [cited 20 July 2007] http://ufr6.univ-paris8.fr.

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References (continued)

South African Sign Language. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [online]. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 2007 [cited 8 July, 2007] http://en.wikipedia.org

“Standard Manual Alphabet.” [online] A to Z to Deafblindness. 17 September 2002. [cited 20 June 2007]. http://www.deafblind.com/ukthma.html

Yau, Shun-chiu. “Chinese Sign Languages”. Cleve, John V. van (ed): Gallaudet encyclopedia of deaf people and deafness (Vol. 3. S-Z. New York, NY: McGraw Hill (1987) pp. 65-67