1. Author: Jack Slemenda Converse College, SC
Date submitted to deafed.net – March 20, 2008
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2. Sign Languages Around the World
Jack Slemenda
Converse College
A look at France, China and South Africa
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3. 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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4. 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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5. 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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6. Just to name a few… French Sign Language South African Sign Language
Chinese Sign Language
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7. 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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8. 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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9. 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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10. 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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11. 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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12. 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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13. And the Winner is… 2004 - LSF officially recognized as a language
Oralism still used
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14. 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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15. Communication Between Hearing and Deaf Between Deaf Adults
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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16. Norman Neider- Heitmann
1974 – Appointed to research sign languages used in South Africa
Hoped to standardize the signs
Help all language groups communicate better
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17. 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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18. What’s happening now? Talking to the Deaf
Primary method in many schools
Follows grammatical rules of language
Designed to teach children spoken language
Part of both communities
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19. 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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20. 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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21. 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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22. 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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23. 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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24. 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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25. References
Chinese Sign Language. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [online]. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc [cited 8 July, 2007]
French Sign Language. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [online]. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc [cited 8 July, 2007]
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
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26. References (continued)
J., Julie “Sign language – Can Deaf People from Different Countries Understand Each Other?” Online posting. February Yahoo! Answers. 8 July
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
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]
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27. References (continued)
South African Sign Language. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [online]. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc [cited 8 July, 2007]
“Standard Manual Alphabet.” [online] A to Z to Deafblindness. 17 September [cited 20 June 2007].
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
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