48 ASL: a teacher's resource text on grammar and cult::r
The units of American Sign Language are composed of specific movemenf5 :-,:
shapes of the hands and arms, eyes, face, head, and body posture. These moveme::r
and shapes serue as the 'words' and 'intonation' of the language.
What is meant by uisual? Since American Sign Language uses body moveme-a
instead of sound, 'listeners' (or 'receivers') use their eyes instead of their ear! i,r"
understand what is being said. And because all linguistic information mus: t
received through the eyes, the language is carefully structured to fit the D€eds r-ur
capabilities of the eyes.
A. History of American Sign Language
George W. Veditz, a Deaf teacher who became the president of the Nat,-a,sr
Association of the Deaf in 1904, said "As long as we have Deaf people, we will :e,m
Sign Language".3 Information collected from many different countries shows
=ru",
Veditz was right. Throughout history, wherever there have been Deaf people ::rm
have been signed languages that they or their ancestors have developed: Ch-:"m+
Sign Language (Yau 1977), French Sign Language (Sallagoity 1975), Tha: S;,pr
Language (Reilly & Suwanarat 1980), and so on. Why do Deaf people deveii: *,*lI
use signed languages? So they can effectively communicate with each other
Languages do not have to be "vocal-auditory"; that is, they do not have ::
sound. In fact, various scholars through the centuries have argued that t]:= l
languages used in pre-historic times were gestural languages.a There is eve. .
evidence suggesting that the vocal apparatus necessary for speech did not i;.
until later on.s In any case, because Deafpeople do not hear and therefore. :"
effrciently use a language composed of sounds, they use a different kind of 1a1better
suited to their communicative needs-a visual-gestural language.6
We do not have much information about the deaf people who lived in Abefore
1817. We assume that some came from Europe or the British Isles, a::
others were born here. Some of those who came from other countries p::
brought with them a knowledge of the signed language used in their cou.:I
perhaps a few deaf people in a Spanish colony used Spanish Sign Langua==
others in an English colony used British Sign Language and so on. When a :
language was not known-for example, deaf children born of hearing pa:=l&
America would not have known a foreign signed language-it is likely that --::
individuals created their own signs, often called home signs. We do knorv r-i:
people in different areas probably had very little contact with each other sin:".
were no public transportation services and no sctrools or organizations : -:
3A videotape of Veditz's very stirring 1913 speech, entitled The Preseruotion of Sign L.:-1
available through the Gallaudet College library.
aCondillac (1775), Valade (1866), Hewes (1974, 1975).
slieberman & Crelin (1971).
GActually, a large percentage of Deaf people have some degree of residual hearing. That ts =-Ern
people can hear some sounds with differing degrees of distortion. Hearing losses exist on a :
With the statement above, we are simply noting that a loss of hearing often means that a pers-: :
to use (i.e. send and receive) a spoken language effrciently or at all.
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rrnmar and culture
ic movements and
These movementg
i body movements
d of their ears to
nr"mation must be
rfrt the needs and
of the National
ple, we will have
rrries shows thar
eafpeople, there
reloped: Chinese
975), Thai Siga
rple develop and
ach other.
not have to use
d that the first
,re is even some
did not develop
.erefore, cannot
ind of Ianguage
uage.6
'ed in America
Isles, and that
tries probably
rir country. So
enguage, and
il:en a signed
ng parents in
; that the deaf
aow that deaf
er since there
ions for deaf
n Language, n
r ts, many Deaf
r a continuum.
erson is unable
mryter tr: What is American Sign Language?
49
nrrde to bring them together' so it makes sense to assume that severar different
"*@ languages or types-of signing *u"" ,r"a in America before 1g17.Shat happened in 1g17? As irr" r"**.rbry, goes, a r*rr r"-"a rhomas Hop_
ffililjii:IliI*:*:*:: ^'* :,
y"iv3rsr.tr, was training to become artun,ter. He met a youns dear girr ,,a_eJ,iri"";, ;il,J;ITJ:?TfiI_1ilffi:&son cossweil, a wer-known;;;r*l;artfoid, c";?;;t. Gauaudet tried totiln-*r Alice to read and write . r"* il; and had some success.
d5Tl"ffilTt1ff#"ll*iffi:initiar efforts and encouraged him tohname involved in estabrish,"*
" *i""i-#il;;#,:,1ff::i":1"f;fl
",.#r*r's association of connecti."ir,.i
""p""ted
years ea"ri"" tirt there were approx-turraely 89 deafpeopre in the state.8 rrr"'"""a ro" a schoor wa;;;"r". so cogswe, and
ffiJi?ililff1,HT#ffii.1""d;;
send Garaua"ito o,",pe to rearn about
_H 3'ii:j ff:: HilH ?:"a:,:;:,:, I 3 1",*:n,,orar m ethod,, of i ns tructi on u sedtr rhe B rai d wood schoo r s i n scotr a J il ;;;;."#],il::T:;ilTi#::ff :lrmnriing, and writing, and was rt"o.rgry against the use oi-rign.. However, the&ectors of these schools refused to
""Lr ihei" metioi. sr*ri".rr, the director of
ffi?Ji1ffJlum
(also using
";d
_;rhrds) refuseJto*,r" cir,,"rdet the informa_
n ane (1976, t927).
lBased on the frnding that the deafpopulation is usually about .rvoof the whole American popuration,f ans (lgrl) estimates that there *"*^ub.u;ffii"-"rn*nr" ir e*"J";;;* ,,re earry 1800,s. schein
#"'i: :lrl?;"*J"T,:
total o16'106 r;;';;;;;;"ri""ir" i" a-";;;;rr, according ro the u.s.
Fortunatery, the director of a schoor for deaf students in paris, a man namedslterd' was in London with two of his-deaf pupils-who *"o
"t.o
teachers at thekris schoot, Jean Mas-sieu."a r,r"r"rllr.i". rrr"rf;;;;* demonstrations of*ffine French method of instructinf Ju'J.t,ra"nts.-rrris rietiod used signs fromFrench Sign Language_(created tv e."*h o".rp"opi"i*;;;, added set of signsrailed les signes mlthodique- fi" e"sfiJ, _ ethodicaisrgn l. ffr"." methodical signsrere invented by Abb6charres a" r,Epo, the founder."i m.iar.ector of the schoorip Paris' Ep6e's methodical rig. *"rl"""ed forcertai"
"**"rical
words or parts
ffnll
rr|]:
::: ::.":11 y:lt,"i *tr*, French (such as .re,
or,ra,. mean in c&e) but that are not needei i', r."r,"r,'sffi;'ff#":'tr#"",:::-la', meaning
u help deaf students transrate r"o- tt uL, signed ranguage ,#'fli,[T;:Hff:*Gallaudet was imfl-e1sed by trr" n""r"rr.t.tions of si;;;M;"sieu, and crerc. Heded sicard to teach him the r"#r, r""trrod of educa;;; ;.rr* signs, and sicardagreed' so Garaudet went to paris anl- rh""" b"c;;;;]i, r,"u.r"t signs fromlsassieu and Clerc, and the tur.ii"! _Jrnra from Sicard.-{fter a short while, Galaudet;;#;" return to Hartford and convinced crerco so back with him to help estabrisba s"r,1r.g,"q ;;";;;; e E2-dayvoyage to'{merica, crerc continued teaching;il ; Garlaudet, ,rJE ,rrdet taught crerc
fii;f"tn
language-clerc's thil';sra*e (after French sign Language and
50 ASL: a teacher's resource text on grarnmar and culture
Then on April 15, 1817, withfundsfromthe state of connecticut, the u.s. congress,
and other sympathetic groups, Gallaudet and clerc established the Institution
for Deaf-Mutes-later renamed the American Asylum at Hartford for the Education
and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, and presently called the American
School for the Deaf. Clerc remained there as an instructor for over forty years
During that time, Clerc also trained some hearing people, who later became the
directors of schools for deaf students in New York, Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Quebec.
until recently, it was supposed that deaf people in America suddenly started
learning and using French signs in 1817, and that they didn't have any language
before that time. However, as discussed earlier, colilnon sense tells us that possibly
several different signed languages were used by the 2000 or more deaf people Iiving
in this country in the
"arly180b'".
Certainly they were not all just waiting around
for someone to give them an effective way of communicatingle
In addition to this type of reasoning, there is also linguistic evidence which deloonstrates
that there must have been at least one other signed language used ru
America before Gallaudet and Clerc established the Harbford School. This evidenae
involves looking atcognntes-words or signs in one langUage which are historicaltr-r
related to words or signs in another language. For example, we can look at words ir'
German and English and see that many of them are similar, that they seem to hare
come from the same "language family".
C,ognates
Modern English
house
fish
gTeen
to help
By studying a large number of these cognates, like'Haus'-'house" linguists hare
found out that German and English are historically related, and that they bo&
came from the same source language called "proto-Germanic"'
eRight before publication of this text, an article was published in the magazine Natural I/i:rg4(,,Everyone
spoke sign Language Here" by N. Groce, VoL 89, No. 6, pps. 10- 16) which reported o* a
exciting discovery. It seems that a large number of deaf people lived on the island called Martirafu
vineyard during the late 1600s up to the early 1900s. These people and the hearing people in M
community used a signed language together-which was taught to their children (hearing and deaf
quite comfortably incorporated into their community activities. Thus, this information confirm-s
Modprn German
Haus
Fisch
grune
helfen
claim that one or more signed languages were used in America before the arrival of Clerc and Gallar'{i6'