“What do you mean they're not universal?”: Sign languages in a globalised world

Adam Schembri Centre for Research On Language Diversity La Trobe University

1 Overview

• Background to sign languages • Sign language endangerment • Sign language documentaon • The future Sign languages: myths and misunderstandings • Universal? • Codes for spoken languages? • Pantomimic/gestural/iconic? • Invented by hearing people? • Learned faster by children? • Right brain, not le brain? No universal sign language: Auslan

• Auslan: blend of inial leers of Australian Sign Language – a sign language variety unique to Australia, but closely related to NZSL and BSL • The natural sign language of the Australian deaf community: 9,000 people in 2011 Census • Name coined by Trevor Johnston in the early 1980s, but not a new language • Brought to Australia by Brish deaf and hearing immigrants from the early 19th century (1819, 1825)

4 Auslan, BSL and ASL

• Auslan and American Sign Language (ASL) are unrelated sign languages • ASL developed in the early 19th century separately possibly as mix of local sign languages and LSF (French Sign Language) • Modern BSL developed in the Brish deaf community from 18th century, and Auslan and NZSL as separate variees in the 19th century 5 Sign languages around the world?

• Ethnologue: a reference work cataloguing 6,909 known languages, includes 130 sign languages • True number is unknown. It is likely that this number is a low esmate, given the many disnct variees of sign language around the world

6 Many different types of sign languages

• Western urban sign languages are examples of sign languages of ‘macro-communies’: Auslan, BSL, ASL, DGS, LIS, etc. • Sign languages of ‘micro-communies’ (including ‘village sign languages’): Adamarobe SL, Kata Kolok SL, Al Sayyid Bedouin SL etc. • Emerging sign languages: Nicaraguan SL etc. • Contact sign languages: – Arficial sign systems: Australasian Signed English, SIBI, UASL – Natural outcomes of contact between sign languages and/or spoken languages: Auslan/English contact signing; Internaonal Sign pidgin • Alternate sign languages: Warlpiri SL etc.

7 Auslan & English

• Auslan is not a signed system used to represent English, although it has been greatly influenced by English (e.g., fingerspelling used to represent ‘borrowed’ English vocabulary) • Aspects of its vocabulary and grammar are independent of and very different to English • A system to represent English in signed form, based on Auslan signs and invented signs to represent English grammacal items, Australasian Signed English was created by a commiee from 1974, and was the language of instrucon in classrooms for/with deaf students in 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s in most of Australia

8 ASE and Auslan

9 Pantomimic, iconic and gestural?

• Auslan and other sign languages do make significant use of mime and gesture, but most signs are not transparently iconic (i.e., their meaning cannot be guessed by non-signers) and many are arbitrary (i.e., no relaonship between form and meaning)

10 Some example signs from Auslan

11 Invented by hearing people?

• No evidence that any hearing person invented any sign language used by deaf communies today • Sign languages in use in deaf communies, for example, in Paris in 18th century, before the establishment of first public school for deaf children in 1760: schools founder, Abbé de l’Epée, reported learning LSF from deaf sisters 12 The birth of a new language: Nicaraguan Sign Language

• Pre-contact (prior to the 1970s and establishment of deaf school in 1980) – Home signs: an sign system used primarily with hearing family members

13 NSL 2

• Inial contact (1977 to mid-1980s) – Previously isolated deaf students began interacng and exchanging home signs – First group of students (now approaching middle age adults) to create language – This was a pidgin sign language sll in use by older signers in the community, with more limited vocabulary and less grammacal organisaon

14 NSL 3

• Sustained Contact (mid-1980s to present) – Second group of younger students (as young as 4 years old) used the first language/pidgin sign and started to modify the sign system – Through this process, Nicaraguan Sign Language developed – More complex signs and grammacal structure than the earlier pidgin – With each new group of younger children, NSL connues to evolve 15 Easier for children to learn?

hp://www.babysignsaustralia.com.au/

16 Probably not…

• Research on children with deaf parents who are exposed to sign languages from birth suggests that they appear to acquire them on a similar me course as hearing children acquire spoken languages, reaching similar linguisc milestones at similar ages • These linguisc milestones include: – Babbling: 7-12 months – First word stage: 11-18 months – Two word stage: 18-22 months • More research is needed to conclusively support the claims by those in the ‘baby signing’ industry

17 Speech and sign in the brain

18 Sign and speech in the brain: Language is language! • “Signed language, like spoken language, makes special use of the le perisylvian regions of the brain. Where differences can be shown between sign and speech they can, on the whole, be ascribed to the different input modalies of the language system—auditory for spoken language, visuospaal for signed language” • Campbell, MacSweeney & Waters (2008)

19 Sign language documentaon

• Since the late 1980s, ‘documentary linguiscs’ has emerged as a branch of linguiscs, concerned with documenng endangered languages • Woodbury (2003) explained that this is the result of: a) Major changes in the technology of collecng and storing linguisc data b) New aenon to linguisc diversity c) Concern about language endangerment d) Growing awareness of the needs of stakeholders outside the academic community (a) For sign languages, soware such as ELAN has made documentary sign linguiscs possible No widely accepted sign wring system

§ No common wrien forms of signed languages, although several systems have been proposed § This has been a challenge for describing sign languages because there was once no praccal access to sign language data (b) Sign languages as a special case of language diversity • Sign languages have some unique characteriscs. • The BSL sign SUPERVISE shown here is an indicang verb that represents a unique fusion of a linguisc item with a poinng gesture • Understanding sign languages will teach us much about the human capacity for language (c) Sign languages as endangered languages

• Signed languages inially used as languages of instrucon when schools for deaf children opened in the late 18th and early 19th century • Then banned and acvely suppressed from late 19th century unl late 20th century in many parts of the world • Late 20th century saw (re-)introducon of arficial sign systems used to represent spoken language vocabulary and grammar (c) Sign languages as endangered

• In developing countries, we find more examples of sign language micro- communies in rural and isolated regions • We also find emerging or established macro-community sign languages in urban centres • Indigenous sign languages in both sengs are endangered (Ban Khor Sign Language in Thailand), or moribund (Old Bangkok Sign Language) due to introducon of foreign sign language(s) in deaf educaon: Modern Thai Sign Language heavily influenced by ASL ASL in the world

26 SIBI in Indonesia

• Natural sign languages are endangered in some parts of the world by the use of arficial sign systems in deaf educaon, as is the case for SIBI (Sistem Isyarat Bahasa Indonesia, or ‘Signed Indonesian’) in Indonesia

27 Kata Kolok, a unique sign language in Bali • Deafness over 7 generaons in the village of Bengkala in northern Bali has led to the emergence of a unique sign language: Kata Kolok • The future of this community and its culture are in doubt

28 Unified Arabic Sign Language

• Governments in the Arab world have aempted to create a standardised form of sign language for Arabic- speaking countries • This has so far not been successful, but is diverng precious resources away from documenng and describing the many exisng sign languages of the Arab world

29 (d) Growing awareness of the needs of stakeholders outside the academic community

• We need more sign language documentaon as a record of the language for these deaf communies. • To address concerns in deaf communies about language variaon and change: heritage forms of sign languages, like those in Thailand, are not always being passed on to a younger generaon and need to be documented for the future Sign language research

• Research into sign languages will feed into the – development of teaching resources for sign language teaching – the training of tutors/teachers – The training of signed/spoken language interpreters • Most importantly it will change atudes about deafness and empower deaf communies throughout the world

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