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A Comparative Study of Yucatec Maya Sign Languages Josefina Safar A comparative study of Yucatec Maya Sign Languages A comparative study of Yucatec Maya Sign Languages Maya Yucatec of study A comparative Josefina Safar ISBN 978-91-7911-298-1 Department of Linguistics Doctoral Thesis in Linguistics at Stockholm University, Sweden 2020 A comparative study of Yucatec Maya Sign Languages Josefina Safar Academic dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics at Stockholm University to be publicly defended on Friday 30 October 2020 at 09.00 in hörsal 11, hus F, Universitetsvägen 10 F, digitally via conference (Zoom), public link at department https://www.ling.su.se/ Abstract In my dissertation, I focus on the documentation and comparison of indigenous sign languages in Yucatán, Mexico. I conducted fieldwork in four Yucatec Maya communities with a high incidence of deafness. Because deaf people born into these villages have never had access to an established sign language, they have developed their own local sign languages to communicate with each other and their hearing relatives. Yucatec Maya Sign Languages (YMSLs) are young languages that have emerged over the past decades. The sign languages in the four communities are historically unrelated, but their shared cultural background and the influence of co-speech gestures used by hearing speakers of Yucatec Maya lead to striking similarities in their lexicon and grammar. At the same time, YMSLs display a high degree of variation related to sociolinguistic factors, such as family membership, age, education or language acquisition from deaf adults. In my dissertation, I argue that we can use the phenomenon of variation in young, micro-community sign languages as a window to find out how linguistic conventions are established and which sociolinguistic variables are relevant for shaping sign language structures. My dissertation consists of four sub-studies. In Study I, I employ the framework of translanguaging to examine the semiotic resources used by deaf and hearing Yucatec Maya to interact with each other and with people from other communities. I demonstrate that the repertoire of Yucatec Maya conventional gestures, positive attitudes towards deafness and sign language, as well as shared cultural knowledge, facilitate communication between deaf and hearing people and lead to overlap between sign languages without any historical affiliation. This study constitutes the first application of the translanguaging theory to studies of sign language emergence. Study II investigates cardinal numbers in YMSLs from three villages. I found that some features of Yucatec Maya counting gestures are preserved but that distinct number paradigms evolved in the three YMSL communities. YMSL numerals exhibit variation as a result of linguistic and sociolinguistic factors. Study III explores how YMSL signers convey a linguistic distinction between objects and actions and discusses if these strategies more generally distinguish nouns from verbs. Two possible strategies of the noun-verb distinction were examined; both have an equivalent in hearing people’s gestures but have been integrated into YMSLs in different ways. In Study IV, I focus on a conventional gesture used by hearing Yucatec Maya to specify the height of upright – usually human – referents and analyse how it has been incorporated into YMSLs from four villages. Comparing the form, meaning and distribution of height-specifiers in Yucatec Maya gestures and YMSLs, I demonstrate paths of lexicalisation and grammaticalisation from gesture to sign. Apart from providing documentation of underdescribed, endangered languages, my dissertation makes several theoretical contributions. I demonstrate that language age is not the only variable relevant to the emergence of complex linguistic structures, but that other sociolinguistic factors, such as the distribution of deafness across families, networks of interaction and attitudes toward deafness play a role. Moreover, I present evidence that gestures can enter lexicon and grammar of a sign language simultaneously, challenging previous accounts of lexicalisation and grammaticalisation. Keywords: Yucatec Maya Sign Language, Yucatec Maya, Mexico, Mesoamerica, shared sign language, village sign language, language emergence, language evolution, sociolinguistic variation, gesture-sign interface, grammaticalisation, lexicalisation, cardinal numbers, size-and-shape specifiers, translanguaging, noun-verb distinction. Stockholm 2020 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-185092 ISBN 978-91-7911-298-1 ISBN 978-91-7911-299-8 Department of Linguistics Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF YUCATEC MAYA SIGN LANGUAGES Josefina Safar A comparative study of Yucatec Maya Sign Languages Josefina Safar ©Josefina Safar, Stockholm University 2020 ISBN print 978-91-7911-298-1 ISBN PDF 978-91-7911-299-8 Cover photo: Josefina Safar Printed in Sweden by Universitetsservice US-AB, Stockholm 2020 I opened my notebook and the lesson began. ‘Bhembpungungwa,’ Mowooma said. ‘Bhembpungungwa?’ I repeated. ‘Eh-heh,’ he replied. ‘Write it down.’ He watched carefully as I wrote, a contemplative smile transforming his face, miraculously, into an expression of innocent friendliness. When I finished he asked me to read it aloud. ‘Bhembpungungwa,’ I read. Mowooma smiled with satisfaction. ‘But what does it mean,’ I asked, ‘in French?’ ‘Never mind what it means in French!’ he replied impatiently. ‘You already know French!’ Louis Sarno, Song from the Forest. My Life Among the Ba-Benjellé Pygmies. Abstract In my dissertation, I focus on the documentation and comparison of indigenous sign languages in Yucatán, Mexico. I conducted fieldwork in four Yucatec Maya communities with a high incidence of deafness. Because deaf people born into these villages have never had access to an established sign language, they have developed their own local sign languages to communicate with each other and their hearing relatives. Yucatec Maya Sign Languages (YMSLs) are young languages that have emerged over the past decades. The sign languages in the four communities are historically unrelated, but their shared cultural background and the influence of co-speech gestures used by hearing speakers of Yucatec Maya lead to striking similarities in their lexicon and grammar. At the same time, YMSLs display a high degree of variation related to sociolinguistic factors, such as family membership, age, education or language acquisition from deaf adults. In my dissertation, I argue that we can use the phenomenon of variation in young, micro-community sign languages as a window to find out how linguistic conventions are established and which sociolinguistic variables are relevant for shaping sign language structures. My dissertation consists of four sub-studies. In Study I, I employ the framework of translanguaging to examine the semiotic resources used by deaf and hearing Yucatec Maya to interact with each other and with people from other communities. I demonstrate that the repertoire of Yucatec Maya conventional gestures, positive attitudes towards deafness and sign language, as well as shared cultural knowledge, facilitate communication between deaf and hearing people and lead to overlap between sign languages without any historical affiliation. This study constitutes the first application of the translanguaging theory to studies of sign language emergence. Study II investigates cardinal numbers in YMSLs from three villages. I found that some features of Yucatec Maya counting gestures are preserved but that distinct number paradigms evolved in the three YMSL communities. YMSL numerals exhibit variation as a result of linguistic and sociolinguistic factors. Study III explores how YMSL signers convey a linguistic distinction between objects and actions and discusses if these strategies more generally distinguish nouns from verbs. Two possible strategies of the noun-verb distinction were examined; both have an equivalent in hearing people’s gestures but have been integrated into YMSLs in different ways. In Study IV, I focus on a conventional gesture used by hearing Yucatec Maya to specify the height of upright – usually human – referents and analyse how it has been incorporated into YMSLs from four villages. Comparing the form, meaning and distribution of height- specifiers in Yucatec Maya gestures and YMSLs, I demonstrate paths of lexicalisation and grammaticalisation from gesture to sign. Apart from providing documentation of underdescribed, endangered languages, my dissertation makes several theoretical contributions. I demonstrate that language age is not the only variable relevant to the emergence of complex linguistic structures, but that other sociolinguistic factors, such as the distribution of deafness across families, networks of interaction and attitudes toward deafness play a role. Moreover, I present evidence that gestures can enter lexicon and grammar of a sign language simultaneously, challenging previous accounts of lexicalisation and grammaticalisation. Keywords Yucatec Maya Sign Language; Yucatec Maya; Mexico; Mesoamerica; shared sign language; village sign language; language emergence; language evolution; sociolinguistic variation; gesture-sign interface; grammaticalisation; lexicalisation; cardinal numbers; size-and-shape specifiers; translanguaging; noun-verb distinction Table of Contents List of papers .................................................................................................................................. vii List of figures
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