Sign Language Research in Ghana: an Overview of Indigenous and Foreign-Based Sign Languages
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(Sasl) in a Bilingual-Bicultural Approach in Education of the Deaf
APPLICATION OF SOUTH AFRICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (SASL) IN A BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL APPROACH IN EDUCATION OF THE DEAF Philemon Abiud Okinyi Akach August 2010 APPLICATION OF SOUTH AFRICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (SASL) IN A BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL APPROACH IN EDUCATION OF THE DEAF By Philemon Abiud Omondi Akach Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree PHILOSOPHIAE DOCTOR in the FACULTY OF HUMANITIES (DEPARTMENT OF AFROASIATIC STUDIES, SIGN LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE PRACTICE) at the UNIVERSITY OF FREE STATE Promoter: Dr. Annalie Lotriet. Co-promoter: Dr. Debra Aarons. August 2010 Declaration I declare that this thesis, which is submitted to the University of Free State for the degree Philosophiae Doctor, is my own independent work and has not previously been submitted by me to another university or faculty. I hereby cede the copyright of the thesis to the University of Free State Philemon A.O. Akach. Date. To the deaf children of the continent of Africa; may you grow up using the mother tongue you don’t acquire from your mother? Acknowledgements I would like to say thank you to the University of the Free State for opening its doors to a doubly marginalized language; South African Sign Language to develop and grow not only an academic subject but as the fastest growing language learning area. Many thanks to my supervisors Dr. A. Lotriet and Dr. D. Aarons for guiding me throughout this study. My colleagues in the department of Afroasiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice for their support. Thanks to my wife Wilkister Aluoch and children Sophie, Susan, Sylvia and Samuel for affording me space to be able to spend time on this study. -
Sign Language Endangerment and Linguistic Diversity Ben Braithwaite
RESEARCH REPORT Sign language endangerment and linguistic diversity Ben Braithwaite University of the West Indies at St. Augustine It has become increasingly clear that current threats to global linguistic diversity are not re - stricted to the loss of spoken languages. Signed languages are vulnerable to familiar patterns of language shift and the global spread of a few influential languages. But the ecologies of signed languages are also affected by genetics, social attitudes toward deafness, educational and public health policies, and a widespread modality chauvinism that views spoken languages as inherently superior or more desirable. This research report reviews what is known about sign language vi - tality and endangerment globally, and considers the responses from communities, governments, and linguists. It is striking how little attention has been paid to sign language vitality, endangerment, and re - vitalization, even as research on signed languages has occupied an increasingly prominent posi - tion in linguistic theory. It is time for linguists from a broader range of backgrounds to consider the causes, consequences, and appropriate responses to current threats to sign language diversity. In doing so, we must articulate more clearly the value of this diversity to the field of linguistics and the responsibilities the field has toward preserving it.* Keywords : language endangerment, language vitality, language documentation, signed languages 1. Introduction. Concerns about sign language endangerment are not new. Almost immediately after the invention of film, the US National Association of the Deaf began producing films to capture American Sign Language (ASL), motivated by a fear within the deaf community that their language was endangered (Schuchman 2004). -
What Sign Language Creation Teaches Us About Language Diane Brentari1∗ and Marie Coppola2,3
Focus Article What sign language creation teaches us about language Diane Brentari1∗ and Marie Coppola2,3 How do languages emerge? What are the necessary ingredients and circumstances that permit new languages to form? Various researchers within the disciplines of primatology, anthropology, psychology, and linguistics have offered different answers to this question depending on their perspective. Language acquisition, language evolution, primate communication, and the study of spoken varieties of pidgin and creoles address these issues, but in this article we describe a relatively new and important area that contributes to our understanding of language creation and emergence. Three types of communication systems that use the hands and body to communicate will be the focus of this article: gesture, homesign systems, and sign languages. The focus of this article is to explain why mapping the path from gesture to homesign to sign language has become an important research topic for understanding language emergence, not only for the field of sign languages, but also for language in general. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. How to cite this article: WIREs Cogn Sci 2012. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1212 INTRODUCTION linguistic community, a language model, and a 21st century mind/brain that well-equip the child for this esearchers in a variety of disciplines offer task. When the very first languages were created different, mostly partial, answers to the question, R the social and physiological conditions were very ‘What are the stages of language creation?’ Language different. Spoken language pidgin varieties can also creation can refer to any number of phylogenic and shed some light on the question of language creation. -
Negation in Kata Kolok Grammaticalization Throughout Three Generations of Signers
UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM Graduate School for Humanities Negation in Kata Kolok Grammaticalization throughout three generations of signers Master’s Thesis Hannah Lutzenberger Student number: 10852875 Supervised by: Dr. Roland Pfau Dr. Vadim Kimmelman Dr. Connie de Vos Amsterdam 2017 Abstract (250 words) Although all natural languages have ways of expressing negation, the linguistic realization is subject to typological variation (Dahl 2010; Payne 1985). Signed languages combine manual signs and non-manual elements. This leads to an intriguing dichotomy: While non-manual marker(s) alone are sufficient for negating a proposition in some signed languages (non- manual dominant system), the use of a negative manual sign is required in others (manual dominant system) (Zeshan 2004, 2006). Kata Kolok (KK), a young signing variety used in a Balinese village with a high incidence of congenital deafness (de Vos 2012; Winata et al. 1995), had previously been classified as an extreme example of the latter type: the manual sign NEG functions as the main negator and a negative headshake remains largely unused (Marsaja 2008). Adopting a corpus-based approach, the present study reevaluates this claim. The analysis of intergenerational data of six deaf native KK signers from the KK Corpus (de Vos 2016) reveals that the classification of KK negation is not as straightforward as formerly suggested. Although KK signers make extensive use of NEG, a negative headshake is widespread as well. Furthermore, signers from different generations show disparate tendencies in the use of specific markers. Specifically, the involvement of the manual negator slightly increases over time, and the headshake begins to spread within the youngest generation of signers. -
Chapter 2 Sign Language Types
Chapter 2 Sign language types This chapter defines four different sign language types, based on the infor- mation available in the respective sources. Before introducing the types of sign languages, I first report on the diachronic developments in the field of typological sign language research that gave rise to the distinction of the various sign language types. Sign language research started about five decades ago in the United States of America mainly due to the pioneering work of Stokoe (2005 [1960]), Klima and Bellugi (1979), and Poizner, Klima and Bellugi (1987) on American Sign Language (ASL). Gradually linguists in other countries, mainly in Europe, became interested in sign language research and started analyzing European sign languages e.g. British Sign Language (BSL), Swedish Sign Language (SSL), Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT) and German Sign Language (DGS). Most of the in-depth linguistic descrip- tions have been based on Western sign languages. Therefore, it has long been assumed that some fundamental levels of linguistic structure, such as spatial morphology and syntax, operate identically in all sign languages. Recent studies, however, have discovered some important variations in spatial organization in some previously unknown sign languages (Washabaugh, 1986; Nyst, 2007; Marsaja, 2008; Padden, Meir, Aronoff, & Sandler, 2010). In the context of growing interest in non-Western sign languages towards the end of the 1990s and more recently, there have been efforts towards developing a typology of sign languages (Zeshan, 2004ab, 2008, 2011b; Schuit, Baker, & Pfau, 2011). Although it has been repeatedly emphasized in the literature that the sign language research still has too little data on sign languages other than those of national deaf communities, based in Western or Asian cultures (Zeshan, 2008). -
Toponyms in Ban Khor Sign Language | Angela M
Toponyms in Ban Khor Sign Language | Angela M. Nonaka 66 Toponyms in Ban Khor Sign Language Angela M. Nonaka The University of Texas at Austin (USA) [email protected] Introduction Ban Khor Sign Language (BKSL) is a rare language variety known as a ‘village’ (Zeshan 2004) or ‘indigenous’ (Woodward 2000) sign language. This type of sign language develops in small face-to-face communities where historically there are/were: 1) demographically `1#$%%%%}`` #####$}`T$ } ~` $ #} ` %T$!;# characteristics of the language ecologies of signing village communities, however, involve their local language ideologies and practices. In such communities, there are no sign language interpreters. Instead, it is common not only for deaf people but also for hearing residents to acquire and use the village sign language. Because it is widely used by both deaf and hearing people in the course of everyday life, the village sign language facilitates the inclusion (vs. exclusion) of deaf members of the community. Villages with indigenous sign languages are unusual but have been found elsewhere: in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Oceania, the Caribbean, and the Middle East (Branson & ^}@!}#$$}}} }@}X;}$¥}}¨}¨ }~}=#}=$}=~¥ $}=¥}=}+#¢^$}+ }^+¥}^}^%#¢<}^!} ~$}¥}!}\ !}}*!}*$}*#};! }@}$¥}`!* communities’ alternative social constructions of and communicative responses to deafness is enriching anthropological understanding of cultural variation, and research on the local sign languages is expanding knowledge of linguistics in areas such as: documentary linguistics, typological linguistics, historical linguistics, language universals, and so on. In anthropological linguistics, there is a robust literature on onomastics—the study of the origin and forms of proper names (personal, place, brand, etc.). Names are interesting and useful phenomena for linguistic and cultural analysis because naming systems and practices mirror and order the social world. -
The Kata Kolok Corpus: Documenting a Shared Sign Language
accepted for Sign Language Studies, 16 (2), Winter 2016 Sampling shared sign languages Connie de Vos Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmgen, the Netherlands Abstract This paper addresses some of the theoretical questions, ethical considerations, and methodological decisions that underlie the creation of the Kata Kolok Corpus as well as the Kata Kolok Child Signing Corpus. This discussion is relevant to the formation of prospective sign corpora that aim to capture the various sociolinguistic landscapes in which sign languages, whether rural or urban, may emerge and evolve. Keywords: corpus construction, shared sign languages, linguistic fieldwork, first language acquisition, Kata Kolok 1. Introduction1 Whether stated or implied, the emergence of sign languages has often taken to be directly linked to the establishment of formal deaf education, and other cultural centres where deaf individuals may convene. Over the past ten years, more attention has been given to the emergence of signing varieties in rural and urban areas with a high incidence of deafness, where both deaf and hearing community members form social networks, using visual-gestural forms of communication (Nyst 2012). This latter sociolinguistic category of sign language, being used by both deaf and hearing community members, is known as a shared sign language. Shared signing communities vary in detail with respect to various social factors such as the causes and incidence of deafness, community size, the ratio of deaf and hearing signers, time depth, as well as the socio-cultural construction of deafness (Kisch 2008; Kusters 2010). The linguistic and anthropological documentation and description of shared signing communities are still in their initial stages (Zeshan & de Vos 2012). -
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. -
Emerging Sign Languages
Emerging Sign Languages Emerging Sign Languages Irit Meir Department of Hebrew Language And Department of Communication Disorders The University of Haifa 31905 Haifa, Israel Wendy Sandler Department of English Language and Literature The University of Haifa 31905 Haifa, Israel Carol Padden Department of Communication University of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093-0503 Mark Aronoff Department of Linguistics SUNY Stony Brook Stony Brook, NY 11794-4376 Corresponding author: Irit Meir [email protected] * Our work is supported by grants from the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (R01 DC 6473) and the Israel Science Foundation (#553/04). 1 Emerging Sign Languages Emerging Sign Languages Irit Meir, Wendy Sandler, Carol Padden and Mark Aronoff <1>Introduction Herodotus tells the story of the Egyptian king Psammetichos’s effort to answer the question, Who were the first people in the world? He placed newborn twins in the custody of a shepherd on an uninhabited island, with instructions not to speak to them. After two years, he returned to learn that the children’s first recognizable word was ‘bekos,' the Phrygian word for bread, and so concluded that the Phrygians were the first. The tale of Psammetichos has long been one of the best remembered of Herodotus’s stories because it strikes a nerve. Language is the most human of all behaviors and it is natural to want to know how it all started. But we cannot go back in time and there is little if any evidence in the fossil record that can tell us about the origin of language. -
ZERO PROJECT CONFERENCE 2020 PAGE Speaker Information 2 of 40
SPEAKER Zero Project INFORMATION Conference 2020 February 19 – 21, 2020 Shadi ABOU-ZAHRA Shadi Abou-Zahra works with the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) as the Accessibility Strategy and Technology Specialist. He coordinates accessibility priorities in the W3C Strategy team, as well as international promotion, coordination, and harmonization of web accessibility standards. He also main- tains WAI liaisons with key stakeholders including disability, research, and standards organizations, and coordinates WAI outreach in Europe, accessibility evaluation techniques, and European-funded projects on accessibility. W3C, Austria Inbar ADLER BEN DOR Inbar Adler Ben Dor is the Director of the Amitim Programs in the Israeli Association of Community Centers. Three nationwide programs in cooperation with the Ministries of Health, Education and The National Insurance Institute of Israel. Inbar works in community mental health rehabilitation since 2000 as a director, a professional senior supervisor and a group facilitator. Holds M.A in Social Work, graduate of Gender Studies, and Certified in Organization Development. Married and mother of three. The Israel Association of Community Centers, Israel Gaby ADMON-RICK Gaby Admon-Rick, PhD, is the director of research and international issues at the Israeli Commission for Equal Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in the Ministry of Justice. She leads the Commission’s activities in the areas of planning, data, promoting, monitoring and reporting on the CRPD, awareness raising public campaigns and media. She has also conducted research through disability studies and science studies perspectives on the historical constructions of disability in Israeli society. Ministry of Justice, Israel Noor AL-SAWALHA Noor Al-Sawalha holds a BA in Occupational Therapy and is currently the Head of the Support Depart- ment at Alliance Academy Jordan. -
Cardinal Numerals in Rural Sign Languages: Approaching Cross-Modal Typology
Cardinal numerals in rural sign languages: Approaching cross-modal typology ULRIKE ZESHAN, CESAR ERNESTO ESCOBEDO DELGADO, HASAN DIKYUVA, SIBAJI PANDA, and CONNIE DE VOS Abstract This article presents data on cardinal numerals in three sign languages from small-scale communities with hereditary deafness. The unusual features found in these data considerably extend the known range of typological variety across sign languages. Some features, such as non-decimal numeral bases, are unat- tested in sign languages, but familiar from spoken languages, while others, such as subtractive sub-systems, are rare in sign and speech. We conclude that for a complete typological appraisal of a domain, an approach to cross-modal typology, which includes a typologically diverse range of sign languages in addition to spoken languages, is both instructive and feasible. Keywords: cardinal numerals, morphology, numeral bases, numerals, rural sign languages, sign languages 1. Introduction This article discusses primary data on cardinal numerals from three sign lan- guages in small-scale rural communities in Turkey, India, and Mexico. Re- search on such “rural sign languages” is a very recent undertaking, and here we aim to contribute toward what is known about the typology of signed and spoken languages. Sections 1.1 and 1.2 introduce the phenomenon of rural sign languages as compared to the better-documented sign languages of urban deaf communities, as well as presenting an overview of what we know about cardi- nal numerals in urban sign languages, as compared to spoken languages. Sec- tion 2 details the sociolinguistic setting of the target languages, followed by the data analysis in Sections 3 and 4. -
Iconicity in the Semantic Domain of Animals in The
Iconicity in the Semantic Domain of Animals in the Emerging Family Sign Language of Berbey (Mali) MA Thesis Faculty of Humanities Nargess Asghari Leiden University Centre for Linguistics MA Linguistics Experimental and Theoretical Linguistics Supervisor: Dr. Victoria Nyst February 2019 Second Reader: Prof. Maarten Kossmann Cover image: BERBEY in Berbey Sign Language (taken from Berbey Sign Language corpus). ICONICITY IN ANIMAL SIGNS IN BERBEY SL (MALI) i Abstract Cross-linguistic studies have shown that despite variations across languages, universal patterns are found within semantic domains. In sign language linguistics, cross-linguistic studies of the iconic patterns per semantic domain have received major attention in recent years. This study investigates iconicity in the semantic domain of animals in Berbey Sign Language – an emerging family sign language in Mali – and compares it to 10 other sign languages. The results of the analysis of the iconic strategy and iconic image in 10 animal signs reveal notable patterns. An overview of the universal tendencies found in the semantic domain of animals is included in the study as well. ICONICITY IN ANIMAL SIGNS IN BERBEY SL (MALI) ii Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 Emerging Sign Languages ............................................................................... 2 Berbey Sign Language ..................................................................................... 4 Sign Language