ASL

A recent article in the Virginia Gazette tells how American Sign Language (ASL) is gradually gaining acceptance as a real language. Although some people toke it in high school as an "easy" alternative to a spoken language, "(1) ASL is an autonomous, natural language, with its own morph­ological structure and syntax, comparable in complexity and expressiveness to other foreign languages; (2) ASL is associated with a distinctive culture of deaf Americans; (3) the study of ASL provides opportunities for exploration and research comparable to those offered by spoken languages and is consistent with the goals of the foreign language requirement at UVA." The University of Virginia, among others, has recently begun to accept ASL to fulfill language requirements.

Looking further into the background of sign language, I found that there are a considerable number of grammar books detailing its phonolgy, morpholgy, syntax, and semantics. Clearly the language is fully evolved. The only question remaining is whether it can be considered a language if it is not spoken.

Students of any standard spoken language learn four aspects of that language: reading, writing, speech, and oral understanding. Perhaps the reason that some people do not consider sign language to be a language is that it uses only two of these aspects: speech and understanding. Yet, despite this, Latin is widely considered a language and is accepted to fulfill college language requirements, even though students of Latin also only learn two aspects: reading and writing. If Latin is accepted as a language, so too should sign language be. Indeed, sign language is, if anything, more of a language than Latin, because is has a modern culture associated with it. While no native speakers of Latin are alive today, a considerable number of people speak sign language as their native language: "According to 2005 Virginia education statistics, 1,538 students aged 2-22 received special education services in Virginia with a primary disabil­ity of hearing impairment/deafness."

Because I posted about body language last week, the article on sign language got me thinking about a combination of the two languages. Is there body language in sign language? How do deaf people express emotion through language? Can a deaf person gesture more forcefully to show anger, or does making certain gestures more forceful (wider or faster) change their meanings?

----

Another, wholly unrelated article in the Seattle Times considers the difficulties faced by Spanish-English bilinguals when trying to decide which language to use. "For example, switching to Spanish might seem rude if it suggests the other speaker is inept in English. Yet, among Hispanics proud of their ethnic heritage, avoiding Spanish can come across as standoffish." I thought that this was an interesting observation because I never know which language to use when trying to speak to native Spanish speakers who only know a little English. The interesting thing about such a subject is that it cannot possibly be researched: the associations each person has with any given language vary widely from one individual to the next.