Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language
Encyclopedia
The Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) is a sign language
used by about 150 deaf and many hearing members of the al-Sayyid
Bedouin
tribe in the Negev desert
of southern Israel
. As both deaf and hearing people share a language, Deaf people are not stigmatised in this community, and marriage between Deaf and hearing people is common.
The Al-Sayyid community (as of 2004) numbers around 3,000 in total, most of whom trace their ancestry back to the time the village was founded, in the mid-19th century, by a local woman and an Egypt
ian man. Two of this founding couple's five sons carried a gene for nonsyndromic, genetically recessive, profound pre-lingual neurosensory deafness. The descendants of the founding couple often married their cousins
due to the tribe's rejection by its neighbours for being "foreign fellah
in". This meant that the gene became homozygous in several members of the family.
ABSL was first studied in the end of the 1990s by anthropologist Shifra Kisch, and came to worldwide attention in February 2005 when an international group of researchers published a study of the language in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
. The spontaneous emergence of the language in the last 70 years, which has developed a complex grammar without influence from any other language, is of particular interest to linguists
for the insights it provides into the birth of human language.
ABSL shows a preference for subject–object–verb word order
(e.g. "WOMAN CHILD FEED"), in marked contrast to the dialect of Arabic
spoken by hearing members of the community (SVO), as well as Hebrew
(SVO), classical Arabic (VSO), and the predominant sign languages in the region, Israeli Sign Language
and Jordanian Sign Language. The authors of the study see ABSL as evidence for the human tendency to construct communication along grammatical
lines.
Authors of the study (Mark Aronoff
from State University of New York at Stony Brook
, Irit Meir and Wendy Sandler from the University of Haifa
and Carol Padden
from the University of California, San Diego
) also remarked on the speed with which a grammar emerged, with the SOV word-order emerging with the first generation of signers, as well as the language's continuing rapid development — the third generation is signing twice as fast as the first and is using longer sentences.
Because many of the younger generation are now exposed to Israeli Sign Language and Jordanian Sign Language in school, and marriage outside the community is growing, it is unclear whether ABSL will survive.
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
used by about 150 deaf and many hearing members of the al-Sayyid
Al-Sayyid
al-Sayyid or al-Sayed is a Bedouin village in the Negev desert of southern Israel, located between Arad and Beersheba, just south of Hura...
Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
tribe in the Negev desert
Negev
The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
of southern Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. As both deaf and hearing people share a language, Deaf people are not stigmatised in this community, and marriage between Deaf and hearing people is common.
The Al-Sayyid community (as of 2004) numbers around 3,000 in total, most of whom trace their ancestry back to the time the village was founded, in the mid-19th century, by a local woman and an Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian man. Two of this founding couple's five sons carried a gene for nonsyndromic, genetically recessive, profound pre-lingual neurosensory deafness. The descendants of the founding couple often married their cousins
Cousin marriage
Cousin marriage is marriage between two cousins. In various jurisdictions and cultures, such marriages range from being considered ideal and actively encouraged, to being uncommon but still legal, to being seen as incest and legally prohibited....
due to the tribe's rejection by its neighbours for being "foreign fellah
Fellah
Fellah , also alternatively known as Fallah is a peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa...
in". This meant that the gene became homozygous in several members of the family.
ABSL was first studied in the end of the 1990s by anthropologist Shifra Kisch, and came to worldwide attention in February 2005 when an international group of researchers published a study of the language in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, usually referred to as PNAS, is the official journal of the United States National Academy of Sciences...
. The spontaneous emergence of the language in the last 70 years, which has developed a complex grammar without influence from any other language, is of particular interest to linguists
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
for the insights it provides into the birth of human language.
ABSL shows a preference for subject–object–verb word order
Word order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
(e.g. "WOMAN CHILD FEED"), in marked contrast to the dialect of Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
spoken by hearing members of the community (SVO), as well as Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
(SVO), classical Arabic (VSO), and the predominant sign languages in the region, Israeli Sign Language
Israeli Sign Language
Israeli Sign Language, or ISL, is the most commonly used sign language in the deaf community of Israel. Some other sign languages are also used in Israel, among them Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language....
and Jordanian Sign Language. The authors of the study see ABSL as evidence for the human tendency to construct communication along grammatical
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
lines.
Authors of the study (Mark Aronoff
Mark Aronoff
Mark Aronoff, a native of Montreal, Quebec, is a morphologist and a professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His 1974 M.I.T...
from State University of New York at Stony Brook
State University of New York at Stony Brook
The State University of New York at Stony Brook, also known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island, about east of Manhattan....
, Irit Meir and Wendy Sandler from the University of Haifa
University of Haifa
The University of Haifa is a university in Haifa, Israel.The University of Haifa was founded in 1963 by Haifa mayor Abba Hushi, to operate under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
and Carol Padden
Carol Padden
Carol A. Padden is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, San Diego, where she has been teaching since 1983. She was named a 2010 MacArthur Fellow, and a 1992 Guggenheim Fellow....
from the University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
) also remarked on the speed with which a grammar emerged, with the SOV word-order emerging with the first generation of signers, as well as the language's continuing rapid development — the third generation is signing twice as fast as the first and is using longer sentences.
Because many of the younger generation are now exposed to Israeli Sign Language and Jordanian Sign Language in school, and marriage outside the community is growing, it is unclear whether ABSL will survive.
See also
- Adamorobe Sign LanguageAdamorobe Sign LanguageAdamorobe Sign Language is an indigenous sign language used in Adamorobe, an Akan village in eastern Ghana. It is used by about 30 deaf and 1370 hearing people.”...
- Nicaraguan Sign LanguageNicaraguan Sign LanguageNicaraguan Sign Language is a signed language spontaneously developed by deaf children in a number of schools in western Nicaragua in the 1970s and 1980s...
(ISN), another language which emerged in recent years which has excited linguists outside the specialised field of sign language research. However, ABSL is considered to reflect a more natural emergence of a language from a stable community, unlike ISN which evolved in a school setting. - Language acquisition deviceLanguage acquisition deviceThe Language Acquisition Device is a postulated "organ" of the brain that is supposed to function as a congenital device for learning symbolic language . First proposed by Noam Chomsky, the LAD concept is an instinctive mental capacity which enables an infant to acquire and produce language. It is...
External links
- Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language Sign Language Research Laboratory, University of Haifa
- Sandler W, Meir I, Padden C, Aronoff M. (2005) The emergence of grammar: systematic structure in a new language, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.