French Sign Language
Encyclopedia
French Sign Language (langue des signes française or LSF) is the sign language
of the deaf in the nation of France
. According to Ethnologue
, it has 50,000 to 100,000 native signers.
French Sign Language is related and partially ancestral to Dutch Sign Language
(NGT), German Sign Language
(DGS), Flemish Sign Language
(VGT), Belgian-French Sign Language (LSFB), Irish Sign Language
(ISL), American Sign Language
(ASL), Quebec Sign Language
(LSQ), and Russian Sign Language
(RSL).
, and eventually he established a free school for the deaf. At this school, he developed a system he called "methodical signs", to teach his students how to read and write. The abbé was eventually able to make public demonstrations (1771 to 1774) of his system, demonstrations that attracted educators and celebrities from all over the continent and that popularised the idea that the deaf could be educated, especially by gesture.
The methodical signs he created were a mixture of sign language words he had learned with some grammatical terms he invented. The resulting combination, an artificial language, was over-complicated and completely unusable by his students. For example, where his system would elaborately construct the word "unintelligible" with a chain of 5 signs ("interior-understand-possible-adjective-not"), the deaf natural language would simply say "understand-impossible". LSF was not invented by the abbé, but his major contributions to the deaf community were to recognize that the deaf did not need spoken language to be able to think, and to indirectly accelerate the natural growth of the language by virtue of putting so many deaf students under a single roof.
From this time French Sign Language flourished until the late 19th century when a schism developed between the manualist and oralist
schools of thought. In 1880 the Milan International Congress of Teachers for the Deaf-Mute convened and decided that the oralist tradition would be preferred. In due time the use of sign language was treated as a barrier to learning to talk and thus forbidden from the classroom.
This situation remained unchanged in France until the late 1970s, when the deaf community began to militate for greater recognition of sign language and for a bilingual education system. In 1991 the National Assembly passed the Fabius law, officially authorising the use of LSF for the education of deaf children. A law was passed in 2004 fully recognising LSF as a language in its own right.
is used both to distinguish signs of LSF and to incorporate French words while signing.
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...
of the deaf in the nation of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. According to Ethnologue
Ethnologue
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
, it has 50,000 to 100,000 native signers.
French Sign Language is related and partially ancestral to Dutch Sign Language
Dutch Sign Language
Dutch Sign Language is the sign language used by deaf people in the Netherlands and is not officially recognized. As of 1995, more and more schools for the deaf in The Netherlands teach 'Nederlands met Gebaren' or 'NmG'...
(NGT), German Sign Language
German Sign Language
German Sign Language or Deutsche Gebärdensprache is the sign language of the Deaf community in Germany. It is often abbreviated as DGS. It is unclear how many use German Sign Language as their main language; Gallaudet University estimated 50,000 in 1986.The language has evolved through use in deaf...
(DGS), Flemish Sign Language
Flemish Sign Language
Flemish Sign Language is the language used by signers in Flanders, which is the northern part of Belgium, a country in Western Europe...
(VGT), Belgian-French Sign Language (LSFB), Irish Sign Language
Irish Sign Language
Irish Sign Language is the sign language of Ireland, used primarily in the Republic of Ireland. It is also used in Northern Ireland, though British Sign Language is also used. Irish Sign Language is more closely related to French Sign Language than to British Sign Language, which was first used...
(ISL), American Sign Language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
(ASL), Quebec Sign Language
Quebec Sign Language
Quebec Sign Language, known in French as Langue des signes québécoise , is a sign language used in Canada. Most LSQ users are located in Quebec, but a few are scattered in major cities in the rest of the country....
(LSQ), and Russian Sign Language
Russian Sign Language
Russian Sign Language is the sign language of the deaf community in Russia. It has a grammar unlike the Russian language, with much stricter word order and word formation rules. Russian sign language belongs to a family of French sign language and is similar to American sign language...
(RSL).
History
French Sign Language is frequently, though mistakenly, attributed to the work of Charles Michel de l'Épée (l'abbé de l'Épée). In fact, he is said to have discovered the already existing language by total accident; having ducked into a nearby house to escape the rain, he fell upon a pair of twin sisters, deaf, and was struck by the richness and complexity of the language that they used to communicate among themselves and the deaf Parisian community. The abbé set himself to learning the language, now known as Old French Sign LanguageOld French Sign Language
Old French Sign Language is a term that loosely describes the language of the deaf community in 18th century Paris at the time of the establishment of the first deaf schools...
, and eventually he established a free school for the deaf. At this school, he developed a system he called "methodical signs", to teach his students how to read and write. The abbé was eventually able to make public demonstrations (1771 to 1774) of his system, demonstrations that attracted educators and celebrities from all over the continent and that popularised the idea that the deaf could be educated, especially by gesture.
The methodical signs he created were a mixture of sign language words he had learned with some grammatical terms he invented. The resulting combination, an artificial language, was over-complicated and completely unusable by his students. For example, where his system would elaborately construct the word "unintelligible" with a chain of 5 signs ("interior-understand-possible-adjective-not"), the deaf natural language would simply say "understand-impossible". LSF was not invented by the abbé, but his major contributions to the deaf community were to recognize that the deaf did not need spoken language to be able to think, and to indirectly accelerate the natural growth of the language by virtue of putting so many deaf students under a single roof.
From this time French Sign Language flourished until the late 19th century when a schism developed between the manualist and oralist
Manualism and oralism
Education of the deaf consists of two main approaches: manualism and oralism. Manualism is the education of deaf students using sign language and oralism is the education of deaf students using spoken language...
schools of thought. In 1880 the Milan International Congress of Teachers for the Deaf-Mute convened and decided that the oralist tradition would be preferred. In due time the use of sign language was treated as a barrier to learning to talk and thus forbidden from the classroom.
This situation remained unchanged in France until the late 1970s, when the deaf community began to militate for greater recognition of sign language and for a bilingual education system. In 1991 the National Assembly passed the Fabius law, officially authorising the use of LSF for the education of deaf children. A law was passed in 2004 fully recognising LSF as a language in its own right.
Alphabet
The French manual alphabetFrench manual alphabet
The French manual alphabet is an alphabet used for French Sign Language, both to distinguish FSL words and to sign French words in FSL.The alphabet has the following letters:...
is used both to distinguish signs of LSF and to incorporate French words while signing.