French Sign Language family
Encyclopedia
The French Sign Language (FSL) family is a proposed language family
of sign language
s which includes French Sign Language
and American Sign Language
, among others.
The FSL family descends from Old French Sign Language
, which developed among the deaf community in Paris, and perhaps earlier. The earliest mention of Old French Sign Language is by the abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée
in the late seventeenth century, but it could have existed for centuries prior. Several European sign languages, such as Russian
, derive from it, as do several American sign languages, notably American Sign Language
when French educator Laurent Clerc
taught his language at the American School for the Deaf
. Others, such as Spanish Sign Language
, are thought to be related to French Sign Language even if not directly descendant from it.
French Sign Language
(1752; may be different from Old French Sign Language
)
and, perhaps,
Wittnann believes Lyons Sign Language
, Spanish Sign Language
, Brazilian Sign Language
, and Venezuelan Sign Language
, which are sometimes counted in the French family, had separate origins, though with some contact through stimulus diffusion, and it was Lyons SL rather than FSL that gave rise to Belgian Sign Language. Chilean Sign Language
(1852) has also been included in the French family, but is not listed by Wittmann.
Anderson (1979) had previously postulated the following classification of FSL and its relatives, with derivation from Medieval monk's sign systems, though some lineages are apparently traced by their manual alphabets:
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
of sign language
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...
s which includes French Sign Language
French Sign Language
French Sign Language is the sign language of the deaf in the nation of France. According to Ethnologue, it has 50,000 to 100,000 native signers....
and 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...
, among others.
The FSL family descends from Old French Sign Language
Old 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...
, which developed among the deaf community in Paris, and perhaps earlier. The earliest mention of Old French Sign Language is by the abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée
Charles-Michel de l'Épée
Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée was a philanthropic educator of 18th-century France who has become known as the "Father of the Deaf".-Overview:...
in the late seventeenth century, but it could have existed for centuries prior. Several European sign languages, such as Russian
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...
, derive from it, as do several American sign languages, notably 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...
when French educator Laurent Clerc
Laurent Clerc
Laurent Clerc , born Louis Laurent Marie Clerc, was called "The Apostle of the deaf in America" by generations of American deaf people...
taught his language at the American School for the Deaf
American School for the Deaf
The American School for the Deaf is the oldest permanent school for the deaf in the United States. It was founded April 15, 1817 in Hartford, Connecticut by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc and became a state-supported school in 1817.-History:...
. Others, such as Spanish Sign Language
Spanish Sign language
Spanish Sign Language is a sign language used mainly by deaf people in Spain and the people who live with them.There are small differences throughout Spain with no difficulties in intercommunication, except in Catalonia and in Valencia...
, are thought to be related to French Sign Language even if not directly descendant from it.
Languages
Wittmann (1991) lists the following suspected members of the family, with date of establishment or earliest attestation:French Sign Language
French Sign Language
French Sign Language is the sign language of the deaf in the nation of France. According to Ethnologue, it has 50,000 to 100,000 native signers....
(1752; may be different from Old French Sign Language
Old 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...
)
- Austro-Hungarian SL (1780; now seen as separate Austrian SLAustrian Sign LanguageAustrian Sign Language, or Österreichische Gebärdensprache , is the sign language used by the Austrian Deaf community — approximately 10,000 people. -Classification:...
and Hungarian SLHungarian Sign LanguageHungarian Sign Language is the sign language of Deaf people in Hungary. There is historical evidence that Hungarian and Austrian Sign Language are related, but there is no linguistic research and proof for the matter, yet....
)- Czech SL (1786)
- Russian SLRussian Sign LanguageRussian 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...
(1806)- Bulgarian SL (1920)
- Yugoslav SL (1840; now seen as separate Slovenian, Croatian)
- possibly Israeli Sign LanguageIsraeli Sign LanguageIsraeli 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....
(1934) (though German Sign LanguageGerman Sign LanguageGerman 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...
may be a stronger possibility)
- Dutch SLDutch Sign LanguageDutch 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'...
(1799) - Danish SLDanish Sign Language-Classification:Wittmann assigned DSL to the French Sign Language family because of similarities in vocabulary. However, the founder of the first deaf school in Denmark, Peter Atke Castberg , was receptive to local sign and so may have introduced FSL signs to the local language rather than FSL...
(1806)- NorwegianNorwegian Sign LanguageNorwegian Sign Language, or NSL , is the principal deaf sign language Norway. There are many sign language organizations and some television programs broadcast in NSL in Norway...
(1825) - Icelandic SLIcelandic Sign LanguageThe Icelandic sign language is the sign language of the deaf community in Iceland. It is based on the Danish Sign Language; until 1910, deaf Icelandic people were sent to school in Denmark, but the languages have diverged since then...
(split ca. 1910)
- Norwegian
- Latvian SL (1806)
- Philippine SL (1806?) (frequently attributed to American SL)
- American SLAmerican Sign LanguageAmerican 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...
(1817, with possible local admixture)- Puerto Rican SL (1907)
- Thai Sign LanguageThai Sign LanguageThai Sign Language or Modern Standard Thai Sign Language , is the national sign language of Thailand's Deaf community and is used in most parts of the country by the 20% of the estimated 56,000 pre-linguistically deaf people who go to school...
(1951, creolized with indigenous sign). - Hawaiian Pidgin Sign Language (with possible local admixture)
- Ghanaian SL (1957)
- Nigerian SL (1960)
- Kuala Lumpur SL (1960?; now Malaysian SLMalaysian Sign LanguageMalaysian Sign Language is the sign language in everyday use in many parts of Malaysia. BIM has many dialects, differing from state to state....
?) - Bolivian SLBolivian Sign LanguageBolivian Sign Language is a dialect of American Sign Language used in Bolivia.In 1973 ASL was adopted in Bolivia by missionary activities and the original sign languages of the towns were no longer used. The first book of LSB was published in 1992, but more than 90% of the signs were of from ASL...
(1973; a dialect of American SL) - Moroccan SL (1987?)
- and "Eskimo SL"? (perhaps General Inuit Sign Language; the indigenous Inuit Sign LanguageInuit Sign LanguageInuit Sign Language , or Eskimo Sign Language, is an indigenous sign language used by both the deaf and the hearing in Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic, including Nunavut and perhaps northern Quebec and Nova Scotia...
is an isolate)
- A mixture of FSL and ASL may have given rise to
- Quebecois SLQuebec Sign LanguageQuebec 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....
(1817) - Greek SLGreek Sign LanguageGreek Sign Language is the sign language of the Greek deaf community. It has been legally recognised as the official language of the Deaf Community in Greece by Law 2817 in 2000.The Greek Sign Language is estimated to be used by about 40,600 signers....
(1950s, with local admixture)
- Quebecois SL
- Italian SLItalian Sign LanguageItalian Sign Language or ISL is the visual language employed by deaf people in Italy. Deep analysis of it began in the 1980s, along the lines of William Stokoe's research on American Sign Language in the 1960s. Until recently, most of the studies about Italian Sign Language have dealt with its...
(1828)- Tunisian SL (with local admixture)
- Irish SLIrish Sign LanguageIrish 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...
(1846) - Mexican SLMexican Sign LanguageMexican Sign Language , is the language of the Deaf community in the urban regions of Mexico. It is the language of 87,000 to 100,000 signers Mexican Sign Language (“lengua de señas mexicana” or LSM, also known by several other names), is the language of the Deaf community in the urban regions of...
(1869) - Algerian SLAlgerian Sign LanguageAlgerian Sign Language Algerian Sign Language Algerian Sign Language (French: Langue des signes algérienne (LSA),Tamazight: Tamslayt Tadugamt n Lezzayer, Arabic: لغة الإشارة الجزائر...
(undated) - Rumanian SL (undated)
and, perhaps,
- Catalan Sign LanguageCatalan Sign LanguageCatalan Sign Language is a sign language used by 18,000 signers in Catalonia. About 50% intelligibility by users of Spanish Sign Language.Since 1994, it has an official status thanks to a law to promote and diffuse the language promulgated by Generalitat de Catalunya...
(undated, but early) - Swiss Sign LanguageSwiss Sign LanguageSwiss Sign Language is a deaf sign language of Switzerland. There are lexical differences between the various schools, influence of the local oral language which divides the language into three dialects, and a marked influence of French Sign Language around Geneva...
(1828)
Wittnann believes Lyons Sign Language
Lyons Sign Language
Lyons Sign Language is an old sign language of France. It is not intelligible with and apparently not related to French Sign Language, which developed in Paris...
, Spanish Sign Language
Spanish Sign language
Spanish Sign Language is a sign language used mainly by deaf people in Spain and the people who live with them.There are small differences throughout Spain with no difficulties in intercommunication, except in Catalonia and in Valencia...
, Brazilian Sign Language
Brazilian Sign Language
Brazilian Sign Language, also known as "Libras" and previously known as LSB, LGB or LSCB , is the language of the Deaf communities of urban Brazil....
, and Venezuelan Sign Language
Venezuelan Sign language
Venezuelan Sign language or VSL is the national deaf sign language of Venezuela. The term, "Venezuelan Sign Language," began to be used in the 1930s. It is widely used, and Venezuela has a national bilingual education program for VSL and Spanish, though the language used by adults differs from...
, which are sometimes counted in the French family, had separate origins, though with some contact through stimulus diffusion, and it was Lyons SL rather than FSL that gave rise to Belgian Sign Language. Chilean Sign Language
Chilean Sign Language
-External links:* *...
(1852) has also been included in the French family, but is not listed by Wittmann.
Anderson (1979) had previously postulated the following classification of FSL and its relatives, with derivation from Medieval monk's sign systems, though some lineages are apparently traced by their manual alphabets:
- Monastic sign languages (described 1086 AD)
- "Southwest European" SL
- Proto-Spanish
- SpanishSpanish Sign languageSpanish Sign Language is a sign language used mainly by deaf people in Spain and the people who live with them.There are small differences throughout Spain with no difficulties in intercommunication, except in Catalonia and in Valencia...
(dictionary 1851) - VenezuelanVenezuelan Sign languageVenezuelan Sign language or VSL is the national deaf sign language of Venezuela. The term, "Venezuelan Sign Language," began to be used in the 1930s. It is widely used, and Venezuela has a national bilingual education program for VSL and Spanish, though the language used by adults differs from...
- Irish → Australian Catholic
- Spanish
- Old Polish → PolishPolish Sign LanguagePolish Sign Language is the language of the Deaf community in Poland. Its lexicon and grammar are distinct from the Polish language, although there is a manually coded version of Polish known as System Językowo-Migowy , which is often used by interpreters on television and by teachers in...
- Proto-French (before l'Épée)
- Eastern French: Old Danish (edu. 1807), Old German, German Evangelical (edu. 1779 Austria), Old Russian (edu. 1806)
- Western French
- Middle FSL finger-spelling group: Netherlands (1780), Belgium (1793), Switzerland, Old French
- Middle French (dict. 1850) → French
- American (edu. 1816; later including components from Northwest European SL's)
- International finger-spelling group: Norway, Finland, Germany, USA
- Old Brazilian → Brazil, Argentina, Mexico
- Proto-Spanish