Monastic sign language
Encyclopedia
Monastic sign languages have been used in Europe from at least the 10th century by Christian
monk
s, and some, such as Cistercian and Trappist
sign, are still in use today—not only in Europe but also in Japan, China and the USA. Unlike deaf sign language
s, they are better understood as forms of symbolic gestural
communication rather than language
s, and some writers have preferred to describe them as sign lexicon
s.
monks used finger alphabet
s, possibly as memory aids for preaching, and in Benedictine
monasteries
, signs representing words were used for limited communication when silence was required. Rather than the popularly imagined total "Vow
s of Silence," the Rule of St. Benedict actually dictates that conversation is only not allowed in certain areas of the monastery and during certain hours of the day. It was only much later, in the 17th century, that certain Cistercian and Trappist orders came to see absolute silence as a penance to endure along with the other deprivations of their austere lives.
s relating to monastic life, such as foods, articles of clothing, particular rooms and buildings, ritual objects, and the many different ranks of clerical office. The few signs that act as verb
s include "sit," "stand up," "kneel," and "confess." They almost always bear an iconic or visually motivated connection to the thing represented by the sign. No grammar is described for these signs, and they were probably used in the word order
of a spoken language—either Latin or the local vernacular—and possibly with accompanying gesture such as pointing. Modern Cistercian monks in England or the United States use a syntax derived "heavily, but not exclusively," from English, while Cistercian monks in France loosely follow the syntax of the French language; at least as much as it is possible to do so, given the limited lexicon. Vocabulary lists in the medieval texts ranged from 52 signs to 472, with "the average at 178 and a mean at 145."
The earliest Benedictine sign books date from around 1075 (and again at about 1083) at the Abbey of Cluny (in what is now France
), and Hirsau Abbey
(in what is now Germany
) at around the same time. Bonaventure
in the 13th century used a finger alphabet, and the medieval Monasteriales Indicia describes 127 signs used by Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monks. A Portuguese list from the 16th century.
Available online at The Free Library, accessed September 1, 2008
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s, and some, such as Cistercian and Trappist
Trappists
The Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance , or Trappists, is a Roman Catholic religious order of cloistered contemplative monks who follow the Rule of St. Benedict...
sign, are still in use today—not only in Europe but also in Japan, China and the USA. Unlike deaf 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, they are better understood as forms of symbolic gestural
Gesture
A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of speech or together and in parallel with spoken words. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body...
communication rather than language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
s, and some writers have preferred to describe them as sign lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
s.
Uses
The purposes for which these sign lexicons were used were varied. Travelling FranciscanFranciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
monks used finger alphabet
Fingerspelling
Fingerspelling is the representation of the letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands. These manual alphabets , have often been used in deaf education, and have subsequently been adopted as a distinct part of a number of sign languages around the world...
s, possibly as memory aids for preaching, and in Benedictine
Order of Saint Benedict
The Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...
monasteries
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
, signs representing words were used for limited communication when silence was required. Rather than the popularly imagined total "Vow
Vow
A vow is a promise or oath.-Marriage vows:Marriage vows are binding promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a wedding ceremony. Marriage customs have developed over history and keep changing as human society develops...
s of Silence," the Rule of St. Benedict actually dictates that conversation is only not allowed in certain areas of the monastery and during certain hours of the day. It was only much later, in the 17th century, that certain Cistercian and Trappist orders came to see absolute silence as a penance to endure along with the other deprivations of their austere lives.
Signs
Signs are well documented in medieval Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe, from Portugal to England. Antique texts present lists of words with accompanying signs, including instructions for sign production, and occasionally also the rationale for the choice of sign. Signs are mostly nounNoun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s relating to monastic life, such as foods, articles of clothing, particular rooms and buildings, ritual objects, and the many different ranks of clerical office. The few signs that act as verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s include "sit," "stand up," "kneel," and "confess." They almost always bear an iconic or visually motivated connection to the thing represented by the sign. No grammar is described for these signs, and they were probably used in the 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...
of a spoken language—either Latin or the local vernacular—and possibly with accompanying gesture such as pointing. Modern Cistercian monks in England or the United States use a syntax derived "heavily, but not exclusively," from English, while Cistercian monks in France loosely follow the syntax of the French language; at least as much as it is possible to do so, given the limited lexicon. Vocabulary lists in the medieval texts ranged from 52 signs to 472, with "the average at 178 and a mean at 145."
The earliest Benedictine sign books date from around 1075 (and again at about 1083) at the Abbey of Cluny (in what is now 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...
), and Hirsau Abbey
Hirsau Abbey
Hirsau Abbey, formerly known as Hirschau Abbey, was once one of the most prominent Benedictine abbeys of Germany. It was located in the town of Hirsau, in the Diocese of Speyer, near Calw in the present Baden-Württemberg.-History:...
(in what is now Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) at around the same time. Bonaventure
Bonaventure
Saint Bonaventure, O.F.M., , born John of Fidanza , was an Italian medieval scholastic theologian and philosopher. The seventh Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, he was also a Cardinal Bishop of Albano. He was canonized on 14 April 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV and declared a Doctor of the...
in the 13th century used a finger alphabet, and the medieval Monasteriales Indicia describes 127 signs used by Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monks. A Portuguese list from the 16th century.
List of monastic sign languages
- Benedictine sign language
- (Cluny dialect)
- Anglo-Saxon monastic sign language (defunct)
- Augustinian Sign Language = Canons Sign Language (defunct)
- Dublin Cathedral (defunct)
- Ely Cathedral (defunct)
- Paris (defunct)
- Trappist Sign Language
- Cistercian Sign Language
Further reading
- Ambrose, Kirk Thomas (1999). Romanesque Vezelay: The art of monastic contemplation. Ann Arbor, Mich. : U.M.I. 1999, 421 p.: Univ. of Michigan Dissertation
- Bruce, Scott Gordon (2000). Uttering no human sound: Silence and sign language in western medieval monasticism. Ann Arbor, Mich. : U.M.I. 2000, xv, 309 p.: Princeton Univ. Dissertation
- Barakat, Robert (1975). On ambiguity in the Cistercian Sign Language. In: Sign Language Studies 4: 8 (1975), pp. 275–289
- Barakat, Robert (1975). The Cistercian sign language : a study in non-verbal communication. (Cistercian Study Series; 7) Kalamazoo, Mich. : Cistercian Publications 1975. Reviewed by Stokoe, W.William StokoeWilliam C. Stokoe, Jr. was a scholar who researched American Sign Language extensively while he worked at Gallaudet University. He coined the term cherology, the equivalent of phonology for sign language .Stokoe graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY in 1941, and in...
(1978) in Semiotica, 24, 181-194 - Barley, Nigel F. (1974). Two Anglo-Saxon sign systems compared. In: Semiotica : journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies 12 (1974), pp. 227–237
- Bentley, Samuel: A table of signs used during hours of silence by the sisters in the monastery of Sion. (pp. 487–494)
- Conde-Silvestre, Juan C. (2001). The code and context of monasteriales indicia: a semiotic analysis of late Anglo-Saxon monastic sign language. In: Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 36 (2001), pp. 145–169
Available online at The Free Library, accessed September 1, 2008
- Daniels, Marilyn (1997). Benedictine Roots in the Development of Deaf Education. Bergin & Garvey. ISBN 0-89789-500-2
- Kendon, AdamAdam KendonAdam Kendon is one of the world's foremost authorities on the topic of gesture. He initially focused on sign systems in Papua New Guinea and Australian Aboriginal sign languages, before developing a general framework for understanding gestures with the same kind of rigorous semiotic analysis as...
(1990). Signs in the cloister and elsewhere. In: Semiotica 79: 3/4 (1990), pp. 307–329 - Nitschke, August (1997). Sign language and gesture in medieval Europe: Monasteries, courts of justice, and society. In: Segerstråle, Ullica / Molnár, Peter (eds): Nonverbal communication : where nature meets culture. Hillsdale, NJ : Erlbaum (1997), pp. 263–274
- Parvaz, Dan (1999). Monastic and Natural Sign Languages: A new look. Paper presented at the HDSL-2 March 26–28. 1999 Manuscript
- Romeo, Luigi (1979). Medieval food signs in the monastery of Cluny. In: Ars Semeiotica 2: 3 (1979), pp. 375–379
- 斉藤 くるみ (Saito Kurumi) 代替手話の文法比較 : 修道院の手話と製材所の手話 (A Comparative Study on Grammar of Alternate Sign Language : Monastic Sign Language and Sawmill Sign Language) [0000259374] (JPN)
- Sherlock, David (1992) Signs for silence: The sign language of the monks of Ely in the Middle Ages. Ely Cathedral Publications (Education Group), Cambridgeshire, UK. ISBN 1-873027-05-2. Reviewed in: Signpost 5: 4 (1992) pp. 28–30 by Kristiaan Dekesel.
- Umiker-Sebeok, Jean, Sebeok, Thomas A., editors (1987). Monastic sign language. (Approaches to Semiotics #76). Berlin, New York, Amsterdam : Mouton de Gruyter.