American Sign
Language: Deaf History
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American Sign Language History
By Nicole Dominguez
April
6, 2009
Ever since I was a young
child I have been fascinated with sign language. I had an uncle that is
hard of hearing who then married a deaf woman. I loved to watch them
when I got to see them I always thought it was an amazing way to
communicate. I unfortunately never got the chance to learn the language
until now in college. I have always had a small interest in where
languages come from, and now with this new language in my life, I have a
similar interest in wanting to know where ASL came from.
In doing some research on the
topic I have found out that in the 5th century Greek philosopher
Socrates believed that it was perfectly logical that the deaf would use
hand and head movements and facial expressions to get their point
across, especially since they had no other way of communicating.
Unfortunately in the 4th century Aristotle came to believe that the deaf
were dumb because they could not hear or speak, sadly this assumption
lasted for many centuries. ( http://f99.middlebury.edu/RU232A/STUDENTS/elefther/history.htm)
In the year of 1690 200
immigrants settled in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts from Kent County,
England. In the Mid 1700’s the birthrate for deaf children was 1 in 25.
Almost all of the inhabitants signed and the public meeting were
conducted in sign language. (http://www2.bc.cc.ca.us/asl/time_line.htm)
After some time the deaf began to be accepted as normal people. They
created special deaf only schools for them, so that they would be able
to excel in life like a normal person. The deaf were not given the
chance to excel prior to this; they couldn’t function normally as long
as nobody would accept them. In 1817 the first deaf school was
developed. It was called the American School for the Deaf. The
development of this school helped influence French sign language to
evolve into American Sign Language.
Some deaf have learned that they can read peoples lips and figure out
what they are saying. The down side to this is that if you have to read
lips you still need a way to communicate with the person whose lips you
are reading. You cannot always have an interpreter with you. In 1778
Samuel Leipzig established the fist public school for the deaf that
achieved government recognition. Samuel was interested in teaching
manual and oral communications. (http://icarus.uic.edu/stud_orgs/cultures/daa/ASLHistory.html)
American Sign Language has defiantly evolved over time just like English
has. People often get into arguments about how they sign different signs
all because over time the sign has evolved into something easier. Just
as hearing come up with slang words, the deaf have “slang” signs. If you
ever have time just watch deaf people communicate, its an amazing and
beautiful language and maybe you will want to learn, and somehow find a
small interest as I have. I hope I never have to go though the trauma of
losing my hearing but if something happened and I did at least I know
that centuries ago someone had the same problem and came up with a
solution.
American Sign Language
By Lindsey Allen
05/05/2005
Throughout the centuries, many attempts have been made to bridge the gap
between the hearing world and the deaf world. There have been many
contributions from various people who aided in the development communication
between deaf people and hearing people. This method of communication that
evolved over time is known as Sign language.
Sign language makes it possible for deaf and hearing people to communicate
their feelings, thoughts, intensions, and so forth. Sign language can be
used to discuss all types of matters including family, friends, politics,
work, or anything that could be communicated through spoken word. This
visual language composed of a series of hand gestures, and specific
movements of the arms, face, head, and body posture is known as Sign
language. More than 50% of the language is not words, but gestures and
movements.
There are many forms of Sign language that have been developed by many
people in different areas. One of the most common forms of this primary
means of communication for deaf people in America and Canada is known as
American Sign Language. It is not clear exactly when American Sign Language
(ASL) began developing. It is sure that deaf people had a natural way of
communicating with each other even before ASL developed.
One example is the unique community with a high ratio of deaf to hearing
individuals. This community, Martha’s Vineyard, was located just off the
southeastern shore of Massachusetts. Martha’s Vineyard had a high rate of
the genetic deafness. In the 19th century America had a population of 1 out
of 5700 individuals that were deaf, in Martha’s Vineyard the population was
1 out of 155. In a certain town in Martha’s Vineyard the population exceeded
that with a ratio of 1:4!
In 1692, a deaf man moved with his family to Martha’s Vineyard. He was
already fluent in some form of Sign language. The language began spreading
throughout the island as the community of deaf people began to grow. Much of
the island was bilingual in Sign language and English, which caused deafness
to no longer be viewed as a handicap. Although this island is an excellent
example of the way deaf people can communicate in a community, it played a
minor role in the development of American Sign Language.
One of the men primarily responsible for the development of education for
the deaf was Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Gallaudet first showed interest in
deaf people when his neighbor, Dr. Mason Cogswell, whose daughter, Alice,
was deaf, approached him. Gallaudet was so impressed by this 12-year-old
girl that he traveled to Europe to study methods to teach the deaf. While in
Europe he met a man who was also studying a method for deaf education.
Gallaudet went with Sicard to Paris to continue his study. After studying in
Paris for a few months, Gallaudet returned to America with a teacher by the
name of Lauret Clerc. In 1817 Gallaudet and Clerc started the first school
for the deaf in the United States, the American Asylum for the Deaf. After
this school many other schools in the U.S. began opening. In 1864, the
Gallaudet College, the first and only college for deaf students was opened
in Washington, D.C.
In the mid 1700’s two men contributed to American Sign Language. In 1775,
Abbe Charles Michel de L’Epee taught that deaf people could communicate
through the conventional gestures, hand signs, and finger-spelling. Another
educator, Samuel Heinicke did not use the manual method, but taught speech
and speech reading. These two methods contributed to the method of total
communication that we use today. Total communication uses every way of
communication such as sign language, gesturing, speech, speech reading,
finger-spelling, pictures, hearing aids, reading, and writing.
Current statistics in the USA show that more than 24 million people have a
significant loss of hearing. The incidence of hearing loss increases with
age. Approximately 60% of hearing impaired people is over 65 years old,
leaving only 2 million of the hearing impaired under the age of 18. However,
60% of hearing loss is genetic.
Over time the development of American Sign Language has evolved. Today we
have the most complete and comprehensive ways of communication between deaf
and hearing individuals known as American Sign Language. We are fortunate to
have so many resources available for education of American Sign Language. We
owe it all to the contributions made by the individuals named in this brief
history as well as many others that have sacrificed their time and efforts
to develop this system of communication.
REFERENCES
Butterworth, R & Flodin, M (1995). “The Perigee Visual Dictionary of
Signing” Revised Edition. New York, N.Y: The Berkley Publishing Group, 1955
Wilcox, S & Wilcox, P (1997). “Learning to See: American Sign Language as a
Second Language” Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press
Nakamura, Karen. (July 13, 1995) About American Sign Language, Deaf Resource
Library, Deaf Library. Retrieved May 10, 2005:
<www.deaflibrary.org/asl.html>
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