American Sign Language

Spoken in

• Sign Language French sign languages American Sign Language

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Sgn

The American Sign Language ( ASL often abbreviated ) is the dominant sign language in the United States, Canada, some Caribbean islands, Nigeria, Ghana and other countries in Africa.

This name has the linguist Dr. William Stokoe of Gallaudet University in 1960 named, as he analyzed the manual language of the students. As the first linguist, he noted that this language against the dominant opinion of educators has all the features of a language. He pointed out that the language is structured even from a finite number of elements, up compared with the phonemes of oral languages ​​and on word and sentence levels.

As with any sign language to ASL grammar is different in the word and sentence formation and semantics from the surrounding English. ASL has the origin in the old French Sign Language ( LSF) and the sign language of the inhabitants of the island of Martha 's Vineyard and partly in the sign languages ​​of the American Indians. The language originated only in the first American school for deaf children in Hartford, Connecticut ( American School for the Deaf ), which was founded in 1817 by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and the deaf Frenchman Laurent Clerc.

ASL is becoming more important in international academic meetings, as increasingly studying deaf academics from countries with different sign languages ​​in the U.S. and use it in these encounters. However, the ASL does not apply as a lingua franca, especially in Europe.

The vocabulary of ASL is taught chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas. Some earned as a vocabulary of over 1000 words.