Histories and Origins: How Sign Languages Emerge

1. Setting the Scene: Sign Languages Have Histories

When people think about languages with long histories, they often think of spoken languages like English or Mandarin. But sign languages also have rich, traceable histories.

In this module, you will:

• See how major sign languages like ASL and BSL developed.
• Learn how new sign languages can emerge quickly when Deaf people come together.
• Connect language change to schools, politics, and community life.

Keep in mind:

• Sign languages are not universal. ASL is not the same as BSL, even though both are used in English‑speaking countries.
• Most sign languages have only been systematically documented in the last 50–100 years, even though Deaf signing communities are much older.

As you go, try to connect this to what you already know from earlier modules about:

• The structure of sign languages (phonology, grammar, space, facial expressions).
• Deaf communities and cultures around the world.

2. Before Schools: Home Sign and Early Community Signing

Before formal Deaf schools existed, Deaf people still communicated. But the type of signing depended a lot on social conditions.

Home sign

• A home sign system is created when a Deaf child grows up in a hearing family with no access to an existing sign language.
• The child and family invent gestures that become more systematic over time.
• Home sign often has:
• Consistent ways to point to people or things.
• Repeated gestures for common actions (EAT, GO, SLEEP).
• Some basic grammar (like typical word orders).
• But it usually does not develop into a full language unless the child joins a larger Deaf community.

Early small communities

In some places, several Deaf people lived close together (for example, in certain villages with high hereditary deafness). Over time, they developed local sign systems that:

• Were used by both Deaf and many hearing neighbors.
• Could be passed down across generations.

These early systems are the roots from which full sign languages can grow, especially when supported by:

• Deaf education (schools where Deaf children meet each other).
• Urbanization (Deaf people moving to cities and forming networks).

3. The Birth of ASL: From French Sign Language to a New Language

American Sign Language (ASL) is a classic example of how a new language can emerge from contact between different signing systems.

Key historical moments

• Early 1800s (about 200 years ago): In the U.S., Deaf children often had only home signs or local systems. There was no national sign language.
• 1817: The first permanent school for Deaf students in the U.S. opened in Hartford, Connecticut.
• Founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (hearing American educator) and Laurent Clerc (Deaf teacher from France).
• Clerc brought French Sign Language (LSF) with him.

Language contact in the school

At the Hartford school:

• Students arrived with local sign systems and home signs.
• Clerc and others used LSF.
• Over time, students:
• Borrowed many signs from LSF.
• Mixed them with existing local signs.
• Regularly interacted, stabilizing new shared patterns.

The result was not just French Sign Language in America, but a new language:

• Modern ASL is estimated to share only about 60% of core vocabulary with modern LSF.
• ASL grammar has unique features (for example, specific use of space for verb agreement) that differ from both LSF and English.

Today (in 2026), ASL is used by Deaf communities mainly in:

• The United States
• English-speaking parts of Canada
• Some parts of the Caribbean and West Africa (often through Deaf education and missionary work)

Historically, this shows how Deaf schools can be powerful engines for language creation and spread.

4. Activity: Tracing ASL’s Family Tree

Use this thought exercise to visualize ASL’s origins.

Imagine three sources feeding into a new river (ASL):

1. French Sign Language (LSF) – brought by Laurent Clerc.
2. Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language – used on Martha’s Vineyard (an island off Massachusetts) where many Deaf and hearing people signed.
3. Local home signs and village systems – from Deaf children across New England.

Your task:

• On a piece of paper, draw three arrows pointing into a central circle labeled “ASL (early 1800s–1900s)”.
• Next to each arrow, write two or three things that might have come from that source. For example:
• LSF → many basic vocabulary items, some grammatical constructions.
• Martha’s Vineyard SL → signs used by families who moved or sent children to school.
• Home signs → ways of pointing to familiar objects, unique signs for local activities.

Then answer in your own words:

1. Why is it incorrect to say “ASL is just French Sign Language in the U.S.”?
2. How did Deaf children themselves help shape this new language?

(You don’t need to submit your answers; this is to help you think like a language historian.)

5. BANZSL: British, Australian, and New Zealand Sign Languages

Now compare ASL’s history with the BANZSL family:

• British Sign Language (BSL)
• Australian Sign Language (Auslan)
• New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL)

These three are often called BANZSL because they share a common historical root.

British Sign Language (BSL)

• BSL has roots in 18th–19th century Britain, where Deaf people met in:
• Informal Deaf clubs
• Churches
• Early schools for Deaf children
• It developed independently of ASL and LSF, with its own vocabulary and grammar.

Spread to Australia and New Zealand

• Auslan and NZSL grew mainly from BSL brought by British teachers and migrants in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Over time, local communities:
• Borrowed from BSL.
• Created new signs for local animals, cultural concepts, and place names.
• Developed some regional varieties.

Today’s situation (as of 2026)

• BSL, Auslan, and NZSL are distinct national sign languages with:
• Separate dictionaries and standards.
• Their own Deaf cultural practices.
• But they still share many core signs and grammatical features, more than any of them share with ASL.

This shows how colonial history and migration influence the family trees of sign languages, similar to spoken languages like English branching into global varieties.

6. Quick Check: ASL vs. BANZSL

Test your understanding of the historical relationships.

7. Nicaraguan Sign Language: A New Language in Real Time

Nicaraguan Sign Language (often abbreviated NSL or ISN in Spanish) is one of the best-documented cases of a new sign language emerging in recent history.

Historical context

• Late 1970s–early 1980s (about 45 years ago): The Nicaraguan government opened new schools and a vocational center for Deaf children near Managua.
• Before this, most Deaf children in Nicaragua were isolated, using only home signs with family.

What happened when Deaf children came together

Researchers observed that:

• Children brought their home signs into the new schools.
• In the playgrounds and dormitories (not just in the classroom), they combined and regularized these signs.
• Younger children entering later simplified and systematized the system even more.

Over just a few decades:

• A new, fully expressive sign language emerged.
• It developed:
• Complex grammar, including consistent word orders.
• Systematic use of space and movement to express who does what to whom.
• Shared vocabulary across the community.

NSL shows that:

• Deaf children are powerful language creators, not just language learners.
• A new sign language can emerge within one or two generations when conditions are right:
• Enough Deaf children together
• Regular interaction
• Social spaces where signing is used freely (playgrounds, dorms, Deaf clubs)

As of 2026, NSL continues to evolve as new generations of Deaf Nicaraguans use and expand it.

8. Thought Exercise: From Gestures to Grammar

Use this activity to connect structure (from earlier modules) with history.

Imagine this scenario:

• 20 Deaf children with different home signs arrive at a new boarding school.
• There is no official sign language taught.
• Over 10–20 years, a new sign language begins to form.

Your task:

1. List at least three linguistic features you expect to see become more organized over time, based on what you know about how sign languages work (phonology, grammar, space, facial expressions). For example:

• Handshape patterns becoming more regular.
• A typical word order (like SVO or SOV) becoming common.
• Stable ways of marking questions with facial expressions.

1. For each feature, write one sentence explaining why regular interaction among Deaf peers would push it to become more systematic.

If you like, you can organize your answers in a simple table:

```text

Feature | Why it becomes systematic

-------------------------|----------------------------------------------

Handshape patterns |

Word order |

Facial expressions (grammar) |

```

This mirrors what researchers observed in Nicaraguan Sign Language and other emerging sign languages.

9. Village Sign Languages and Sign Language Families

Not all sign languages start in big cities or national schools. Some emerge in villages with high rates of hereditary deafness.

Village sign languages

Examples discussed in the research literature include:

• Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (Israel)
• Adamorobe Sign Language (Ghana)
• Kata Kolok (Bali, Indonesia)

Typical features:

• Used by both Deaf and many hearing villagers.
• Often not directly related to national sign languages.
• Can develop unique grammatical patterns (for example, different ways of pointing or organizing space).

These languages show that:

• A full sign language can develop without formal schools, if Deaf people are socially integrated and use signing daily.

Sign language families

Just like spoken languages, sign languages can form families:

• French Sign Language family: includes LSF, ASL, and some sign languages in parts of West Africa and Latin America (often via Deaf education).
• BANZSL family: BSL, Auslan, NZSL.
• Swedish Sign Language family, German Sign Language family, and others.

However, sign language families are often harder to trace because:

• Systematic documentation started relatively late.
• Borrowing and contact between sign languages is very common.

As of 2026, research on sign language families is active and evolving, and new relationships are still being discovered or refined.

10. How Social, Educational, and Political Contexts Shape Change

Sign languages do not evolve in a vacuum. They are deeply affected by social attitudes, education policies, and technology.

Education policies

• Oralism (late 19th–20th centuries): Many schools in Europe and North America banned sign languages, forcing Deaf students to focus on speech and lip-reading.
• This pushed signing into informal spaces (dorms, playgrounds, Deaf clubs).
• Sign languages continued to change and grow, but often without official recognition.
• Bilingual–bicultural approaches (late 20th century onward): More schools began to accept sign languages as legitimate languages of instruction.
• This increased status and sometimes led to more standardization.

Political and legal recognition

• Over the last 20–30 years, many countries have officially recognized their national sign languages in law or policy (for example, NZSL in 2006, BSL in the UK in 2022, with ongoing policy developments).
• Recognition can lead to:
• More interpreting services.
• Support for Deaf media and arts.
• Efforts to document and standardize vocabulary.

Technology and media

• Video calling, social media, and online platforms (YouTube, TikTok, etc.) now allow Deaf signers to:
• Share new signs quickly.
• Spread slang and regional variants beyond local areas.
• Create transnational Deaf networks.

All these forces shape:

• Which signs become standard.
• How quickly new signs spread.
• The status of sign languages in broader society.

Understanding history helps explain why sign languages look the way they do today and why variation across regions and generations is normal.

11. Review Key Terms

Flip the cards (mentally or with a partner) to check your understanding of core concepts.

12. Final Check: Putting It All Together

Answer this to connect history, emergence, and social context.