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Linguistics and Language Links

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American Sign Language

In spite of spending too many years considered a "non-language," American Sign Language (ASL) has finally achieved its deserved status as a "true language." That truth was "known" in the hearts of the Deaf users of the language from the beginning. But that's a large part of the problem with many things in this world--self-appointed or perceived experts from outside the group being studied, establish claims which do not reflect the reality of the individuals inside the group. In this case, hearing people decided for Deaf people that their visual language wasn't a true language. Now that ASL has been appropriately studied by linguists (Deaf and hearing) it has been "discovered" to be a full, rich language which has no relation to or roots in English. As I am not a linguist, I'll leave detailed descriptions and explanations to others by sending you to the following sites:

Gallaudet University is the world's only university for the deaf and hard of hearing, providing a quality liberal arts education for all students.

Gallaudet University's Department of Linguistics includes information about academic programs and recent research on the linguistics of ASL.
Gallaudet University Press provides information and many titles on deafness and deaf related subjects including Deaf Identities in the Making: Local Lives, Transnational Connections by Jan-Kare Breivik. Read the profiles of ten Norwegian deaf people and their fascinating life stories.

Danish - Dansk

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German - Deutsch

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Spanish - Espanol

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