Sign language that African Americans use is different from that of whites

[Nikkers]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...897628-bbe2-11e1-8867-ecf6cb7935ef_story.html

Figured someone might find this as interesting as I do . It's a lengthy read though.

Part of it:

Carolyn McCaskill remembers exactly when she discovered that she couldn’t understand white people. It was 1968, she was 15 years old, and she and nine other deaf black students had just enrolled in an integrated school for the deaf in Talledega, Ala. When the teacher got up to address the class, McCaskill was lost.

“I was dumbfounded,” McCaskill recalls through an interpreter. “I was like, ‘What in the world is going on?’?”
The teacher’s quicksilver hand movements looked little like the sign language McCaskill had grown up using at home with her two deaf siblings and had practiced at the Alabama School for the Negro Deaf and Blind, just a few miles away. It wasn’t a simple matter of people at the new school using unfamiliar vocabularly; they made hand movements for everyday words that looked foreign to McCaskill and her fellow black students.

So, McCaskill says, “I put my signs aside.” She learned entirely new signs for such common nouns as “shoe” and “school.” She began to communicate words such as “why” and “don’t know” with one hand instead of two as she and her black friends had always done. She copied the white students who lowered their hands to make the signs for “what for” and “know” closer to their chins than to their foreheads. And she imitated the way white students mouthed words at the same time as they made manual signs for them.
Whenever she went home, McCaskill carefully switched back to her old way of communicating.

What intrigues McCaskill and other experts in deaf culture today is the degree to which distinct signing systems — one for whites and another for blacks — evolved and continue to coexist, even at Gallaudet University, where black and white students study and socialize together and where McCaskill is now a professor of deaf studies.

 

[Morning Star]

It's sign language when someone flips the bird. But if you see a black dude take his hands and wiggle his wee-wee around in front of you...it doesn't mean anything except "I forgot to take a piss."

 

[JordanC]

Interesting nic. I read your blurb and marked the rest at the link for reading tonight.

 

[4north1side2]

Interesting, thanks for the drop.

 

[Ms. J]

very interesting...I had no idea, I thought that everyone in the US used ASL

 

[The Dark King]

Wtf? I wonder why

 

[Nikkers]

very interesting...I had no idea, I thought that everyone in the US used ASL

Among ASL users in general, there's a dialect difference depending on where you're from... just like if a person from the north and a person from the south were speaking. The "accents" are different.

Wtf? I wonder why

Educated guess... segregation. Even the deaf schools were separated by race, so I guess it just went on from there.

 

[saintaugusta]

Among ASL users in general, there's a dialect difference depending on where you're from... just like if a person from the north and a person from the south were speaking. The "accents" are different.



Educated guess... segregation. Even the deaf schools were separated by race, so I guess it just went on from there.

Makes total sense to me, Nicole. Language is language and will evolve into dialect no matter where you go, no matter by what means of communication. If we all communicated by Morse Code or some other sort of simple code (more reduced than human language and sign language, there would be many dialects to that too, just out of a matter of course... (probably are - I'm sure American Morse Code is somewhat different from English Morse Code for example). I am sure even animals have different "accents" and languages if we knew how to study and classify them properly (there has probably already been a study done on that somewhere).

Humans make all things evolve - language, art, dance, music, knowledge of science, mathematical calculations... everything will be just slightly different even from person to person - I'm sure you'll find that some dialects are as closely reduced as even to one single family (and then spread on from there...). Idiosyncracies (sp?) of behavior are highly contagious, genetic even, and will be somewhat localized. Yet there are always ones who bridge the gap, and similarities to be found amongst us all, thank God. WHICH causes the human race to keep on moving forward, away from stagnation.

I have often wondered how difficult/or easy it would be for let's say a Japanese deaf person to learn to communicate in ASL, or vice versa - are their signs that much different (as different as Japanese and English)?

 

[buglerroller]

Wow! Interesting, who would've thought there was a difference.

 

[Nikkers]

Makes total sense to me, Nicole. Language is language and will evolve into dialect no matter where you go, no matter by what means of communication. If we all communicated by Morse Code or some other sort of simple code (more reduced than human language and sign language, there would be many dialects to that too, just out of a matter of course... (probably are - I'm sure American Morse Code is somewhat different from English Morse Code for example). I am sure even animals have different "accents" and languages if we knew how to study and classify them properly (there has probably already been a study done on that somewhere).

Humans make all things evolve - language, art, dance, music, knowledge of science, mathematical calculations... everything will be just slightly different even from person to person - I'm sure you'll find that some dialects are as closely reduced as even to one single family (and then spread on from there...). Idiosyncracies (sp?) of behavior are highly contagious, genetic even, and will be somewhat localized. Yet there are always ones who bridge the gap, and similarities to be found amongst us all, thank God. WHICH causes the human race to keep on moving forward, away from stagnation.

I have often wondered how difficult/or easy it would be for let's say a Japanese deaf person to learn to communicate in ASL, or vice versa - are their signs that much different (as different as Japanese and English)?

Hmm, on that specific situation, I don't know.

In my first year at university, there was a spring break trip to Costa Rica... when I went on the trip, there was a dinner with Deaf Costa Ricans. Even though we use english and they use spanish, we could still somewhat have a conversation. Research before we went showed the sign languages were about 75% alike.

Canadians use American Sign Language, only different "accents".

It'd definitely be easier for a deaf American/Canadian to go to Japan and try to talk to a deaf person there though compared to people that speak.

 

[saintaugusta]

Hmm, on that specific situation, I don't know.

In my first year at university, there was a spring break trip to Costa Rica... when I went on the trip, there was a dinner with Deaf Costa Ricans. Even though we use english and they use spanish, we could still somewhat have a conversation. Research before we went showed the sign languages were about 75% alike.

Canadians use American Sign Language, only different "accents".

It'd definitely be easier for a deaf American/Canadian to go to Japan and try to talk to a deaf person there though compared to people that speak.

Thanks for answering that, Nicole... I kind of wondered if that might be the case - since with signing there is so much gesturing that seems like it might have to be universal... so in many ways you may have a distinct advantage over a hearing person while traveling . I can only understand maybe 5% or a little more of some Spanish and maybe 10% or more of French (maybe underestimating myself - it would take a small amount of time and my French would come back, and it's amazing what environment can do) - so it is incredible that sign language is so accommodating. Cool for you too, since you have to deal with a few obstacles in the hearing world, that doors are so wide open to you in the deaf world! Of course I think all of us, when faced with a difficulty in communication, go back to hand gestures to make ourselves understood. It seems to work well for everyone no matter where you are from.

 

[The Dark King]

Wow! Interesting, who would've thought there was a difference.

More reason for me to get the fuck out of here. Its ridiculous

 

[saintaugusta]

More reason for me to get the fuck out of here. Its ridiculous

I thought you lived in New York?

Pretty diverse place. Doesn't take living in a large city to understand some of these things. Wherever you go, you still take yourself.

 

[The Dark King]

I thought you lived in New York?

Pretty diverse place. Doesn't take living in a large city to understand some of these things. Wherever you go, you still take yourself.

Could you just do us all a favor and stay under water until the bubbles stop?

 

[saintaugusta]

Could you just do us all a favor and stay under water until the bubbles stop?

That silly remark does not explain away the fact that you feel the need to move away from NEW YORK to become more diversified or enlightened. You could just try having a little common sense and thinking about things other than yourself every once in awhile. Anyway, back to Nicole's topic.

 

[Nikkers]

Thanks for answering that, Nicole... I kind of wondered if that might be the case - since with signing there is so much gesturing that seems like it might have to be universal... so in many ways you may have a distinct advantage over a hearing person while traveling . I can only understand maybe 5% or a little more of some Spanish and maybe 10% or more of French (maybe underestimating myself - it would take a small amount of time and my French would come back, and it's amazing what environment can do) - so it is incredible that sign language is so accommodating. Cool for you too, since you have to deal with a few obstacles in the hearing world, that doors are so wide open to you in the deaf world! Of course I think all of us, when faced with a difficulty in communication, go back to hand gestures to make ourselves understood. It seems to work well for everyone no matter where you are from.

Sign Language ISN'T universal. There's some signs that could be similar regardless of the sign language, but there'd also be difficulty understanding. Just... less of a language barrier between two deaf people than two hearing people.

When I was a RA working on campus, my floor had most of the international students that were still learning english. It took a lot of charades to figure out what each other were saying, but after a week or two, we had our own little system worked out while they picked up on ASL. That was hell of a floor meeting to explain the rules... when 3/4 of your residents don't speak english

 

[The Dark King]

Sign Language ISN'T universal. There's some signs that could be similar regardless of the sign language, but there'd also be difficulty understanding. Just... less of a language barrier between two deaf people than two hearing people.

When I was a RA working on campus, my floor had most of the international students that were still learning english. It took a lot of charades to figure out what each other were saying, but after a week or two, we had our own little system worked out while they picked up on ASL. That was hell of a floor meeting to explain the rules... when 3/4 of your residents don't speak english

This concept makes absolutely no sense to me. Its like numbers being different in different countries

 

[Nikkers]

This concept makes absolutely no sense to me. Its like numbers being different in different countries

Numbers are still the same, just done differently.
Just like how in english it's one, two, three... in french it's un, deux, trois... and in spanish it's uno, dos, tres.

The french and spanish spelling for the 1, 2, 3 numbers are very similar, yet they're different languages. That's the same as with sign language... a "4" here is the usual "4" that everyone makes while in a different place "4" could be done as a "thumbs up" thing. Still the same numerical value, but a different signed word.


For (nearly) every spoken language, there's a signed language to go with it. For english speaking people, there's still slightly different signs for the same word based on where you're from... much like "about" and "aboot".

Does that make sense?

 

[buglerroller]

Sign Language ISN'T universal. There's some signs that could be similar regardless of the sign language, but there'd also be difficulty understanding. Just... less of a language barrier between two deaf people than two hearing people.

When I was a RA working on campus, my floor had most of the international students that were still learning english. It took a lot of charades to figure out what each other were saying, but after a week or two, we had our own little system worked out while they picked up on ASL. That was hell of a floor meeting to explain the rules... when 3/4 of your residents don't speak english

i know when i sign 'can i have your phone number' its universal and hasnt let me down to this day.

 

[Nikkers]

i know when i sign 'can i have your phone number' its universal and hasnt let me down to this day.

*points to you, points to my phone, smiles*
Happened last week *shrugs*, simple enough lol.

Have you tried signing the 'can i have your phone number' in different places though?