AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
(ASL)
English 306A; Doreen Siu
QUESTION:
TRUE OR FALSE… Sign Language
is the universal language used
worldwide among the deaf people?
The ANSWER is… FALSE
English 306A; Doreen Siu
INCOMPLETE LIST OF DISTINCT SIGN LANGUAGES IN THE
WORLD
American Sign
Language!
Australian Sign
Language!
Austrian Sign Language!
British Sign Language!
Danish Sign Language!
French Sign Language!
German Sign Language!
Irish Sign Language!
Italian Sign Language!
Japanese Sign
Language!
Malaysian Sign
Language!
Mexican Sign Language!
Norwegian Sign
Language
Russian Sign Language!
Sign Language of Québec!
Sign Language of Singapore!
Sign Language of The
Netherlands!
Spanish Sign Language!
Swedish Sign Language!
English 306A; Doreen Siu
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EXAMPLES OF ALPHABETS FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
GREEK’S ALPHABET
BRITISH’S ALPHABET
English 306A; Doreen Siu
AMERICAN’S ALPHABET
Common Misconceptions about
American Sign Language
•ASL is not English translated to signs (BIG NO-NO!!)
•ASL is not all about fingerspelling. Fingerspelling is one of
those feature that ASL has adopted or borrowed. It is a
manual coding for the spelling of a spoken language as
English. This is similar to English adopting features from
Latin and Greek such as prefixes to create their words.
Many signers of ASL use fingerspelling as a part of their
conversation and the process by which fingerspelled words
become loan signs.
•ASL has its own grammatical structures which you will see
soon that it differs from English.
English 306A; Doreen Siu
Facial Expressions which are non manual
features are more than just to convey emotions. They have a
very important role in ASL. They have a role in
grammar.
English 306A; Doreen Siu
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GRAMMARS (very briefly describing!)
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•
•
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wh-words question
wh-words are who, what, where, when, why etc.
placed last at the end of every question
Make a frown-like expression (with your head slightly leaning
forward) ie. you name what? toilet where? (pointing to
person) who?
2) yes/no question
• raise your brows up with your head slightly tilt back ie. you
deaf you? you understand you?
3) negative statement
• shake your head from side to side with a slight ‘frowning’
expression ie. No, me not deaf, me hearing. Me not
understand.
4) Statement
• neutral ie. me lazy English 306A; Doreen Siu
Example of sentence structure
English
The dog did not chase the
cat
American Sign Language
(excluding non manual
features)
1)dog chase cat
2)cat dog chase
3)chase cat dog
Question for you:
How does the signer ‘A’ know that the dog did not chase the
cat?
English 306A; Doreen Siu
To represent time or when, English adds suffix or lettering to
indicate whether things happened in the past, future or
present.
talk ‡ talked
meet ‡ met
ring ‡ rang ‡ rung
come ‡ came
English uses ‘will’ to indicate that something will happen in the
future. For example the verb ‘to go’--PAST
PRESENT
FUTURE
Jack gone to the
movie
Jack goes to the
movie
Jack will go to the
movie.
As for ASL, using the SVO sentence type--Jack go movie.
PAST
PRESENT
FUTURE
Yesterday, Jack go
movie
Jack go movie
Tomorrow, Jack go
movie
English 306A; Doreen Siu
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In ASL the pointing of the index finger is a
representation of all pronouns, person,
etc Question is how do you know if it’s a
he/she, you, me/I, them/they and etc.
•English is different. It has gender and singular/plural
distinction. It has pronouns such as he, she, they, I and
etc to avoid confusion.
•ASL has somewhat like a gender and singular/plural
marker. Usually signer identifies the person or people
he/she talking about before pointing index finger.
For example--see man (point to man) fl lookie! a yes/no question
(point to man) name what fl wh-word question
English 306A; Doreen Siu
COOL things to know
•Deaf is a unique culture of its own that is different from the
hearing culture.
•Deaf students here in Canada are often bilingual knowing
both ASL and English
•ASL is the most commonly used sign language in North
American but it is LSQ in Quebec and the Inuit have their
own sign language.
•Any questions??
English 306A; Doreen Siu
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