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ASL: Linguistics, History & Deaf Culture

76 cards · 🇺🇸 English

How American Sign Language works and where it came from: origins, grammar (word order, classifiers, nonmanual markers), notable figures, Deaf culture and its recognition worldwide.

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What does ASL stand for?

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  1. 1What does ASL stand for?
    American Sign Language
  2. 2Where is ASL primarily used?
    United States and most of Anglophone Canada
  3. 3What language family does ASL belong to?
    Francosign (closely related to French Sign Language - LSF)
  4. 4When and where did ASL originate?
    Early 19th century at the American School for the Deaf (ASD) in Hartford, Connecticut (founded 1817)
  5. 5Who founded the American School for the Deaf?
    Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
  6. 6Who was Laurent Clerc?
    French Sign Language teacher who accompanied Gallaudet to the U.S. and became the first ASL teacher at ASD
  7. 7Is ASL mutually intelligible with British Sign Language?
    No - ASL and BSL are different languages, despite sharing English as a common oral language
  8. 8How many native ASL signers are there?
    Approximately 730,000 native signers (2006 estimate)
  9. 9What percentage of ASL signs are cognate with Old French Sign Language?
    About 58% (less than the 80% threshold for dialects)
  10. 10What is Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL)?
    A village sign language used on Martha's Vineyard, MA, which influenced early ASL due to high genetic deafness rate (4%)
  11. 11What is the basic word order in ASL?
    Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), though flexible
  12. 12What are the five parameters of ASL signs?
    Handshape, movement, palm orientation, location, and nonmanual markers
  13. 13What are nonmanual markers in ASL?
    Meaningful signals using eyebrows, cheeks, nose, head, torso, and eyes
  14. 14What is the American manual alphabet?
    A set of 26 handshapes representing the English alphabet, used for fingerspelling
  15. 15What is fingerspelling used for in ASL?
    Proper nouns, technical terms with no native ASL equivalent, and short English words/abbreviations
  16. 16Is ASL just fingerspelling?
    No - this is a common misconception; ASL is a complete visual language with its own grammar
  17. 17Does ASL use English grammar?
    No - ASL has its own distinct grammar unrelated to English
  18. 18What is Black American Sign Language?
    A distinct variety of ASL used by the Black Deaf community, evolved from racially segregated schools
  19. 19How does Black ASL differ from standard ASL?
    More conservative, preserves older sign forms, uses more two-handed signs, wider signing space
  20. 20What is Tactile ASL (TASL)?
    A variety of ASL used by and with the deaf-blind, produced by touching the palms
  21. 21What is Usher's syndrome?
    Deafness from birth followed by vision loss later in life; often leads to TASL use
  22. 22What is Pidgin Signed English (PSE)?
    Contact signing - a blend of English structure with ASL vocabulary used when communicating with hearing speakers
  23. 23What is Manually Coded English (MCE)?
    Constructed sign systems that match English grammar exactly; not considered varieties of ASL
  24. 24Who is William Stokoe?
    Linguist who arrived at Gallaudet University in 1955 and proved ASL is a true language with distinct phonology
  25. 25What is Stokoe notation?
    A transcription system for ASL created in the 1960s, alphabetic with symbols for hand shape, orientation, motion, and position
  26. 26What is SignWriting?
    A writing system for sign languages proposed in 1974 by Valerie Sutton; first to be included in Unicode
  27. 27What does CODA stand for?
    Children of Deaf Adults - hearing children born to deaf parents
  28. 28Are most children born to deaf parents deaf?
    No - most are hearing (CODAs)
  29. 29What is topicalization in ASL?
    Moving the topic of a sentence to initial position, marked by a forward head-tilt and pause
  30. 30What is subject copy in ASL?
    Repeating the subject at the end of the sentence, accompanied by head nodding for emphasis/clarification

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