National ASL Day

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To celebrate National ASL Day on April 15, here are six facts about ASL:

  1. ASL is considered as a foreign language: ASL has its own vocabulary, grammar, word order and style and does not necessarily reflect English words. ASL originates from France, that’s why French Sign Language is very similar to ASL.

  2. Sign language is not only a sign, gesture language but also a facial expression language: Even though many deaf individuals sign with their hands, facial expressions still play a fundamental role in interpersonal communication. When hearing people use spoken language, rhythm and tone are present while speaking. In American Sign Language, facial expressions notate rhythm and tone. That said, the person “listening” in the conversation will also look at the signer’s mouth.

  3. Children Acquire sign language in the same way they acquire spoken language: Through interactions with people use signs, deaf babies explore the hand shapes and movements that make up signs by babbling with their hands. In the early developmental stages, deaf children often substitute easier handshapes for more difficult ones.

  4. Behind English, Spanish and Chinese, ASL is the fourth most widely used language in the US with around 2 million users.

  5. The combination of signs for the letter I,L and Y in ASL fingerspelling.

  6. Sign Languages’ grammar differs from spoken languages’: Sign language has grammatical rules for more than just what forms the hands take. These rules don’t always parallel with spoken language, either. Eyebrow position, eye position, motions made by hands and where the signs occur in relation to the body all factor into the language. Incorrect grammar will result in confusion, just like spoken language.