American Sign Language Is a Language

ASL is a Language Summary paper.

Language is a socially shared code that uses conventional system of arbitrary symbols to

represent ideas about the world that are meaningful to those to those who share the code. It

means that language is governed by a system, there is grammar and certain rules (you can't

say ahmed name is salman my).In order to be understood you say it in a grammatically correct

sentence and the rules are defined and understood by all speakers of English. And only those

will understand who know the same code (language). Like if I talk to John in Urdu he will not

understand. Or if a Spaniard talks to a Chinese in Spanish, there will be a communication gap

because both of them do not share the same code i.e. same language. There was a misconception

that ASL (or any sign language) is not a language. It is a set of gestures that the deaf people have

developed themselves. But researches have proved that it is a complete language and is governed

by rules (grammar) just like spoken language. ASL is one of the modalities of language, the only

difference is that instead of speech one uses sign to express. The purpose of this essay would be

to proof that ASL is a language too.

I will be discussing few things that occurred in the history of American Sign Language.

In the year 1770, a deaf book binder named Pierre Desolges who hailed from Persia,

wrote "Observations of a deaf Mute", the purpose of his book was to explain the signs used by

deaf Persians. In the late 17th century, a deaf school was set up in Paris, France. It was known

that the French community had two different kinds of signing systems at that time. Allowing the

French Children to achieve education created a large French deaf community. Earlier in 1690s,

on American soil, Martha Vineyard which is an island had a community which was hearing but

because they were many deaf citizens, almost everyone was able to communicate through a form

of sign language which was known as Martha Vineyard Sign Language. This community was

one the most stable societies for the deaf and hearing citizens in America. The size ratio varied

greatly between deaf and hearing citizens. In terms of birth rates of deaf to hard hearing was 1 to

155 in the 1800s on the island alone while National ratio was 1 to 2730. This community only

existed for 2 centuries and perished with the demise of the last native born deaf Islander in the e

year 1950s. Martha Vineyard is now tourist attraction venue, but will always remain a

foundation of pride in the history deaf communities but in the development process of ASL, it

played a minor role. During the heydays of America, there were no advocates for education

using Sign language so this factor forced parents of deaf children to search for educational

institutions in Europe where they specialize in deaf education. In 1815, Thomas Gaulladet,