The Sign Language/Chapter 1
THE SIGN LANGUAGE
The Abbe (Charles Michel) de l'Epee is regarded as the inventor of the Sign Language of the deaf. He was born in 1712 at Varsailles where his father was an architect in the royal service. Rejected as a candidate for holy orders because he refused to sign certain doctrinal tenets he studied law and was admitted as an advocate in Paris. Three years later, however he followed his greater inclination and was finally accepted in the priesthood.
In the course of his priestly labors he came across two deaf-mute sisters who had been partly educated by one Father Vanin by means of pictures. On Father Vanin's death their education came to a halt and the Abbe de l'Epee, moved by their condition resolved to take up and continue it. He found other deaf children and undertook their education. Thus his life work began and henceforth, not only his energies, but his private means, were devoted to the education of the deaf.
To carry out his plan he conceived the idea of using natural signs, and these not being sufficient to answer the purpose of grammatical syntax he invented others until he had systematized a vocabulary of considerable size. Many of his signs, of course, were arbitrary but the majority were based on natural pantomime. He published a volume, and later a revised edition of the same, describing his methods and system of signs.
Altho he taught some of his pupils to articulate, he believed signs were the vernacular of the deaf and hence essential to their comprehension and translation of ideas into language.
He founded a school for the deaf in Paris in 1760, his work being entirely philanthropic. Previous efforts to educate the deaf had been sporadic and confined to scions of the nobility, but de l'Epee seems to have been the first to open his school to the poor and he carried on his labors without expectation of pecuniary reward. De l'Epee died in 1789 and was succeeded as head of the school by the Abbe (Roch Ambroise Cucurron) Sicard. Three years later the school was taken over by the government and became the "National Institute."
In 1815 several gentlemen of Hartford, Connecticut, headed by Dr. Cogswell, who had a deaf daughter, became interested in the establishment of a school for the deaf in this country. The Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet had shown some interest in the work and made experimental efforts in teaching Alice Cogswell. These gentlemen resolved to send Gallaudet abroad to study methods there by way of preparation for starting the school they had in mind. When Gallaudet reached England he found the work in that country under a monopoly in the hands of the Braidwood family. They refused to allow him access to their secrets or to give him any assistance except under conditions with which he could not comply. He met the Abbe Sicard in London and was by him cordially invited to visit the school at Paris. There he was shown every courtesy and spent several months studying methods and learning the sign language. Returning to America he brought with him Laurent Clerc, a graduate of the Paris school and at that time a teacher in his alma mater. When the school at Hartford was opened, Clerc was employed as an instructor, teaching the sign language to other instructors, and thus the so-called "French method" with its language of pantomime was introduced into this country.
Finger spelling used by the deaf and in their education was originated by neither them nor their teachers but is a borrowed art. No authentic information is obtainable as to its origin but the researches of the late Prof. J. C. Gordon, of Gallaudet college brought to light certain historical data from which we get the following facts:
The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans used finger signs for numbers. There is evidence of the existence of dactylology among the Assyrians, on their monuments of art, down to the fifteenth century. The venerable Bede described finger spelling more than a thousand years ago and three manual alphabets are figured in an edition of his works printed in 1532.
Monks and others under vows of silence as well as others who had special reasons for secret communication used both signs and finger spelling. Rossellius, a Florentine monk, mentioned three such alphabets in 1579.
The first finger alphabet adopted in teaching spoken and written language to the deaf was the Spanish one-hand alphabet which contain certain forms found in the Florentine plates of 1579. The idea of using it in this connection originated with a pious and learned monk, Pedro Ponce de Leon. (1520-1584.)
The Spanish alphabet, somewhat modified, was introduced into France by Pereire and his gifted deaf pupil, Saboureaux de Fontenay where it speedily supplanted the clumsy alphabets used by de l'Epee and others. An improved form of this alphabet was learned by Gallaudet while in France and with a few slight changes was adopted by him when he opened the first permanent school for the deaf in America at Hartford.
In making the letters it is recommended that the arm be held in an easy position near the body with the forearm as indicated in the plates. It is not necessary to move the arm, but a short leverage is conducive to ease and permissible, provided the hand delivers the letters within an imaginary ring, of, say, ten inches in diameter. In colloquial use the fingers need not be so closely held nor so firmly flexed as represented in the cuts; but sprawling should be avoided. Each letter should be mastered before leaving it.
Certain letters, as c, d, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, q, u, v, w, and z, resemble written or printed forms. J is simply traced in the air with the little finger and z is in like manner traced with the index finger. H, u, and n differ only in the position of the hand and t is formed as in "taking off baby's nose."
These ten words contain all the letters and should be practiced upon: adz, fan, map, low, box, jar, sky, hat, quill, glove.
The sign language is an ideographic and pantomimic language. Except in the case of a few arbitrary signs they all represent some distinctive suggestion of the action, shape, or characteristic of the object or idea they are intended to signify. Thus in the signs for "run" and "walk" the hands take the place of the feet in making the motion of the latter to convey the idea of these actions. In the signs for "bird," "horse," and "cow," the fingers form the bill, the arms represent the wings, fingers the ears, and the hands the horns of these animals respectively. So, with few exceptions, when signs are carefully analyzed or traced to their origin, we will find a reasonable connection between the pantomime and the object or idea.
Many signs, however, have been modified, until they appear more or less arbitrary and have lost their original connection and significance. They are, as a rule, made colloquially briefer when combined in a narrative than when made alone, and when several signs are rapidly made one after another they apparently lose their individuality, though to the experienced observer the essential part of the sign is preserved. For there are usually some essential movements of the hands or fingers in each sign and some that are not essential, and a one-armed man making the necessary part of the signs with one hand instead of two against his body or a near-by object is readily understood.
In using signs to express thought an idea is presented in word pictures rather than in an orderly arrangement of single signs that correspond to single words in grammatical order. Hence there is not always an exact interpretation of the thought in words, but in pictures only. For this reason the language is manifestly imperfect when compared with written or spoken language.
One sign conveying an idea may be translated into different words under different circumstances or as used in connection with different subjects. This is apparent in the use of the one sign for different grammatical forms of the same word, as there is no difference in making the sign whether the adjective, the noun, or the adverb is intended. The context, so to speak, is depended upon to determine which of these is intended. Thus the sign for "love" conveying the idea of affection may mean the verb "love," the nouns "love," "affection," the adjectives "loving," "dear," "affectionate," "loved," etc., and the adverbs "lovingly," "affectionately," and so on. "Pretty" may be also "beauty," "loveliness," "comeliness," "fairness," "beautiful," "lovely," "handsome," "fair," and again "beautifully," "handsomely," and so on through the list.
It should be noted, in passing, what beginners sometimes overlook, that words spelled alike but different in meaning have different signs. This is obvious when one remembers ideas and not sounds are represented. Thus the preposition "to" and the infinitive "to" are vastly different in signs.
The tense sign is not always necessary and in ordinary conversation is rarely indicated except when one desires to be explicit. If at dinner one expresses an intention of going to town in the afternoon he simply says in signs, "I go town afternoon. This is interpreted as "I am going to town this afternoon," or "I will go," etc. If he has returned and mentions the fact at supper that he went, he would use the same signs and it would naturally be interpreted as "I went to town this afternoon." Most likely, however, he would be even briefer than that, simply conveying the idea of town and going, and possibly make the sign for "finished" denoting that it had been done. In both cases he depends upon the time he is speaking to make the tense understood.
Other omissions are those of the prepositions and the articles. Also in asking a question the briefest sign, coupled with a look of inquiry, or a simple sign in reply to a question, may express the idea contained in a whole sentence. It is, for the most part, this tendency to eliminate, coupled with the imperfect use of the sign language by those with but scant knowledge of it, which causes so much confusion in the minds of young deaf children while they are acquiring English in the school room. And on account of this confusion it is held by many as undesirable for use in giving instruction therein; but it should not be unjustly blamed for the sins of our imperfect methods of educating the deaf. The haphazard, slipshod manner of using signs is to be strongly condemned and the English order should be followed as nearly as possible.
The mastery of the sign language consists not so much in the number of signs one may know as in the cleverness with which those he does know are used. Many different ideas can be expressed with a few signs coupled with natural gestures. Many ideas having no sign of their own may readily be communicated by signs to define them. Indeed, many words must be signed in this way, which somewhat resembles the German way of coining words. "Gentleman" is literally (in signs) "polite man;" "neighbor" is "live-near-er;" and "coal" is "black hard." With whatever signs, few or many, and whatever the manner of delivery, one should aim to convey his idea or thought as plainly and forcibly as possible to others, so that the latter may be able to reproduce it in as good English or other language as the narrator would. So the success of reproduction is determined rather by the mental training of habitual reception, thought, and expression than by the sign language in itself.
Signs undergo certain local changes, and new signs are coined to meet local requirements, so that some may be made differently in different parts of the country, while some localities have signs that others do not. In this it but follows the natural course of any other language and we have localisms in signs as well as speech. To this class belong the occasional slang signs with which a deaf person occasionally intersperses his talk, but with a few exceptions such signs are not given in the following list.
The manner and emphasis have much to do with the significance of a sign. The degree of a quality is thus often indicated as well as the mood and feeling of the speaker. And it goes without saying that the expression must indicate joy or sorrow, fun or seriousness, and both the eyes and face must reflect the character of the idea expressed. One may express the idea of quietness by simply laying the fingers on the lips. But when the same finger is thrown violently against the lips with a rebuke expressed in the face, it becomes "keep still," while with an impudent or threatening look it may express "shut up." The facial grimaces, however, and the "mouthing" affected by some, are in no way a part of the sign and the habit is to be strongly condemned.
There are certain signs of importance, such as the tense signs and sex signs, which are added to the simple sign. Thus the signs for "now," "past," and "will" are used with all verb signs to indicate time, and "finished" is used to designate the complete tenses. "One" and "many" are added or prefixed to mark the singular and plural, while "male" and "female" indicate "sex." Others of this class are the progressive sign and the auxiliary verbs.
In connection with its incompleteness and imperfection when compared with written or spoken language, it should be remembered that the sign language was originally designed as a means of educating young deaf children and the vocabulary was therefore limited. Its usefulness has gone far beyond this first purpose, and incomplete and imperfect though it may be, it is, in the hands of its masters, a most beautiful and expressive language, for which, in their intercourse with each other and as a means of easily and quickly reaching the minds of the deaf, neither nature nor art has given them a satisfactory substitute.
In spite of the fact that it has been discarded from the school room and efforts made to relegate it to the past, the Sign Language is very much a live language. It is impossible for those who do not understand it to comprehend its possibilities with the deaf, its powerful influence on the moral and social happiness of those deprived of hearing, and its wonderful power of carrying thought to intellects which would otherwise be in perpetual darkness.
But those who do understand it and know the deaf never fail to acknowledge its place in the lives of those who can not hear and to appreciate its importance as a factor in their happiness. Whether they favor one or another of the methods of educating the deaf, they recognize the very great value of signs in social intercourse among the deaf, and its necessity in the pulpit and on the platform.
By means of the sign language the deaf child is enabled to comprehend subjects which his limited vocabulary would never enable him to do while dependent upon speech and reading alone. With the aid of an interpreter the deaf may enjoy lectures, sermons, plays, and all else while one of an audience, save, alone, music. Without signs they would be shut out from the full enjoyment of intellectual treats such as these. While in spiritual matters, signs enable the minister to reach thousands where any other method of communication would reach the few. Spiritual truths told and explained in the language of signs reach the understanding and the conscience of the deaf child as no other means can possibly do.