Home » Segments » Variations in American Sign Language

Variations in American Sign Language

If you need further proof that language is always changing, look no further than American Sign Language or ASL. A hundred years ago, the sign for telephone reflected the shape of an old-fashioned candlestick phone — one fist below your mouth and the other at your ear. Now all it takes is curving the fingers of one hand next to your ear, as if holding a mobile. The signing space of individuals also varies in different dialects of sign language. In Black American Sign Language, for example, used primarily by African-Americans, one’s signing space is bigger than in ASL. For more on this topic, look for the work of American linguist Ceil Lucas, who has lectured extensively on sign language. This is part of a complete episode.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

More from this show

Unparalleled Misalignments

Unparalleled misalignments are pairs of phrases in which the words in one phrase are each synonyms of the words in the other, but the phrases themselves mean different things. For example, the phrase blanket statement can be paired with cover story...

Recent posts