10 Facts about American Sign Language

Tuesday, January 13th 2015. | Social


Facts about American Sign Language talk about the sign language used by the deaf people who live in United States. Some parts of Canada also use this ASL. Other parts of the world such as Southeast Asia and West African also learn the dialects of ASL and ASL based creoles. Find out more facts about American Sign Language below:

Facts about American Sign Language 1: the second language

ASL is often called as a lingua franca because people learn it as the second language.

Facts about American Sign Language 2: FSL

FSL stands for the French Sign Language.  FSL and ASL are closely related to each other. Many people think that ASL is a Creole language.

Facts about American Sign Language

Facts about American Sign Language

Facts about American Sign Language 3: American School for the Deaf

American Sign Language was formed in ASD or American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut in 19th century. The main purpose of the language was for the language contact.

Facts about American Sign Language 4: the ASL users

It is not easy to find out the exact users of American Sign Language.  But it is estimated that there are around 250,000 till 500,000 people using the American Sign Language.

American Sign Language Pic

American Sign Language Pic

Facts about American Sign Language 5: the stigma

The common stigma states that the spoken language is superior compared to the sign language due to the lack of writing system.

Facts about American Sign Language 6: the phonemic components

Can you mention the phonemic components of American Sign Language?  They include the movement of hands, torso and face. Even though it uses some parts of the body, ASL is not a pantomime.

American Sign Language

American Sign Language

Facts about American Sign Language 7: the word orders

The word order in American Sign Language involves with subject verb object order. But you also find different alternative for the word order.

Facts about American Sign Language 8: the similarity of FSL and ASL

ASL and FSL have some similarities. It is estimated that 58 percent of the signs in modern American Sign Language are similar with the Old French Sign Language Sign.

ASL

ASL

Facts about American Sign Language 9: the people in West Africa

The educated deaf adults in West African also adopt the ASL based sign languages to communicate.

Facts about American Sign Language 10: the first language

In Bolivia, Barbados and Cambodia, American Sign Language is called as the first language.

American Sign Language Facts

American Sign Language Facts

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