AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (ASL)

1. AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (ASL) English 306A; Doreen Siu

2. QUESTION: TRUE OR FALSE… Sign Language is the universal language used worldwide among the deaf people? The ANSWER is… FALSE English 306A; Doreen Siu

3. INCOMPLETE LIST OF DISTINCT SIGN LANGUAGES IN THE WORLD English 306A; Doreen Siu

4. EXAMPLES OF ALPHABETS FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES GREEK’S ALPHABET BRITISH’S ALPHABET English 306A; Doreen Siu AMERICAN’S ALPHABET

5. Common Misconceptions about American Sign Language • ASL is not English translated to signs (BIG NO-NO!!) • ASL is not all about fingerspelling. Fingerspelling is one of those feature that ASL has adopted or borrowed. It is a manual coding for the spelling of a spoken language as English. This is similar to English adopting features from Latin and Greek such as prefixes to create their words. Many signers of ASL use fingerspelling as a part of their conversation and the process by which fingerspelled words become loan signs. • ASL has its own grammatical structures which you will see soon that it differs from English. English 306A; Doreen Siu

6. Facial Expressions which are non manual features are more than just to convey emotions. They have a very important role in ASL. They have a role in grammar. English 306A; Doreen Siu

7. GRAMMARS (very briefly describing!) • wh-words question • wh-words are who, what, where, when, why etc. • placed last at the end of every question • Make a frown-like expression (with your head slightly leaning forward) ie. you name what? toilet where? (pointing to person) who? • 2)yes/no question • raise your brows up with your head slightly tilt back ie. you deaf you? you understand you? • 3)negative statement • shake your head from side to side with a slight ‘frowning’ expression ie. No, me not deaf, me hearing. Me not understand. • 4)Statement • neutral ie. me lazy English 306A; Doreen Siu

8. English The dog did not chase the cat American Sign Language (excluding non manual features) 1)dog chase cat 2)cat dog chase 3)chase cat dog Example of sentence structure Question for you: How does the signer ‘A’ know that the dog did not chase the cat? English 306A; Doreen Siu

9. To represent time or when, English adds suffix or lettering to indicate whether things happened in the past, future or present. talk  talked meet  met ring  rang  rung come  came English uses ‘will’ to indicate that something will happen in the future. For example the verb ‘to go’--- As for ASL, using the SVO sentence type--- Jack go movie. English 306A; Doreen Siu

10. In ASL the pointing of the index finger is a representation of all pronouns, person, etc Question is how do you know if it’s a he/she, you, me/I, them/they and etc. • English is different. It has gender and singular/plural distinction. It has pronouns such as he, she, they, I and etc to avoid confusion. • ASL has somewhat like a gender and singular/plural marker. Usually signer identifies the person or people he/she talking about before pointing index finger. • For example--- • see man (point to man)  lookie! a yes/no question • (point to man) name what  wh-word question English 306A; Doreen Siu

11. COOL things to know • Deaf is a unique culture of its own that is different from the hearing culture. • Deaf students here in Canada are often bilingual knowing both ASL and English • ASL is the most commonly used sign language in North American but it is LSQ in Quebec and the Inuit have their own sign language. • Any questions?? English 306A; Doreen Siu