American Sign Language
sign language used predominately in the United States / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American Sign Language (old names: Amslan, Ameslan ) is the most popular sign language for the Deaf in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in parts of Mexico. Although the United Kingdom and the United States share English as a spoken and written language, British Sign Language (BSL) is different from American Sign Language. ASL actually comes from French Sign Language, as Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet went to England for help learning sign language to teach to his deaf neighbors. He could not find anyone willing to teach him the British Sign Language, but did find some French people who were willing to help, he convinced one of them to travel back to the United States with him to set up the first deaf school in the U.S.[4]
American Sign Language | |
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Langue des Signes Américaine (in the Canadian province of Québec) | |
Native to | United States, Canada |
Region | English-speaking North America |
Native speakers | 250,000–500,000 in the United States (1972)[1]: 26 L2 users: Used as L2 by many hearing people and by Hawaii Sign Language speakers. |
Dialects |
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None are widely accepted si5s (ASLwrite), ASL-phabet, Stokoe notation, SignWriting | |
Official status | |
Official language in | none |
Recognised minority language in | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | ase |
Glottolog | asli1244 ASL familyamer1248 ASL proper |
Areas where ASL or a dialect/derivative thereof is the national sign language Areas where ASL is in significant use alongside another sign language |
ASL is also used (sometimes with other sign languages) in the Philippines, Singapore, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Chad, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Mauritania, Kenya, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe. Like other sign languages, its grammar is different from any spoken language.
ASL includes fingerspelling. Fingerspelling is a way to show the written letter. ASL uses one hand to show the English alphabet[5], although there are ways to show alphabets from other languages. Names of people and places can be fingerspelled. Fingerspelling is also used for words that have no sign, or for when people are confused about what a used sign means.