Ari
Savitt
7/13/2007
Evolution of a Language:
American Sign Language
American Sign Language (ASL) is a rich and unique language with a
long history that has evolved over time (Humphries & Padden, 1988,
p. 2). In these contemporary times it isn’t rare to see two or more
deaf people moving their hands in elaborate motions using detailed
facial expressions and communicating with each other using their
cultural language, American Sign Language. This paper will examine
the following questions: how did ASL come to be? Who advocated for
deaf education? And what were some of the challenges that ASL had to
overcome to become the language of the Deaf? To aid in answering
these questions, four topics will be explored:
1.
European Influence: The Early Roots
2.
Martha’s Vineyard: Signing on American Soil
3.
Gallaudet, Clerc, and Cogswell: Advocates for Deaf Education Using
Sign Language
4.
ASL Today
Through these topics
it should become clear that ASL is a dynamic language that has
changed throughout its early beginnings and continues to evolve in
these contemporary times.
European Influence:
The Early Roots
Just like America, ASL has its roots in other countries. The
European nations hold an important role in the beginnings of Deaf
communication. One of the oldest references for finger spelling was
published in 1620 by Juan Pablo Bonet from Spain. The book contained
a reproduction of Melchor de Yebra’s fingerspelling chart (Crouch &
Van Cleve, 1989, p. 12). Anthony Deusing published a book in
Holland called, The Deaf and the Dumb Man Discourse in 1656;
this book gave an influential view on why Signing is an easier
method of teaching than the oral methods (Crouch & Van Cleve, 1989,
p. 16). Deaf Persian bookbinder named Pierre Desolges wrote
"Observations of a Deaf-Mute" in 1779, the book described the signs
that the Deaf Persians used. He printed this book in retaliation to
Abbe Dechamps proclamation that sign language was not important in
educating the Deaf youth. This showed early conflicts in the
teaching methods over whether oral or signing should be used to
educate the Deaf (A Short History of ASL, 2007, paragraph 7).
As far back as the 1700's, in France, there was a type
of sign language called Old French Sign Language (OFSL), which could
be used to talk about politics, family and so forth (A Short
History of ASL, 2007, paragraph 9). A cleric named Abbe De
L’epee realized the potential for using OFSL as an educational tool
for the Deaf. L’epee and others placed a French stylized grammar
structure into OFSL, not realizing there was a grammar style already
existing in OFSL. This new style of signing was later called, Old
Signed French (OSF). The French Deaf community eventually had two
signing systems at the same time. OSF was used in classrooms and
formally, while OFSL was used more casually in daily life and with
tasks (A Short History of ASL, 2007, paragraph 8). In 1771 a
Deaf school was established in Paris, France. Enabling French Deaf
children to get the education their parents wanted them to have, in
France creating a larger French Deaf community (A Short History
of ASL, 2007, paragraph 10). On July 1815 Abbe Sicard Epee
became head of the royal institute for the Deaf, in Paris. He would
become very influential in the creation of ASL when he later took
his examples of his schools’ signed language to London to promote
his teachings. In London, with one of his brilliant graduates,
Laurent Clerc, he met up with an American, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet,
and invited him to the school in Paris to learn OSF. This would mark
the beginning of American Sign Language. To this day ASL and FSL
share more than fifty percent of their signs (A Short History of
ASL, 2007, paragraphs 13, 14 & 15).
Martha’s Vineyard:
Signing on American Soil
Around 1690 the island community of Martha’s Vineyard
was predominantly hearing, but because there were so many Deaf
citizens, nearly everybody was able to communicate with each other
through a form of sign language that was commonly called Martha’s
Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) (Deaf History-Martha’s Vineyard,
2007, paragraph 2). Martha’s Vineyard became one of the earliest
stable communities for the hearing and Deaf in America. The people
of Martha’s Vineyard were known to have a hereditary disease that
caused Deafness (Deaf History-Martha’s Vineyard, 2007,
paragraph 3). The birth rate of Deaf to hearing on the island in the
late 1800's was 1 in 155, whilst the national birth rate of Deaf to
hearing was 1 in 2,730 (Deaf History-Martha’s Vineyard, 2007,
paragraph 4). Martha’s Vineyard’s Deaf and hearing community lasted
about two centuries and ended with the death of the last native born
Deaf islander in the 1950's (Deaf History-Martha’s Vineyard,
2007, paragraph 3). Even though Martha’s Vineyard might now be know
as a great summer getaway, it will always remain a keystone of hope
and pride in the glorious history of Deaf communities; however it
played a small role in the overall development of ASL. To look at
what, or better yet, who was responsible for ASL’s creation and
development then we would have to examine three men: Gallaudet,
Clerc and Cogswell.
Gallaudet, Clerc and Cogswell:
Advocates for Deaf Education Using Sign Language
ASL didn’t exist during the heyday of America, and so
parents with Deaf children were forced to find help in European
countries, which had private academies that specialized in deaf
education (Crouch &Van Cleve, 1989, p. 24). This was the only option
for a proper education that was available for the Deaf families in
America. The educational practice for the Deaf stayed this way until
the first half of the nineteenth century. The parents of the Deaf
and the Deaf community had not been fully unified because they had
no school, and they were now seeking those educational practices
inside America (Crouch & Van Cleve, 1989, p. 29). In 1815, Thomas
Hopkins Gallaudet, a young American who studied at Yale decided to
learn the European methods of educating Deaf after befriending his
neighbor’s Deaf daughter, Alice Cogswell. He left America for the
Briadwoods School in England, which taught the Deaf. There he found
that the style of teaching was predominantly the oral method, not
allowing the Deaf to use signs (Crouch & Van Cleve, 1989, p. 34).
This was not the method Gallaudet was interested in learning and
teaching. After meeting a group of deaf French students and
teachers while in England at a conference, he was invited to the
Deaf school in Paris, France. During his stay in France, Gallaudet
studied the French method of Sign language. Later he returned to
America with an incredible Deaf French scholar of French Sign
Language, Laurent Clerk, to open a school that used this type of
teaching (Crouch & Van Cleve, 1989, p. 35-37).
On April 15, 1817 in Hartford Connecticut, the
Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and
Dumb Persons opened. This was the first institute that aimed at
understanding their world. Later the American School for the Deaf
was established by Cogswell (Alice’s father), Gallaudet, and Clerk
(Crouch &Van Cleve, 1989, p. 29-30). These were some of the first
major steps toward creating modern ASL. The New York Institution for
the Deaf opened its doors to students for the first time in May of
1818. Young Alice Cogswell was the first student to enroll in the
school. She was a catalyst for Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet’s travels to
England and France in search of Deaf Education (Crouch & Van Cleve,
1989, p. 43-44). By 1857, America had 19 schools for the Deaf, and
in 1864 the famed Edward Miner Gallaudet, grandson of Thomas Hopkins
Galluadet, founded the Gallaudet University -Collegiate Department
of The Columbian Institution for the Deaf and Dumb (Crouch &Van
Cleve, 1989, p. 78). The University of Gallaudet would later become
a symbol of pride and glory for the Deaf community in America. By
1867 every Deaf school in America was teaching ASL, but in 1880 the
Congress of Milan decided that speech should be taught over sign in
Deaf schools, and so by 1907 not a single Deaf school taught their
students sign language (Dolnick, 1993). Slowly but surely sign found
its way back into Deaf education, and wasn’t challenged again until
the 1970's. During that time a method of teaching speech and
lip-reading to Deaf students called Total Communication, started to
emerge (Dolnick, 1993). This proved to be a difficult task for the
students, causing many of them to give up rather then to learn. In
1988 the Commission on Education of the Deaf addressed to the
President and to Congress that the education of the Deaf this
country wasn’t what it should be (Donlick, 1993). By the early
1990's, ASL became the mode of educating the Deaf in America.
ASL Today
By 1988 the Commission on Education of the Deaf
addressed to the President, and also to Congress, that the education
of the Deaf in this country wasn’t what it should be (Kinzie & Ruane,
2006). By the early 1990's ASL became the mode of educating the
Deaf. ASL has a long and glorious history that is only amplified by
the pride of the community that uses it. From its subtle origins in
Europe to its early heroes like Abbe de Leppe, Thomas Hopkins
Gallaudet, Laurent Clerc and Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell who helped
create and spread the use of ASL. Without these men, the vast
expansion and the use in educating the Deaf and forming a strong
Deaf culture through ASL might not have been possible, and perhaps
the European schools would have been the only means of education for
Deaf Americans. What was once an idea to teach Deaf American
children is now the mainstream language of a rich culture.
Works Cited
About.com Deaf History/ Martha’s Vineyard
(1-22-2006) Available:
http://www.deafness.about.com/cs/featurearticles/a/marthasvineyard.html [9,
29, 2006]
Crouch, Barry A. and SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Van
Cleve, John V. (1989). A Place of Their Own: Creating the Deaf
Community in America. Washington, D.C. Gallaudet
University Press.
Dolnick, Edward. (1993 September). Deafness As
A Culture. Atlantic Monthly. [periodical, selected stories
on-line]. Available: http://scplweb.org [1993 September]
Geocities.com [home page of geocities],
[online]. (12 2002) available:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/9672/HistoryASL.html
[2006, 9, 27]
Humphries, Tom and Padden, Carol (1988).
Deaf in America: Voices From a Culture Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts. London, England.
Kinzie, Susan and Ruane, Michael E. (2006, May
5) Gallaudet's Next President Won't Bow Out. Washington Post.
P. A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com