query: relationships between sign languages

[Karlin, Ben]

ASL as it is used in the USA has dialects developing (according to
anecdotes) in Canada, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.  I am also
told that there is a community of ASL users in South Africa.  Already there
are noticeable differences in vocabulary but not syntax.

Ben Karlin <mfkarlb at mail.dmh.state.mo.us>
Lic. Interpreter, St. Louis Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center
The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of my employer or
the Missouri Dept. of Mental Health

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Des Power [mailto:d.power at MAILBOX.GU.EDU.AU]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2001 2:32 PM
> To: SLLING-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
> Subject: Re: query: relationships between sign languages
>
>
> Helo Ulrike. Fijian SL lexicon has been somewhat influenced
> by Auslan (maybe
> NZSL too?), but many signs are from Australasian Signed
> English (from the
> Suva school). Not sure about  influences on its syntax.
>
> Des
> --
> Emeritus Professor Des Power
> Griffith University
>
> 30 Pine Valley Drive
> ROBINA, QLD 4226
> Australia
>
> Telephone: (61) 7 55 78 78 84
> Fax:       (61) 7 55 78 78 84
> Email:     d.power at mailbox.gu.edu.au
> Website:  http://www.gu.edu.au/ppages/D_Power
>
>
>
>
>
> > Dear colleagues,
> >
> > I am trying to assemble information about relationships between sign
> > languages around the world. This is part of my typological project
> > comparing grammatical structures in sign languages around the world.
> > The relationships I am looking for are not necessarily  ?? enetic
> > ?? elationships in the usual sense of the word. In fact, I
> am not at all
> > sure that the usual method for establishing genetic relationships
> > between spoken languages (so-called  ??
> istorical-comparative method k   is
> > applicable to sign languages at all. However, since the
> sign languages
> > we know are generally young languages with a documented
> history, it is
> > possible to point to links between them, which could be of various
> > types. For example, due to colonialization and emigration
> (British Sign
> > Language, Auslan, New Zealand Sign Language), due to the
> history of the
> > deaf education system (French and American sign languages),
> or due to
> > political domination (sign languages in Japan, Taiwan and
> South Korea).
> > I am not aware of any published sources summarizing such actual or
> > supposed relationships between sign languages (and would be most
> > interested if you know any such sources). However, there is much
> > ?? necdotal k  information around, I think, and I am
> interested in any
> > suggestions. Below I have assembled a list of sign
> languages that may
> > be related to each other in some way, and I would like to invite the
> > specialists in each sign language to comment on this list.
> Do you tend
> > to agree or disagree with this list? Can you add any
> further languages,
> > or would you change anything in the list? I have listed names of
> > countries rather than sign languages because there are often various
> > possible names for a sign language. The groupings that seem more
> > certain are on top of the list, with less certain ones near
> the bottom
> > of the list. Please feel free to comment, and thank you
> very much for
> > any contributions.
> >
> > Ulrike Zeshan
> >
> >
> > List of supposed relationships between sign languages (listed by
> > country name):
> >
> > Britain  o  Australia  o  New Zealand
> > France  o  USA  o  Russia
> > Japan  o  Taiwan  o  South Korea
> > USA  o  Uganda  o  Kenya  o  Thailand  o  Phillipines  o  Malaysia
> > Sweden  o  Norway  o  Finland
> > Denmark  o  Iceland
> > Italy  o  Argentina
> > mainland China  o  Hong Kong
> > Europe - Israel
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > =====
> > Dr. Ulrike Zeshan
> > Research Centre for Linguistic Typology
> > Institute for Advanced Study
> > La Trobe University VIC 3086, Australia
> > ph.: +61-3-94673084, fax: +61-3-94673053
> > e-mail: u.zeshan at latrobe.edu.au, ulrike_zeshan at yahoo.com
> >
> > __________________________________________________
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