Antw: [SLLING-L] historical relationships between sign languages

[Franz Dotter]

Dear Susan,

I just wanted to point out the role of the Austrian monarchy in the
relationships between Middle European sign languages:

The first school for deaf people in Austria was established in 1779 in
Vienna after a visit of Emperor Josef II to de l'Epeè's school in Paris.
This was the third governmentally-sponsored school in Europe, following
Paris (1769) and Leipzig (1778). So-called 'daughter-institutions' of
the Viennese Institute were founded all over the Austro-Hungarian
empire: These institutions include Prague 1786; Waitzen (now Vácz) in
Hungary 1802; Milan 1805; Linz 1812; Brixen (Italy) and Lemberg (now
Lwiw in Ukrainia) 1830; Salzburg 1831; Graz and Bruenn (now Brno in the
Czech Republic) 1832, Pressburg (now Bratislava, Slovakia) 1833; Goerz
(now Gorica/Gorizia, a twin town in Slovenia/Italy) 1840; Trient, now
Trento (Italy) 1842; St. Poelten 1846 and Klagenfurt 1847. 

Given competing methods, the sign language oriented French method of
Paris and the spoken language oriented German method of Leipzig, the
Viennese institution developed a compromise (a "mixed method"), using
written language, signs and manual alphabet as a base, for learning
spoken language. These teaching methods were supposedly invented by
Joseph May and Michael Venus.  From 1827, there were systematic courses
for teachers of the deaf. With these courses, the 'Viennese school' of
deaf education influenced other parts of Europe including institutes in
Germany, Copenhagen, St. Peterburg, Vilnius, and Warsaw. The mixed
method was discontinued in Austria in favour of the 'German method' in
the year 1867 (shortly before the 'Milan Congress ' of 1880, which voted
for the latter).

The result of this policy is that e.g. the old Triestine sign language
is very much alike the Austrian (so we can easily communicate with old
Triestine deaf; there is a diploma thesis on that by Silvia Alloisio)
which is now replaced step by step by Italian SL. Similar relationships
of still unknown strength we found between Czech, Hungarian, Slovenian,
and Croatian SL's when communicating with deaf people from there (we did
not really analyse that until now, but cf. http://www.omaa.fullnet.hu/
for Austrian and Western Hungarian SL or - less informative because of
the special theme "medicine" -
http://www.roadsfromsilence.net/de/793258/1j9u0hfgdmcqmohomt5jeu5f46/
for Austrian-German-Czech terms)


As far as I remember, there is a one-page scheme on supposed relations
of sign languages in L.A. Friedman (ed.) 1977: On the Other Hand. New
Perspectives on American Sign Language?

Best Regards

Franz Dotter

University of Klagenfurt
Center for Sign Language and Deaf Communication
Funded by: Provincial government of Carinthia, Bundessozialamt
Kaernten, European Social Fund
Head: Franz Dotter (hearing)
Collaborators: Elisabeth Bergmeister (deaf), Silke Bornholdt (deaf),
Jennifer Dörrschuck (hearing), Katja Hablich (hearing), Christian Hausch
(deaf), Marlene Hilzensauer (hearing), Petra Käfer (hearing), Klaudia
Krammer (hearing), Christine Kulterer (hearing), Andrea Lackner
(hearing), Anita Pirker (deaf), Andrea Skant (hearing), Nathalie
Slavicek (hard of hearing), Natalie Unterberger (deaf)
Homepage: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/zgh
Deaf server (in German): http://deaf.uni-klu.ac.at
Fax: ++43 (0)463 2700 2899
Phone: ++43 (0)463 2700 /2821 (Franz Dotter), /2822 (Andrea Skant),
/2823 (Marlene Hilzensauer), /2824 (Klaudia Krammer), /2829 (Christine
Kulterer)
Email addresses: firstname.lastname at uni-klu.ac.at


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