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

Wed Jun 17 14:39:07 UTC 2009

Fascinating; I also noticed that I could understand the Trieste sign  
language more easily than LIS, based on my knowledge of ASL.   
Colonialism explains the relationships among Japanese, Taiwanese, and  
Korean sign languages as well; the first schools for the deaf in  
Taiwan were established by the Japanese government, and although there  
was a deaf school in Korea founded just before the Japanese takeover,  
the Japanese influence predominates, especially in terms of morphology  
and quite a bit of vocabulary.  Taiwan's sign language is now being  
influenced by Chinese Sign Language, especially in the south, which  
leads to some interesting confusions.  The Chinese diaspora may have  
led to similarities between Chinese Sign Language and the sign  
languages of Singapore and some other areas.

Many years ago Lloyd Anderson developed a very complicated chart of  
relations he proposed among sign languages, but I wasn't convinced at  
the time that his evidence for some of the proposed relationships was  
strong enough.
SDF

Susan D. Fischer
Susan.Fischer at rit.edu
+1-858-952-3447 (mobile)
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Del Mar, CA 92014

Center for Research on Language
UCSD

On Jun 16, 2009, at 11:25 PM, Franz Dotter wrote:

> 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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