[TEACHASL] Sign Language Family Map
Albert Bickford
albert_bickford at SIL.ORG
Fri Feb 7 01:54:04 UTC 2014
I'm the primary research editor for sign languages for Ethnologue, so
let me add a couple comments.
We've held off making any fine-grained classification of sign languages
into families because we prefer to let the consensus of the field sort
things out before we say anything. A while back, for example, someone
urged us to subdivide "Deaf sign language" into something on the order
of village and national sign languages, but there still is debate about
whether that's a reasonable way to do things or not, so for now we're
just keeping them together in one large group.
With regards to the comments within entries about what I'll call for the
moment "connections" between sign languages, we're taking a close look
at a lot of those. Some of those comments were inserted solely on the
basis of some historical event (e.g. someone from one school visiting
another one early in its history), without actually looking at the
impact of that event on the language. We're working on getting rid of
those, or clarifying that the comment is only about historical contact.
Certainly, if anyone knows of comments that are inaccurate, please let
me know.
Even when there are "connections" between sign languages, it remains an
open question whether to consider this an instance of genetic
relationship or borrowing. One of the challenges in this area is that
when a sign language is transported from one country to another, there's
a good chance that it will creolize with home sign or other systems
already in the new country, and so it's not a clean case of ordinary
genetic descent.
Finally, although Ethnologue lists the 137 sign languages that are in
ISO 639-3, we've recently concluded that one of them most likely never
existed: Yiddish Sign Language [yds]. If anyone has evidence that it
really did exist as a separate language (and not a dialect of some other
sign language with added Jewish vocabulary), please let me know.
--Albert
Albert Bickford
SIL International
Linguistic Services Coordinator, Global Sign Languages Team
Director, SIL-UND
Please use different email addresses for different topics:
sign languages: linguistic_services_gslt at sil.org
SIL-UND: director_silund at sil.org
other: albert_bickford at sil.org
late May through early August:
2901 University Ave Stop 8217, Grand Forks ND 58202; 701-777-0575
mid-August through mid-May:
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On 2014/02/06 2:45 PM, Calle Börstell wrote:
> In the places where this BSL-SSL link is mentioned (often online, e.g.
> Wikipedia), it is usually cited as Wittman (1991), but I don't
> understand why he sorted SSL under BSL in the first place. Mesch
> (2006) did a lexical comparison study between SSL and BSL, and found
> that a 35 % similarity (as opposed to 60 % for SSL and FinSL, for
> which there is a known historical link). Bergman & Engberg-Pedersen
> (2010) should be the go-to reference for a summary of the history of
> SSL (as well as DSL and FinSL).
>
> The Ethnologue lists 137 SLs under a joint category called "Deaf sign
> language", but under each entry you can (hopefully) find listings of
> relatedness/similarities with other SLs. I can't tell how accurate
> they all are, though:
> https://www.ethnologue.com/subgroups/deaf-sign-language
>
> Bergman, Brita & Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen. 2010. Transmission of
> sign languages in the nordic countries. In Diane Brentari (ed.), /Sign
> languages: A Cambridge language survey/, 74--94. New York, NY:
> Cambridge University Press.
>
> Mesch, Johanna. 2006. Påminner nationella teckenspråk om varandra? In
> Karin Hoyer, Monica Londen & Jan-Ola Östman (eds.), /Teckenspråk:
> Sociala och historiska perspektiv/, 71--95. Helsinki: Nordica,
> Institutionen för nordiska språk och nordisk litteratur, Helsingfors
> universitet.
>
> Wittman, Henri. 1991. Classification linguistique des langues signees
> non vocalement. /Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et
> appliquée/ 10(1). 215--288.
>
>
> Calle Börstell
> PhD student
> Dept. of Linguistics
> Stockholm University
>
>
> 2014-02-06 22:02 GMT+01:00 Adam Schembri <A.Schembri at latrobe.edu.au
> <mailto:A.Schembri at latrobe.edu.au>>:
>
> Yes, this chart has been making the rounds online. I'm not aware
> of any evidence for a relationship between BSL and Swedish Sign
> Language (can anyone here explain why it is listed under BSL?),
> and the degree of relationship with the other sign languages here
> varies considerably. Auslan appears to be missing from this chart
> (Australia should be listed along with New Zealand).
> Adam
> --
>
> Assoc. Prof. Adam Schembri, PhD
> https://latrobe.academia.edu/AdamSchembri
> Linguistics program | Department of Languages, Histories and
> Cultures | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences | La Trobe
> University | Melbourne (Bundoora) | Victoria | 3086 | Australia
> |Tel : +61 3 9479 2887 <tel:%2B61%203%209479%202887> | Mob: +61
> 432 840 744 <tel:%2B61%20432%20840%20744> | Twitter:
> @AdamCSchembri | Director, Centre for Research on Language
> Diversity http://www.latrobe.edu.au/crld & Linguistics Discipline
> Research Program| Sign Language Linguistics Society:
> http://www.slls.eu <http://www.slls.eu/> | ALLY Network Member
> supporting GLBTIQ students and staff:
> www.latrobe.edu.au/equality/ally
> <http://www.latrobe.edu.au/equality/ally>
> http://www.latrobe.edu.au/equality/ally
>
> From: Miako Rankin <miako.rankin at GALLAUDET.EDU
> <mailto:miako.rankin at GALLAUDET.EDU>>
> Reply-To: linguists interested in signed languages
> <SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU
> <mailto:SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>>
> Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2014 09:57:09 -0500
> To: <SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU
> <mailto:SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>>
> Subject: Re: [TEACHASL] Sign Langauge Family Map
>
> I've seen this one going around (attached, hope you can see it
> - if not, try this link:
> https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=721650357845504&set=pb.130754623601750.-2207520000.1391698382.&type=3&theater).
> Googled "sign language family tree" and this was the one that
> came up. No idea where it came from or what kind of accuracy
> it has. Someone's name is at the bottom but it's too small for
> me to make it out.
> Would love to see a linguistically accurate/inclusive/nuanced one.
> --Miako
>
>
> On Feb 6, 2014, at 9:40 AM, "Adam Frost"
> <adam at FROSTVILLAGE.COM <mailto:adam at FROSTVILLAGE.COM>> wrote:
>
>> This was a question on the TeachASL list. She is asking for a
>> sign language family map. Does anyone know where to find a
>> good one?
>>
>> Adam
>>
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>>> *From:* "Heather Berry" <heatherraeberry at YAHOO.COM
>>> <mailto:heatherraeberry at YAHOO.COM>>
>>> *Date:* February 6, 2014 at 6:36:07 AM PST
>>> *To:* TEACHASL at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU
>>> <mailto:TEACHASL at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>
>>> *Subject:* *[TEACHASL] Sign Langauge Family Map*
>>> *Reply-To:* "Heather Berry" <heatherraeberry at yahoo.com
>>> <mailto:heatherraeberry at yahoo.com>>
>>>
>>> My students are working on Signing Naturally the country
>>> unit and picking different countries to research what the
>>> Deaf community is like. I had a student ask if there are
>>> families of sign just like there are families of spoken
>>> language, ie romance languages etc. I know there are but I
>>> am looking for some sort of visual or map that illustrates
>>> this in an easy to understand format. I know these exist for
>>> spoken language. Does anyone know if something like this
>>> exists for sign?
>>> Thanks!
>>> Heather
>
>
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