American Sign Language
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A language of United States
408,000 in United States, all users. L1 users: 277,000 in United States (Mitchell et al 2006). Mitchell et al 2006 estimate no more than 277,000 in 1972 who were prevocationally deaf; more recent figures unavailable but an estimate based on 0.1% of total population for 2019 would be 325,000. L2 users: 131,000 (Mitchell et al 2006). Total users in all countries: 860,605 (as L1: 729,605; as L2: 131,000).
Scattered, especially in urban centers and near (present or former) residential deaf schools.
5 (Developing). Provincially recognized language, state laws cover a variety of issues: approving ASL for college credit, regulating interpreter services, deaf children’s education, etc. Recognized language (1990, Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA), requires governments, nonprofit organizations and private businesses to make their services accessible to deaf people, and mandates equal access to telecommunications services.
Black American Sign Language (BASL, Black ASL), Tactile American Sign Language (TASL, Tactile ASL). Some lexical variation across the United States and Canada (except Quebec), but intelligibility is high among all varieties called ASL. Black American Sign Language, which developed among African-American children in segregated schools in the southern United States, contains some distinctive vocabulary, grammatical structure, and phonological properties (McCaskill et al 2020). Tactile ASL (TASL) is used throughout the United States by and with deaf-blind people, especially those with Usher’s Syndrome, concentrations of whom are found in Louisiana and Seattle. TASL uses ASL vocabulary and grammar, except (1) signs are perceived by holding the signer’s hands and following them around, and (2) there are modifications to compensate for lack of access to the signer’s facial expressions and other parts of the body that are not being touched. Since 2007, in Seattle and elsewhere, more substantial structural changes have occurred as a result of innovations by deaf-blind people that employ the unique characteristics of touch (Edwards 2014, Edwards and Brentari 2020), such as articulating signs on the listener’s body. This has resulted in a new variety called Protactile that is not mutually intelligible with (visual) ASL and TASL (Granda and Nuccio 2018), although as yet it does not have a separate ISO 639-3 code. Indeed, Protactile exemplifies a new modality of language: a tactile language, one structured around touch rather than sound or sight. Some deaf-blind people learn Braille for reading English. Varieties of ASL or closely-related languages derived from ASL are used in many other countries, particularly in the Caribbean and Africa; they are typically referred to either as ‘ASL’ (despite their differences) or by a name based on their country name. Some of these still use the ISO code [ase] but are different enough that they probably should acquire their own separate code. Lexical similarity: 58% between modern ASL and French Sign Language (LSF) [fsl] on a comparison of 872 signs (Woodward 1978b). Although the 2 are historically related, ASL has undergone substantial creolization (Woodward 1975, Woodward 1976).
One-handed fingerspelling system derived from French Sign Language [fsl]. SVO, topic comment structures; adjectives, numerals, genitives, question word initial or final, relative clause after noun head.
Interpreters required for many legal and civic situations. Lingua franca of the deaf world, used widely as L2 in many countries other than those listed here. Used by all. Many also use English [eng]. Fluency in English varies widely, from native (hearing children of Deaf parents), or near-native in reading/writing (many Deaf professionals), to ability only to read individual English words. Used as L2 by Hawaii Sign Language [hps], Plains Indian Sign Language [psd].
Literacy is almost always based on English rather than ASL. Deaf people’s English varies from highly literate to illiterate, but the average deaf student graduates from high school with a third or fourth grade reading level. TV. Videos. Dictionary. Grammar. Bible: 2020.
American Sign Language is different from Signed English, a range of signing registers influenced by English. Signing Exact English (SEE) and Seeing Essential English (SEE2) are artificially-constructed systems that attempt to match English word order and morphemic structure exactly. Pidgin Signed English (PSE) does not follow English grammar exactly, and is sometimes referred to as ‘contact signing’. Deaf schools and interpreters in mainstreamed educational settings may use any of these sign varieties. The alternate name ‘SIGN AMERICA’ is a representation of the signs that sign language users in other countries often use for ASL. This name is not used in English, but is a word-for-sign translation of the signed name.