This article discusses a survey study that drew on seventy-five high school students at a residential deaf school in Japan. The aim of the survey was to examine the various ways in which deaf adolescents use text messaging and to determine whether they use the technology differently from the hearing high school students surveyed in our previously…

Lexical variation abounds in New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) and is commonly associated with the introduction of the Australasian Signed English lexicon into Deaf education in 1979, before NZSL was acknowledged as a language. Evidence from dictionaries of NZSL collated between 1986 and 1997 reveal many coexisting variants for the numbers from one…

Information and research on Mongolian Sign Language is scant. To date, only one dictionary is available in the United States (Badnaa and Boll 1995), and even that dictionary presents only a subset of the signs employed in Mongolia. The present study describes the kinship system used in Mongolian Sign Language (MSL) based on data elicited from…

A sociolinguistic survey of the sign language used by the deaf communities of Peru was conducted in November and December of 2007. For eight weeks, our survey team visited six deaf communities in the cities of Lima, Arequipa, Cusco, Trujillo, Chiclayo, and Iquitos. Using sociolinguistic questionnaires and recorded text testing (RTT) tools, we…

This article reviews eighteenth- and nineteenth-century proceedings of the London Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) that involved deaf people. The use, role, and status of sign language and interpreters in these settings are described. These proceedings provide important information about deaf people's experiences within the court system of the…

Washoe, the chimpanzee pioneer who learned aspects of American Sign Language, died in October 2007. In reviewing her life and accomplishments, this article focuses on Washoe's status as an ape and a person, and on the role of emotion in language learning and language use. It argues that Washoe's legacy stems not from the number of ASL signs she…

This article argues that poetry written by nineteenth-century British and American deaf poets played an important role in the period's sign language debates. By placing the publication of this poetry in the context of public exhibitions of deaf students, I suggest that the poetry was mobilized to publicly defend the linguistic and intellectual…

This article presents the results from a preliminary investigation into the use of fingerspelling in Australian Sign Language (Auslan), drawing on data collected as part of the Sociolinguistic Variation in Australian Sign Language project (Schembri and Johnston 2004; Schembri, Johnston, and Goswell in press). This major project is a replication in…

In this article I analyze two cases that are the result of parents' complaints against education authorities for alleged indirect discrimination on the basis of their child's lack of access to instruction through Auslan in regular school settings. Although bilingual/bicultural programs for deaf students in Australia are available in some special…

Presents sign language as a central fact in the life of deaf individuals and groups and therefore as a focus for educational efforts. Looks at the different ways languages are presented to the eye instead of the ear, examines bilingualism and its special life in the life and education of deaf persons, and shows teachers ways to ask and answer…

Native signs used as basic kin terms in 20 sign languages from several sign language families are examined. (Author/NCR)

An examination of the linguistics of American Sign Language (ASL) establishes beyond a doubt that ASL is a natural language distinct from English and provides insight into how the abstract cognitive system called language finds expression in the signed modality. (CB)

Examines recently coined American Sign Language signs to show how the ASL lexicon is expanded. Included are elicited signs for relatively new objects or ideas, signs referring to metalinguistics concepts in ASL, signs used as jargon or specialized vocabulary, and signs "invented" by young deaf children. (Author/PJM)

Reports on an investigation of American Sign Language signs relating to the deaf gay community or used exclusively by its members. Both heterosexual and homosexual informants were used to determine which signs were known only to the gay community. Attitudes of both groups toward these words was also explored. (Author/PJM)

Analysis of the communicative skills of a nine-year-old deaf boy with minimal schooling showed pantomiming and gestures to be his major mode of communication. Certain semantic patterns prevailed. Use of left or right hand also had semantic correlates. Formal and idiosynacratic signs were discovered in the boy's vocabulary. (Author/PJM)