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WonderLanguage fact

Sign languages are complete languages with their own grammar, not gestures that spell out a spoken language word by word. British Sign Language and American Sign Language, for example, are so different that their users cannot understand each other, even though both countries speak English.

Linguistics

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Sign languages build meaning from the shape, movement and position of the hands, and also from the face and body: raised eyebrows or a tilt of the head can turn a statement into a question. American Sign Language grew partly from French Sign Language, brought to the United States by the deaf teacher Laurent Clerc, who co-founded the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1817. In 1960 the linguist William Stokoe showed that it has a structure as rich as any spoken language, and linguists have studied sign languages as full languages ever since. Ethnologue, a catalogue of the world's languages, lists about 150 of them. In Turkey, records show sign language in use at the Ottoman palace in the 16th and 17th centuries, although it is not known whether modern Turkish Sign Language descends from it.

Türkçe oku
İşaret dilleri, konuşulan bir dili sözcük sözcük harekete döken jestler değil, kendi dilbilgisi olan eksiksiz dillerdir. Örneğin İngiltere'de de ABD'de de İngilizce konuşulur, ama İngiliz İşaret Dili ile Amerikan İşaret Dili o kadar farklıdır ki bu dilleri kullananlar birbirini anlayamaz.

İşaret dillerinde anlam, elin biçimi, hareketi ve konumuyla kurulur; yüz ve beden de dilin parçasıdır. Kaşları kaldırmak ya da başı eğmek, bir cümleyi soruya çevirebilir. Amerikan İşaret Dili kısmen Fransız İşaret Dili'nden doğdu. Fransız İşaret Dili'ni ABD'ye, kendisi de işitme engelli bir öğretmen olan Laurent Clerc getirdi; Clerc, 1817'de Connecticut eyaletinin Hartford kentinde açılan Amerikan Sağırlar Okulu'nun kurucularından biriydi. Dilbilimci William Stokoe 1960'ta Amerikan İşaret Dili'nin de konuşulan her dil kadar zengin bir yapısı olduğunu gösterdi; o günden beri işaret dilleri tam birer dil olarak inceleniyor. Dünya dillerini listeleyen Ethnologue kataloğu yaklaşık 150 işaret dili sayıyor. Türkiye'de ise 16. ve 17. yüzyıllarda Osmanlı sarayında işaret dili kullanıldığına dair kayıtlar var; bugünkü Türk İşaret Dili'nin bu dilden gelip gelmediği bilinmiyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Sign language
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