Demarcating generations of signers in the dynamic sociolinguistic landscape of a shared sign-language: The case of the Al-Sayyid Bedouin

Kisch, Shifra

doi:10.1515/9781614511496.87

Cited by 39 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The Al-Sayyid family founded this village approximately 200 years ago, and after five generations, about 85 years ago, four siblings were born deaf. In the next two generations, more people were born deaf, and today, the deaf population of the village comprises about 130 deaf adults, adolescents, and children (Kisch 2012). As a result of the need for communication between parents and their children, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) emerged.…”

Section: Emergence Of New Sign Languagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging linguistic features of Sao Tome and Principe Sign Language

Mineiro

Carmo

Caroça

et al. 2017

SL&L

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In Sao Tome and Principe (STP), there are approximately five thousand deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Until recently, these people had no language to use between them other than basic home signs used only to communicate with their families. With this communication gap in mind, a project was set up to help them come together in a common space in order to create a dedicated environment for a common sign language to emerge. In less than two years, the first cohort began to sign and to develop a newly emerging sign language -the Sao Tome and Principe Sign Language (LGSTP). Signs were elicited by means of drawings and pictures and recorded from the beginning of the project. The emergent structures of signs in this new language were compared with those reported for other emergent sign languages such as the Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) and the Lengua de Señas de Nicarágua (NSL), and several similarities were found at the first stage. In this preliminary study on the emergence of LGSTP, it was observed that, in its first stage, signs are mostly iconic and exhibit a greater involvement of the articulators and a larger signing space when compared with subsequent stages of LGSTP emergence and with other sign languages. Although holistic signs are the prevalent structure, compounding seems to be emerging. At this stage of emergence, OSV seems to be the predominant syntactic structure of LGSTP, and yet the data suggest that new signers exhibit difficulties in syntactic constructions with two arguments.

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Section: Emergence Of New Sign Languagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging linguistic features of Sao Tome and Principe Sign Language

Mineiro

Carmo

Caroça

et al. 2017

SL&L

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“…Two village sign languages have already been documented in Israel. In the Bedouin village of Al-Sayyid, a community of about 4000 members of whom 130 are deaf, a sign language arose about 80 years ago (Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language, ABSL), and, for more than a decade, has been the focus of intensive anthropological (Kisch, 2000, 2007, 2012) and linguistic investigation (e.g., Sandler et al, 2005; Aronoff et al, 2008; Meir et al, 2013; Sandler et al, in press). In the Jewish community of the sub-Saharan town of Ghardaia, Algeria, another sign language emerged (Algerian Jewish Sign Language, AJSL).…”

Section: Kafr Qasem Sign Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

The emergence of embedded structure: insights from Kafr Qasem Sign Language

Kastner¹,

Meir²,

Sandler³

et al. 2014

Front. Psychol.

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This paper introduces data from Kafr Qasem Sign Language (KQSL), an as-yet undescribed sign language, and identifies the earliest indications of embedding in this young language. Using semantic and prosodic criteria, we identify predicates that form a constituent with a noun, functionally modifying it. We analyze these structures as instances of embedded predicates, exhibiting what can be regarded as very early stages in the development of subordinate constructions, and argue that these structures may bear directly on questions about the development of embedding and subordination in language in general. Deutscher (2009) argues persuasively that nominalization of a verb is the first step—and the crucial step—toward syntactic embedding. It has also been suggested that prosodic marking may precede syntactic marking of embedding (Mithun, 2009). However, the relevant data from the stage at which embedding first emerges have not previously been available. KQSL might be the missing piece of the puzzle: a language in which a noun can be modified by an additional predicate, forming a proposition within a proposition, sustained entirely by prosodic means.

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“…Multiple individuals have parents from different generations, and peers from the fourth and fifth generations attend school together. In the case of Al-Sayyed Bedouin Sign Language, Kisch (2012) has therefore argued in favor of social network analysis to chart the various cohorts that may reflect intergenerational processes in that particular shared signing community. Similarly, the dispersal of lexical variation in Ban Khor Sign Language has been linked to the geographical location of two deaf families (Nonaka 2004).…”

Section: Spontaneous Language Use By Deaf Native Signers Of Various Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Deaf children who grow up in shared signing communities such as Bengkala thus have a comparatively rich linguistic environment not only with their parents but also with extended family members who are fluent signers. Moreover, shared signing communities can be characterized as having positive attitudes about deafness and sign language use (Marsaja 2008;Kisch 2008;Kusters 2010). In Bengkala, deaf children are therefore able to use their mother tongue from an early age (e.g., when they buy snacks at one of the village food stands, visit the village nurse, interact with deaf and hearing peers, and begin their primary education).…”

Section: The Kata Kolok Child Signing Corpusmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This latter sociolinguistic category of sign language, as used by both deaf and hearing community members, is known as a shared sign language. Shared signing communities vary with respect to social factors such as the causes and incidence of deafness, community size, the ratio of deaf and hearing signers, time depth, and the sociocultural construction of deafness (Kisch 2008;Kusters 2010). The linguistic and anthropological documentation and descriptions of shared signing communities are still in their initial stages (Zeshan and de Vos 2012).…”

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Sampling Shared Sign Languages

Vos¹

2016

sls

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This article addresses some of the theoretical questions, ethical considerations, and methodological decisions that guided the creation of the Kata Kolok corpus as well as the Kata Kolok child signing corpus. This discussion is relevant to the formation of prospective sign corpora that aim to portray the various sociolinguistic landscapes in which sign languages, whether rural or urban, emerge and evolve.

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Demarcating generations of signers in the dynamic sociolinguistic landscape of a shared sign-language: The case of the Al-Sayyid Bedouin

Cited by 39 publications

References 25 publications

Emerging linguistic features of Sao Tome and Principe Sign Language

Emerging linguistic features of Sao Tome and Principe Sign Language

The emergence of embedded structure: insights from Kafr Qasem Sign Language

Sampling Shared Sign Languages

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