The archive
American Sign Language
Not English on the hands
A full language with its own grammar and its own family tree, related to French Sign Language and not to spoken English.
ScriptNo standard written form; glossed or written in Sign Writing
Speakers500k
Weeks to a working levelNot on the FSI scale. Taught widely in American schools and universities.
- It is not a signed version of English. Its grammar uses space, direction and facial expression in ways English has no equivalent for.
- It descends from French Sign Language, so ASL and British Sign Language cannot understand each other despite both countries speaking English.
- The face is grammar, not emotion. Raised eyebrows can turn a statement into a question.
- Verbs move through space to show who did what to whom, so the sentence has a geometry.
- Learning even a little is worth it for a reason most people do not think about: hearing loss is something most of us will meet eventually, in ourselves or in someone close.
Where to practise it
Reading about a language is not speaking it. These are the places I would go to find someone to speak American Sign Language with.
The American Sign Language Passepartout is not out yet
Five printed pages that carry you through the arrival. Leave your address and you hear about it first, and nothing else.
Leaving takes one click.
Stories in American Sign Language
Short stories written inside a measured vocabulary, with the word lists and nothing invented for a textbook.