View source for American Sign Language

{{Short description|Sign language used predominantly in the US}}
{{Redirect|ASL}}
{{redirect|Canadian Sign Language|French Canadian Sign Language|Quebec Sign Language|the sign language specific to Canada's Atlantic provinces|Maritime Sign Language|the Native American sign language|Hand Talk}}
{{Infobox language
|name = American Sign Language
|altname = Visual American Sign Language
|image = [[File:American Sign Language ASL.svg|250px|center]]
|region = [[Northern America]]
|states = [[United States]], [[Canada]]
|speakers = Native signers: {{sigfig|729,605|2}}
|date = 2006
|ref = e25
|speakers2=[[Second language|L2]] signers: {{sigfig|131,000|2}} (2006)<ref name=e25/>
|speakers_label=Signers
|familycolor = sign
|fam1 = [[French Sign Language family|Francosign]]
|fam2 = Mixed: [[French Sign Language|LSF]], [[Martha's Vineyard Sign Language]], and [[Plains Indian Sign Language|Hand Talk]]
|dia1 = [[Protactile]]
|dia2 = [[Black American Sign Language]]
|dia3 = see [[Varieties of American Sign Language]]
|script = none widely accepted <br /> [[si5s]] ([[ASLwrite]]), [[ASL-phabet]], [[Stokoe notation]], [[SignWriting]]
|nation=none
|minority= through legislation: [[Accessible Canada Act|Canada (federal)]]; [[Accessible Saskatchewan Act|Saskatchewan (provincial)]]; Ontario (provincial) only in domains of: legislation, education and judiciary proceedings.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/bills/bills_detail.do?locale=en&BillID=1619&isCurrent=false&BillStagePrintId=|title=Bill 213: An Act to recognize sign language as an official language in Ontario|author=Province of Ontario|date=2007|access-date=2015-07-23|archive-date=2018-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181224224411/https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-38/session-2/bill-213|url-status=dead}}</ref> through resolutions: Alberta, Manitoba.<br />45 US states and DC formally recognize ASL in state law; Five states recognize ASL for educational foreign language requirements, but have not formally recognized ASL as a language.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nad.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/List_States_Recognizing_ASL.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.nad.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/List_States_Recognizing_ASL.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=States that Recognize American Sign Language as a Foreign Language|author=((Education Policy Counsel at National Association of the Deaf))|access-date=13 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/laws/14-50|title=D.C. Law 14-50. American Sign Language Recognition Act of 2001. |last= |first= |date=2001-10-26 |website=code.dccouncil.gov |publisher=Council of the District of Columbia |access-date=2024-09-06 |quote=}}</ref>
|iso3 = ase
|glotto=asli1244
|glottoname=ASL family
|glottorefname=ASLic
|glotto2=amer1248
|glottoname2=ASL proper
|glottorefname2=American Sign Language
|map = ASL map (world).svg
|mapcaption = {{legend|#1E88E5|Areas where ASL or a dialect or derivative is the national sign language}}{{legend|#FB8C00|Areas where ASL is in significant use alongside another sign language}}
|map2 = Francosign Languages of North America.svg
|mapcaption2 = Map of the North American [[Francosign languages|Francosign]] languages. ASL covers the regions enclosed by the dashed line.
}}

'''American Sign Language''' ('''ASL''') is a [[natural language]]<ref>[http://www.deaflibrary.org/asl.html About American Sign Language] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130519230633/http://www.deaflibrary.org/asl.html |date=2013-05-19 }}, ''Deaf Research Library'', [[Karen Nakamura]]</ref> that serves as the predominant [[sign language]] of [[Deaf communities]] in the United States and most of [[Anglophone Canadians|Anglophone Canada]]. ASL is a complete and organized [[visual language]] that is expressed by employing both manual and [[nonmanual feature]]s.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-08-18|title=American Sign Language|url=https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/american-sign-language|access-date=2021-03-08|website=NIDCD|language=en|archive-date=2016-11-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161115163913/https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/american-sign-language|url-status=live}}</ref> Besides North America, dialects of ASL and ASL-based [[creole language|creoles]] are used in many countries around the world, including much of [[West Africa]] and parts of [[Southeast Asia]]. ASL is also widely learned as a [[second language]], serving as a [[lingua franca]]. ASL is most closely related to [[French Sign Language]] (LSF). It has been proposed that ASL is a creole language of LSF, although ASL shows features atypical of creole languages, such as [[agglutination|agglutinative morphology]].

ASL originated in the early 19th century in the [[American School for the Deaf]] (ASD) in [[Hartford, Connecticut]], from a situation of [[language contact]]. Since then, ASL use has been propagated widely by schools for the deaf and deaf community organizations. Despite its wide use, no accurate count of ASL users has been taken. Reliable estimates for American ASL users range from 250,000 to 500,000 persons, including a number of [[children of deaf adults]] (CODA) and other hearing individuals.

Signs in ASL have a number of [[phoneme|phonemic]] components, such as movement of the face, the torso, and the hands. ASL is not a form of [[mime|pantomime]], although [[iconicity]] plays a larger role in ASL than in spoken languages. English [[loan word]]s are often borrowed through [[fingerspelling]], although ASL grammar is unrelated to that of English. ASL has verbal [[agreement (linguistics)|agreement]] and [[grammatical aspect|aspectual]] marking and has a productive system of forming agglutinative [[classifier (linguistics)|classifiers]]. Many linguists believe ASL to be a [[subject–verb–object]] language. However, there are several other proposals to account for ASL word order.

== Classification ==
[[File:American Sign Language demo - Travis Dougherty.ogv|thumb|Travis Dougherty explains and demonstrates the ASL alphabet. Voice-over interpretation by Gilbert G. Lensbower.]]

ASL emerged as a language in the [[American School for the Deaf]] (ASD), founded by [[Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet|Thomas Gallaudet]] in 1817,<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|7}} which brought together [[Old French Sign Language]], various [[village sign language]]s, and [[home sign]] systems. ASL was created in that situation by [[language contact]].<ref name="padden" />{{rp|11}}{{efn|In particular, [[Martha's Vineyard Sign Language]], [[Henniker Sign Language]], and [[Sandy River Valley Sign Language]] were brought to the school by students. They, in turn, appear to have been influenced by early [[British Sign Language]] and did not involve input from indigenous Native American sign systems. See {{Harvcoltxt|Padden|2010|p=11}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Lane|Pillard|French|2000|p=17}}, and {{Harvcoltxt|Johnson|Schembri|2007|p=68}}.}} ASL is influenced by its forerunners, yet linguistically distinct.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|7}}

The influence of French Sign Language (LSF) on ASL is readily apparent; for example, it has been found that about 58% of signs in modern ASL are [[cognate]] to Old French Sign Language signs.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|7}}<ref name="padden">{{Harvcoltxt|Padden|2010}}</ref>{{rp|14}} However, that is far less than the standard 80% measure used to determine whether related languages are actually [[dialect]]s.<ref name="padden" />{{rp|14}} That suggests nascent ASL was highly affected by the other signing systems brought by the ASD students although the school's original director, [[Laurent Clerc]], taught in LSF.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|7}}<ref name="padden" />{{rp|14}} In fact, Clerc reported that he often learned the students' signs rather than conveying LSF:<ref name="padden"/>{{rp|14}}
{{Blockquote | text=I see, however, and I say it with regret, that any efforts that we have made or may still be making, to do better than, we have inadvertently fallen somewhat back of Abbé de l'Épée. Some of us have learned and still learn signs from uneducated pupils, instead of learning them from well instructed and experienced teachers.|sign=Clerc|source=1852, from Woodward 1978:336}}

It has been proposed that ASL is a [[creole language|creole]] in which LSF is the [[superstrate]] language and the native village sign languages are [[substrate (linguistics)|substrate]] languages.<ref name="kegl">{{Harvcoltxt|Kegl|2008}}</ref>{{rp|493}} However, more recent research has shown that modern ASL does not share many of the structural features that characterize creole languages.<ref name="kegl"/>{{rp|501}} ASL may have begun as a creole and then undergone structural change over time, but it is also possible that it was never a creole-type language.<ref name="kegl" />{{rp|501}} There are modality-specific reasons that signed languages tend towards [[agglutination]], such as the ability to simultaneously convey information via the face, head, torso, and other body parts. That might override creole characteristics such as the tendency towards [[isolating morphology]].<ref name="kegl"/>{{rp|502}} Additionally, Clerc and [[Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet]] may have used an artificially constructed form of [[manually coded language]] in instruction rather than true LSF.<ref name="kegl"/>{{rp|497}}

Although the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia share English as a common oral and written language, ASL is not mutually intelligible with either [[British Sign Language]] (BSL) or [[Auslan]].<ref name="johnson">{{Harvcoltxt|Johnson|Schembri|2007}}</ref>{{rp|68}} All three languages show degrees of borrowing from English, but that alone is not sufficient for cross-language comprehension.<ref name="johnson" />{{rp|68}} It has been found that a relatively high percentage (37–44%) of ASL signs have similar translations in Auslan, which for oral languages would suggest that they belong to the same [[language family]].<ref name="johnson" />{{rp|69}} However, that does not seem justified historically for ASL and Auslan, and it is likely that the resemblance is caused by the higher degree of [[iconicity]] in sign languages in general as well as contact with English.<ref name="johnson" />{{rp|70}}

American Sign Language is growing in popularity in many states. Many high school and university students desire to take it as a foreign language, but until recently, it was usually not considered a creditable foreign language elective. ASL users, however, have a very distinct culture, and they interact very differently when they talk. Their facial expressions and hand movements reflect what they are communicating. They also have their own sentence structure, which sets the language apart.<ref>{{Cite web|title = ASL as a Foreign Language Fact Sheet|url = http://www.unm.edu/~wilcox/UNM/facts.html|website = www.unm.edu|access-date = 2015-11-04|archive-date = 2018-09-27|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180927114808/http://www.unm.edu/~wilcox/UNM/facts.html|url-status = live}}</ref>

American Sign Language is now being accepted by many colleges as a language eligible for foreign language course credit;<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unm.edu/~wilcox/UNM/univlist.html|title=Universities That Accept ASL In Fulfillment Of Foreign Language Requirements.|last=Wilcox Phd|first=Sherman|date=May 2016|access-date=May 24, 2018|archive-date=October 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181024103845/http://www.unm.edu/~wilcox/UNM/univlist.html|url-status=live}}</ref> many states are making it mandatory to accept it as such.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/tennessee/articles/2017-04-26/tennessee-passes-sign-language-bill|title=Bill Passes Requiring Sign Language Students Receive Credit|last=Burke|first=Sheila|date=April 26, 2017|website=US News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011051745/https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/tennessee/articles/2017-04-26/tennessee-passes-sign-language-bill|archive-date=2017-10-11|url-status=dead|access-date=May 24, 2018}}</ref> In some states however, this is only true with regard to high school coursework.

== History ==
[[File:Sign language interpreter.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=signing man sitting in the foreground, with a speaker standing at a podium in the background|A sign language interpreter at a presentation]]
Prior to the birth of ASL, sign language had been used by various communities in the United States.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|5}} In the United States, as elsewhere in the world, hearing families with deaf children have historically employed ad hoc [[home sign]], which often reaches much higher levels of sophistication than gestures used by hearing people in spoken conversation.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|5}} As early as 1541 at first contact by [[Francisco Vásquez de Coronado]], there were reports that the [[Plains Indians|Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains]] widely spoke [[Plains Indian Sign Language|a sign language]] to communicate across vast national and linguistic lines.<ref>Ceil Lucas, 1995, ''The Sociolinguistics of the Deaf Community''</ref>{{rp|80}}

In the 19th century, a "triangle" of [[village sign language]]s developed in [[New England]]: one in [[Martha's Vineyard]], Massachusetts; one in [[Henniker, New Hampshire]], and one in [[Sandy River Valley, Maine]].<ref name=Lane_Pillard_French>{{Harvcoltxt|Lane|Pillard|French|2000|p=17}}</ref> [[Martha's Vineyard Sign Language]] (MVSL), which was particularly important for the history of ASL, was used mainly in [[Chilmark, Massachusetts]].<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|5–6}} Due to intermarriage in the original community of English settlers of the 1690s, and the [[recessive]] nature of genetic deafness, Chilmark had a high 4% rate of genetic deafness.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|5–6}} MVSL was used even by hearing residents whenever a deaf person was present,<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|5–6}} and also in some situations where spoken language would be ineffective or inappropriate, such as during church sermons or between boats at sea.<ref name="Groce1985">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/everyoneherespok00groc_0|url-access=registration|quote=everyone here sign.|title=Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard|last=Groce|first=Nora Ellen|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1985|isbn=978-0-674-27041-1|location=Cambridge, MA|access-date=21 October 2010}}</ref>

ASL is thought to have originated in the [[American School for the Deaf]] (ASD), founded in [[Hartford, Connecticut]], in 1817.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|4}} Originally known as ''The American Asylum, At Hartford, For The Education And Instruction Of The Deaf And Dumb'', the school was founded by the Yale graduate and divinity student [[Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet]].<ref name="asd">{{cite web|url=http://www.asd-1817.org/page.cfm?p=429|title=A Brief History of ASD|access-date=November 25, 2012|publisher=American School for the Deaf|date=n.d.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301084033/http://www.asd-1817.org/page.cfm?p=429|archive-date=March 1, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="dhm">{{cite web|url=http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/lib/detail.html?id=1371|title=A Brief History Of The American Asylum, At Hartford, For The Education And Instruction Of The Deaf And Dumb|year=1893|access-date=November 25, 2012|archive-date=September 5, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130905215220/http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/lib/detail.html?id=1371|url-status=live}}</ref> Gallaudet, inspired by his success in demonstrating the learning abilities of a young deaf girl [[Alice Cogswell]], traveled to Europe in order to learn deaf pedagogy from European institutions.<ref name="asd" /> Ultimately, Gallaudet chose to adopt the methods of the French [[Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris]], and convinced [[Laurent Clerc]], an assistant to the school's founder [[Charles-Michel de l'Épée]], to accompany him back to the United States.<ref name="asd" />{{efn|The [[Abbé]] [[Charles-Michel de l'Épée]], founder of the Parisian school [[Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris]], was the first to acknowledge that sign language could be used to educate the deaf. An oft-repeated folk tale states that while visiting a parishioner, Épee met two deaf daughters conversing with each other using LSF. The mother explained that her daughters were being educated privately by means of pictures. Épée is said to have been inspired by those deaf children when he established the first educational institution for the deaf.<ref>See:
* {{cite journal |doi=10.1080/00016480510026287 |title=Sign language: Its history and contribution to the understanding of the biological nature of language |year=2005 |last1=Ruben |first1=Robert J. |journal=Acta Oto-Laryngologica |volume=125 |issue=5 |pages=464–7 |pmid=16092534|s2cid=1704351 }}
* {{cite book
| last = Padden
| first = Carol A.
| author-link = Carol Padden
| title = Folk Explanation in Language Survival in: Deaf World: A Historical Reader and Primary Sourcebook, Lois Bragg, Ed.
| publisher = New York University Press
| year = 2001
| location = New York
| pages = 107–108
| isbn = 978-0-8147-9853-9 }}
</ref>}} Upon his return, Gallaudet founded the ASD on April 15, 1817.<ref name="asd" />

The largest group of students during the first seven decades of the school were from Martha's Vineyard, and they brought MVSL with them.<ref name="padden"/>{{rp|10}} There were also 44 students from around Henniker, New Hampshire, and 27 from the Sandy River valley in Maine, each of which had their own village sign language.<ref name="padden"/>{{rp|11}}{{efn|Whereas deafness was genetically recessive on Martha's Vineyard, it was dominant in Henniker. On the one hand, this dominance likely aided the development of sign language in Henniker since families would be more likely to have the critical mass of deaf people necessary for the propagation of signing. On the other hand, in Martha's Vineyard the deaf were more likely to have more hearing relatives, which may have fostered a sense of shared identity that led to more inter-group communication than in Henniker.<ref>See {{Harvcoltxt|Lane|Pillard|French|2000|p=39}}.</ref>}} Other students brought knowledge of their own home signs.<ref name="padden" />{{rp|11}} Laurent Clerc, the first teacher at ASD, taught using [[French Sign Language]] (LSF), which itself had developed in the Parisian school for the deaf established in 1755.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|7}} From that situation of [[language contact]], a new language emerged, now known as ASL.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|7}}

[[File:ASL convention.jpg|thumb|alt=man standing on a stage in the foreground addressing a seated crowd|American Sign Language Convention of March 2008 in Austin, Texas]] 
More schools for the deaf were founded after ASD, and knowledge of ASL spread to those schools.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|7}} In addition, the rise of Deaf community organizations bolstered the continued use of ASL.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|8}} Societies such as the [[National Association of the Deaf (United States)|National Association of the Deaf]] and the National Fraternal Society of the Deaf held national conventions that attracted signers from across the country.<ref name="padden"/>{{rp|13}} All of that contributed to ASL's wide use over a large geographical area, atypical of a sign language.<ref name="padden" />{{rp|14}}<ref name="padden" />{{rp|12}}

While [[oralism]], an approach to educating deaf students focusing on oral language, had previously been used in American schools, the [[Milan Congress]] made it dominant and effectively banned the use of sign languages at schools in the United States and Europe. However, the efforts of Deaf advocates and educators, more lenient enforcement of the Congress's mandate, and the use of ASL in religious education and proselytism ensured greater use and documentation compared to European sign languages, albeit more influenced by fingerspelled loanwords and borrowed idioms from English as students were societally pressured to achieve fluency in spoken language.{{sfn|Shaw|Delaporte|2015|p=xii-xiv}} Nevertheless, oralism remained the predominant method of deaf education up to the 1950s.<ref name="stokoe">{{Harvcoltxt|Armstrong|Karchmer|2002}}</ref> Linguists did not consider sign language to be true "language" but as something inferior.<ref name="stokoe" /> Recognition of the legitimacy of ASL was achieved by [[William Stokoe]], a linguist who arrived at [[Gallaudet University]] in 1955 when that was still the dominant assumption.<ref name="stokoe" /> Aided by the [[Civil Rights Movement]] of the [[1960s in the United States|1960s]], Stokoe argued for [[manualism]], the use of sign language in deaf education.<ref name="stokoe" /><ref>Stokoe, William C. 1960. [http://saveourdeafschools.org/stokoe_1960.pdf Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202224634/http://saveourdeafschools.org/stokoe_1960.pdf |date=2013-12-02 }}, ''Studies in linguistics: Occasional papers (No. 8)''. Buffalo: Dept. of Anthropology and Linguistics, University of Buffalo.</ref> Stokoe noted that sign language shares the important features that oral languages have as a means of communication, and even devised a [[Transcription (linguistics)|transcription]] system for ASL.<ref name="stokoe" /> In doing so, Stokoe revolutionized both deaf education and linguistics.<ref name="stokoe" /> In the 1960s, ASL was sometimes referred to as "Ameslan", but that term is now considered obsolete.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.handspeak.com/byte/a/index.php?byte=ameslan |title=American Sign Language, ASL or Ameslan |publisher=Handspeak.com |access-date=2012-05-21 |archive-date=2013-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605213919/http://www.handspeak.com/byte/a/index.php?byte=ameslan |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Population ==
Counting the number of ASL signers is difficult because ASL users have never been counted by the American census.<ref name="mitchell">{{Harvcoltxt|Mitchell|Young|Bachleda|Karchmer|2006}}</ref>{{rp|1}}{{efn|Although some surveys of smaller scope measure ASL use, such as the California Department of Education recording ASL use in the home when children begin school, ASL use in the general American population has not been directly measured. See {{Harvcoltxt|Mitchell|Young|Bachleda|Karchmer|2006|p=1}}.}} The ultimate source for current estimates of the number of ASL users in the United States is a report for the National Census of the Deaf Population (NCDP) by Schein and Delk (1974).<ref name="mitchell"/>{{rp|17}} Based on a 1972 survey of the NCDP, Schein and Delk provided estimates consistent with a signing population between 250,000 and 500,000.<ref name="mitchell"/>{{rp|26}} The survey did not distinguish between ASL and other forms of signing; in fact, the name "ASL" was not yet in widespread use.<ref name="mitchell"/>{{rp|18}}

Incorrect figures are sometimes cited for the population of ASL users in the United States based on misunderstandings of known statistics.<ref name="mitchell"/>{{rp|20}} Demographics of the deaf population have been confused with those of ASL use since adults who become deaf late in life rarely use ASL in the home.<ref name="mitchell"/>{{rp|21}} That accounts for currently-cited estimations that are greater than 500,000; such mistaken estimations can reach as high as 15,000,000.<ref name="mitchell"/>{{rp|1, 21}} A 100,000-person lower bound has been cited for ASL users; the source of that figure is unclear, but it may be an estimate of [[prelingual deafness]], which is correlated with but not equivalent to signing.<ref name="mitchell"/>{{rp|22}}

ASL is sometimes incorrectly cited as the third- or fourth-most-spoken language in the United States.<ref name="mitchell"/>{{rp|15, 22}} Those figures misquote Schein and Delk (1974), who actually concluded that ASL speakers constituted the third-largest population "requiring an interpreter in court".<ref name="mitchell"/>{{rp|15, 22}} Although that would make ASL the third-most used language among [[monolingual]]s other than English, it does not imply that it is the fourth-most-spoken language in the United States since speakers of other languages may also speak English.<ref name="mitchell"/>{{rp|21–22}}

==Geographic distribution==
ASL is used throughout [[Anglo-America]].<ref name="padden"/>{{rp|12}} That contrasts with Europe, where a variety of sign languages are used within the same continent.<ref name="padden" />{{rp|12}} The unique situation of ASL seems to have been caused by the proliferation of ASL through schools influenced by the American School for the Deaf, wherein ASL originated, and the rise of community organizations for the Deaf.<ref name="padden"/>{{rp|12–14}}

Throughout [[West Africa]], ASL-based sign languages are signed by educated Deaf adults.<ref name="nyst">{{Harvcoltxt|Nyst|2010}}</ref>{{rp|410}} Such languages, imported by boarding schools, are often considered by associations to be the official sign languages of their countries and are named accordingly, such as [[Nigerian Sign Language]] and [[Ghanaian Sign Language]].<ref name="nyst" />{{rp|410}} Such signing systems are found in [[Benin]], [[Burkina Faso]], [[Ivory Coast]], [[Ghana]], [[Liberia]], [[Mauritania]], [[Mali]], [[Nigeria]], and [[Togo]].<ref name="nyst"/>{{rp|406}} Due to lack of data, it is still an open question how similar those sign languages are to the variety of ASL used in America.<ref name="nyst"/>{{rp|411}}

In addition to the aforementioned West African countries, ASL is reported to be used as a [[first language]] in [[Barbados]], [[Bolivia]], [[Cambodia]]<ref>Benoit Duchateau-Arminjon, 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1jortIybT0C&q=%22Cambodian+Sign+Language%22&pg=PA180 ''Healing Cambodia One Child at a Time,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319153237/https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1jortIybT0C&q=%22Cambodian+Sign+Language%22&pg=PA180 |date=2023-03-19 }} p. 180.</ref> (alongside [[Cambodian Sign Language]]), the [[Central African Republic]], [[Chad]], [[China]] ([[Hong Kong]]), the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]], [[Gabon]], [[Jamaica]], [[Kenya]], [[Madagascar]], the [[Philippines]], [[Singapore]], and [[Zimbabwe]].<ref name=e25/> ASL is also used as a [[lingua franca]] throughout the deaf world, widely learned as a [[second language]].<ref name=e25/>

== Regional variation ==
=== Sign production ===
Sign production can often vary according to location. Signers from the South tend to sign with more flow and ease. Native signers from New York have been reported as signing comparatively quicker and sharper. Sign production of native Californian signers has also been reported as being fast. Research on that phenomenon often concludes that the fast-paced production for signers from the coasts could be due to the fast-paced nature of living in large metropolitan areas. That conclusion also supports how the ease with which Southerners sign could be caused by the easygoing environment of the South in comparison to that of the coasts.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/sociolinguisticvariationofasl.htm|title=Regional, Cultural, and Sociolinguistic Variation of ASL in the United States|last=Rogelio|first=Contreras|date=November 15, 2002|access-date=March 19, 2018|archive-date=January 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121051610/http://lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/sociolinguisticvariationofasl.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Sign production can also vary depending on age and native language. For example, sign production of letters may vary in older signers. Slight differences in finger spelling production can be a signal of age. Additionally, signers who learned American Sign Language as a second language vary in production. For Deaf signers who learned a different sign language before learning American Sign Language, qualities of their native language may show in their ASL production. Some examples of that varied production include fingerspelling towards the body, instead of away from it, and signing certain movement from bottom to top, instead of top to bottom. Hearing people who learn American Sign Language also have noticeable differences in signing production. The most notable production difference of hearing people learning American Sign Language is their rhythm and arm posture.<ref>{{Citation|last=Gallaudet Department of Linguistics|title=Do sign languages have accents?|date=2017-09-16|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gli3akhYOSo| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/Gli3akhYOSo| archive-date=2021-10-30|access-date=2018-04-27}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

=== Sign variants ===
Most popularly, there are variants of the signs for English words such as "birthday", "pizza", "Halloween", "early", and "soon", just a sample of the most commonly recognized signs with variants based on regional change. The sign for "school" is commonly varied between black and white signers; the variants used by black signers are sometimes called [[Black American Sign Language]].<ref name="Valli 2005 84" /> Social variation is also found between citation forms and forms used by Deaf gay men for words such as "pain" and "protest".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Blau |first1=Shane |title=Indexing Gay Identities in American Sign Language |journal=Sign Language Studies |date=2017 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=5–40 |doi=10.1353/sls.2017.0019 |jstor=26478210|s2cid=149249585 }}</ref>

=== History and implications ===
The prevalence of residential Deaf schools can account for much of the regional variance of signs and sign productions across the United States. Deaf schools often serve students of the state in which the school resides. That limited access to signers from other regions, combined with the residential quality of Deaf Schools promoted specific use of certain sign variants. Native signers did not have much access to signers from other regions during the beginning years of their education. It is hypothesized that because of that seclusion, certain variants of a sign prevailed over others due to the choice of variant used by the student of the school/signers in the community.

However, American Sign Language does not appear to be vastly varied in comparison to other signed languages. That is because when Deaf education was beginning in the United States, many educators flocked to the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, whose central location for the first generation of educators in Deaf education to learn American Sign Language allows ASL to be more standardized than its variant.<ref name="Valli 2005 84" />

== Varieties ==
{{main|Varieties of American Sign Language}}
{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = vertical
| header = Variants of ABOUT in Canadian ASL

|image1 = About- General sign.ogv
|caption1 = About – General sign (Canadian ASL)<ref name="about">{{Harvcoltxt|Bailey|Dolby|2002|pp=1–2}}</ref>

|image2 = About- Atlantic Variation.ogv
|caption2 = About – Atlantic Variation (Canadian ASL)<ref name="about" />

|image3 = About- Ontario Variation.ogv
|caption3 = About – Ontario Variation (Canadian ASL)<ref name="about" />}}
Varieties of ASL are found throughout the [[#Geographic distribution|world]]. There is little difficulty in comprehension among the varieties of the United States and Canada.<ref name=e25/>

{{blockquote|text=Just as there are accents in speech, there are regional accents in sign. People from the South sign slower than people in the North—even people from northern and southern Indiana have different styles.|sign={{cite book|last=Walker|first=Lou Ann|year=1987|title=A Loss for Words: The Story of Deafness in a Family|location=New York|publisher=HarperPerennial|page=[https://archive.org/details/lossforwordsstor00walk/page/31 31]|isbn=978-0-06-091425-7|url=https://archive.org/details/lossforwordsstor00walk/page/31}}}}

[[Mutual intelligibility]] among those ASL varieties is high, and the variation is primarily [[Vocabulary|lexical]].<ref name=e25/> For example, there are three different words for English ''about'' in Canadian ASL; the standard way, and two regional variations (Atlantic and Ontario).<ref name="about" /> Variation may also be [[phonological]], meaning that the same sign may be signed in a different way depending on the region. For example, an extremely common type of variation is between the handshapes /1/, /L/, and /5/ in signs with one handshape.<ref name="lbv36">{{Harvcoltxt|Lucas|Bayley|Valli|2003|p=36}}</ref>

There is also a distinct variety of ASL used by the Black Deaf community.<ref name=e25/> [[Black ASL]] evolved as a result of [[racial segregation in the United States#Education|racially segregated schools]] in some states, which included the residential schools for the deaf.<ref name="solomon">{{Harvcoltxt|Solomon|2010}}</ref>{{rp|4}} Black ASL differs from standard ASL in vocabulary, phonology, and some grammatical structure.<ref name=e25/><ref name="solomon" />{{rp|4}} While [[African American English]] (AAE) is generally viewed as more innovating than standard English, Black ASL is more conservative than standard ASL, preserving older forms of many signs.<ref name="solomon" />{{rp|4}} Black sign language speakers use more two-handed signs than in mainstream ASL, are less likely to show assimilatory lowering of signs produced on the forehead (e.g. KNOW) and use a wider signing space.<ref name="solomon" />{{rp|4}} Modern Black ASL borrows a number of idioms from AAE; for instance, the AAE idiom "I feel you" is [[calque]]d into Black ASL.<ref name="solomon" />{{rp|10}}

ASL is used internationally as a [[lingua franca]], and a number of closely related sign languages derived from ASL are used in many different countries.<ref name=e25/> Even so, there have been varying degrees of divergence from standard ASL in those imported ASL varieties. [[Bolivian Sign Language]] is reported to be a dialect of ASL, no more divergent than other acknowledged dialects.<ref>{{e25|bvl|Bolivian Sign Language}}</ref> On the other hand, it is also known that some imported ASL varieties have diverged to the extent of being separate languages. For example, [[Malaysian Sign Language]], which has ASL origins, is no longer mutually comprehensible with ASL and must be considered its own language.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Hurlbut|2003|loc=7. Conclusion}}</ref> For some imported ASL varieties, such as those used in West Africa, it is still an open question how similar they are to American ASL.<ref name="nyst"/>{{rp|411}}

When communicating with hearing English speakers, ASL-speakers often use what is commonly called [[Pidgin Signed English]] (PSE) or 'contact signing', a blend of English structure with ASL vocabulary.<ref name=e25/><ref name="deaflib">{{cite web|title=About ASL|last=Nakamura|first=Karen|publisher=Deaf Resource Library|year=2008|url=http://www.deaflibrary.org/asl.html|access-date=December 3, 2012|archive-date=May 19, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130519230633/http://www.deaflibrary.org/asl.html|url-status=live}}</ref>  Various types of PSE exist, ranging from highly English-influenced PSE (practically [[relexification|relexified]] English) to PSE which is quite close to ASL lexically and grammatically, but may alter some subtle features of ASL grammar.<ref name="deaflib" /> Fingerspelling may be used more often in PSE than it is normally used in ASL.<ref name="cxxv" /> There have been some [[constructed languages|constructed sign languages]], known as [[Manually Coded English]] (MCE), which match English grammar exactly and simply replace spoken words with signs; those systems are not considered to be varieties of ASL.<ref name=e25/><ref name="deaflib" />

[[Tactile ASL]] (TASL) is a variety of ASL used throughout the United States by and with the [[deaf-blind]].<ref name=e25/> It is particularly common among those with [[Usher's syndrome]].<ref name=e25/> It results in deafness from birth followed by loss of vision later in life; consequently, those with Usher's syndrome often grow up in the Deaf community using ASL, and later transition to TASL.<ref name="usher">{{Harvcoltxt|Collins|2004|p=33}}</ref> TASL differs from ASL in that signs are produced by touching the palms, and there are some grammatical differences from standard ASL in order to compensate for the lack of [[nonmanual signing]].<ref name=e25/>

ASL changes over time and from generation to generation. The sign for telephone has changed as the shape of phones and the manner of holding them have changed.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Morris |first=Amanda |date=2022-07-26 |title=How Sign Language Evolves as Our World Does |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/07/26/us/american-sign-language-changes.html |access-date=2022-07-28 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=2022-07-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220727171814/http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/07/26/us/american-sign-language-changes.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The development of telephones with screens has also changed ASL, encouraging the use of signs that can be seen on small screens.<ref name=":0" />

== Stigma ==
In 2013, the White House published a response to a petition that gained over 37,000 signatures to ''officially recognize American Sign Language as a community language and a language of instruction in schools''. The response is titled "there shouldn't be any stigma about American Sign Language" and addressed that ASL is a vital language for the Deaf and hard of hearing. Stigmas associated with sign languages and the use of sign for educating children often lead to the absence of sign during periods in children's lives when they can access languages most effectively.<ref>{{cite journal|title=A critical period for right hemisphere recruitment in American Sign Language processing | volume=5|issue=1 |doi=10.1038/nn775|pmid=11753419 |pages=76–80|journal=Nature Neuroscience|year=2002 |last1=Newman |first1=Aaron J. |last2=Bavelier |first2=Daphne |last3=Corina |first3=David |last4=Jezzard |first4=Peter |last5=Neville |first5=Helen J. | s2cid=2745545}}</ref> Scholars such as [[Beth S. Benedict]] advocate not only for [[bilingualism]] (using ASL and English training) but also for [[early childhood intervention]] for children who are deaf.  York University psychologist [[Ellen Bialystok]] has also campaigned for bilingualism, arguing that those who are bilingual acquire cognitive skills that may help to prevent dementia later in life.<ref>{{Cite book|title=I Can Hear You Whisper: An Intimate Journey through the Science of Sound and Language|last=Denworth|first=Ldyia|publisher=Penguin Group|year=2014|isbn=978-0-525-95379-1|location=US|pages=293}}</ref>

Most children born to deaf parents are hearing.<ref name="bh">{{Harvcoltxt|Bishop|Hicks|2005}}</ref>{{rp|192}} Known as [[Child of deaf adult|CODAs]] ("Children of Deaf Adults"), they are often more [[Deaf culture|culturally Deaf]] than deaf children, most of whom are born to hearing parents.<ref name="bh" />{{rp|192}} Unlike many deaf children, CODAs acquire ASL as well as Deaf cultural values and behaviors from birth.<ref name="bh" />{{rp|192}} Such [[bilingual]] hearing children may be mistakenly labeled as being "slow learners" or as having "language difficulties" because of preferential attitudes towards spoken language.<ref name="bh"/>{{rp|195}}

== Writing systems ==
{{See also|Sign language#Written forms}}
{{Further|Writing system|Written language}}
[[File:ASL in Stokoe notation.png|thumb|alt=text written in Stokoe notation|The ASL phrase "American Sign Language", written in [[Stokoe notation]]]]
Although there is no well-established writing system for ASL,<ref name="sup">{{Harvcoltxt|Supalla|Cripps|2011|loc=ASL Gloss as an Intermediary Writing System}}</ref> written sign language dates back almost two centuries. The first systematic writing system for a sign language seems to be that of [[Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian]], developed in 1825.<ref name="vhc">{{Harvcoltxt|van der Hulst|Channon|2010}}</ref>{{rp|153}} However, written sign language remained marginal among the public.<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|154}} In the 1960s, linguist William Stokoe created [[Stokoe notation]] specifically for ASL. It is alphabetic, with a letter or [[diacritic]] for every [[phonemic]] (distinctive) hand shape, orientation, motion, and position, though it lacks any representation of facial expression, and is better suited for individual words than for extended passages of text.<ref name="Armstrong, David F. 2009">Armstrong, David F., and Michael A. Karchmer. "William C. Stokoe and the Study of Signed Languages." ''Sign Language Studies'' 9.4 (2009): 389-397. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 June 2012.</ref> Stokoe used that system for his 1965 ''[[A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles]]''.<ref>[[William Stokoe|Stokoe, William C.]]; [[Dorothy C. Casterline]]; [[Carl G. Croneberg]]. 1965. ''A dictionary of American sign languages on linguistic principles''. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet College Press</ref>

[[File:Ase-AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE.png|thumb|alt=text written in Sutton SignWriting|The ASL phrase "American Sign Language", written in [[SignWriting]]]]
[[SignWriting]], proposed in 1974 by [[Valerie Sutton]],<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|154}} is the first writing system to gain use among the public and the first writing system for sign languages to be included in the [[Unicode|Unicode Standard]].<ref name="EversonUnicode">{{cite web
|last1=Everson
|first1=Michael
|last2=Slevinski
|first2=Stephen
|last3=Sutton
|first3=Valerie
|title=Proposal for encoding Sutton SignWriting in the UCS
|url=http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n4342.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n4342.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live
|access-date=1 April 2013
}}</ref> SignWriting consists of more than 5000 distinct iconic graphs/glyphs.<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|154}} Currently, it is in use in many schools for the Deaf, particularly in Brazil, and has been used in [[International Sign]] forums with speakers and researchers in more than 40 countries, including Brazil, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Tunisia, and the United States. Sutton SignWriting has both a printed and an electronically produced form so that persons can use the system anywhere that oral languages are written (personal letters, newspapers, and media, academic research). The systematic examination of the International Sign Writing Alphabet (ISWA) as an equivalent usage structure to the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] for spoken languages has been proposed.<ref>Charles Butler, Center for Sutton Movement Writing, 2014</ref> According to some researchers, SignWriting is not a [[phonemic orthography]] and does not have a one-to-one map from phonological forms to written forms.<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|163}} That assertion has been disputed, and the process for each country to look at the ISWA and create a phonemic/morphemic assignment of features of each sign language was proposed by researchers Msc. Roberto Cesar Reis da Costa and Madson Barreto in a thesis forum on June 23, 2014.<ref>{{cite web|author1=Roberto Costa|author2=Madson Barreto|url=http://www.signwriting.org/symposium/presentation0032.html|title=SignWriting Symposium Presentation 32|work=signwriting.org|access-date=2014-07-25|archive-date=2022-02-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220207180524/https://www.signwriting.org/symposium/presentation0032.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The SignWriting community has an open project on Wikimedia Labs to support the various Wikimedia projects on [[Wikimedia Incubator]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Incubator:Test_wikis_of_sign_languages|title=Test wikis of sign languages|work=incubator.wikimedia.org|access-date=2015-11-02|archive-date=2015-09-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910170823/https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Incubator:Test_wikis_of_sign_languages|url-status=live}}</ref> and elsewhere involving SignWriting.  The ASL Wikipedia request was marked as eligible in 2008<ref>{{cite web|url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_American_Sign_Language_2|title=Request for ASL Wikipedia|work=meta.wikimedia.org|access-date=2015-11-02|archive-date=2018-11-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121182758/https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_American_Sign_Language_2|url-status=live}}</ref> and the test ASL Wikipedia has 50 articles written in ASL using SignWriting.

The most widely used [[transcription (linguistics)|transcription]] system among academics is [[HamNoSys]], developed at the [[University of Hamburg]].<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|155}} Based on Stokoe Notation, HamNoSys was expanded to about 200 graphs in order to allow transcription of any sign language.<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|155}} Phonological features are usually indicated with single symbols, though the group of features that make up a handshape is indicated collectively with a symbol.<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|155}}

Several additional candidates for written ASL have appeared over the years, including [[SignFont]], [[ASL-phabet]], and [[Si5s]].

[[File:Brief Comparison of ASL Writing Systems.jpg|thumb|center|upright=2.05|Comparison of ASL writing systems: Sutton SignWriting, Si5s, Stokoe notation, SignFont, and ASLphabet]]

For English-speaking audiences, ASL is often [[interlinear gloss|glossed]] using English words. Such glosses are typically all-capitalized and are arranged in ASL order. For example, the ASL sentence ''DOG NOW CHASE>IX=3 CAT'', meaning "the dog is chasing the cat", uses NOW to mark ASL [[progressive aspect]] and shows ASL verbal inflection for the third person (''>IX=3''). However, glossing is not used to write the language for speakers of ASL.<ref name="sup" />

== Phonology ==
{{main|American Sign Language phonology}}
{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = vertical
| header = [[Distinctive feature]]s in ASL
| width = 150
| image1 = V@InForward.jpg
| alt1 = ASL sign for the number 2
| caption1 = Phonemic handshape /2/<br />[+ closed thumb]<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|12}}

| image2 = 3@InForward.jpg
| alt2 = ASL sign for the number 3
| caption2 = Phonemic handshape /3/<br />[− closed thumb]<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|12}}
}}

Each sign in ASL is composed of a number of distinctive components, generally referred to as parameters. A sign may use one hand or both. All signs can be described using the five parameters involved in signed languages, which are [[handshape]], [[movement (sign language)|movement]], [[orientation (sign language)|palm orientation]], [[location (sign language)|location]] and [[nonmanual marker]]s.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|10}} Just as phonemes of sound distinguish meaning in spoken languages, those parameters are the phonemes that distinguish meaning in signed languages like ASL.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Baker|first1=Anne|last2=van den Bogaerde|first2=Beppie|last3=Pfau|first3=Roland|last4=Schermer|first4=Trude|title=The Linguistics of Sign Languages : An Introduction|date=2016|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|isbn=9789027212306}}</ref> Changing any one of them may change the meaning of a sign, as illustrated by the ASL signs THINK and DISAPPOINTED:
{|
|
{| class="wikitable"
|+ THINK<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|10}}
! Handshape
| Closed fist with index finger extended
|-
! Orientation
| Facing signer's body
|-
! Location
| Tip of finger in contact with forehead
|-
! Movement
| Unidirectional single contacting movement
|}
|
{| class="wikitable"
|+ DISAPPOINTED<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|10}}
! Handshape
| (as for THINK)
|-
! Orientation
| (as for THINK)
|-
! Location
| Tip of finger in contact with chin
|-
! Movement
| (as for THINK)
|}
|}

There are also meaningful [[nonmanual signals]] in ASL,<ref name="bahan">{{Harvcoltxt|Bahan|1996}}</ref>{{rp|49}} which may include movement of the eyebrows, the cheeks, the nose, the head, the torso, and the eyes.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|49}}

[[William Stokoe]] proposed that such components are analogous to the [[phoneme]]s of spoken languages.<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|601:15}}{{efn|Stokoe himself termed them [[chereme]]s, but other linguists have referred to them as phonemes. See {{Harvcoltxt|Bahan|1996|p=11}}.}} There has also been a proposal that they are analogous to classes like [[place of articulation|place]] and [[manner of articulation]].<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|601:15}} As in spoken languages, those phonological units can be split into [[distinctive feature]]s.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|12}} For instance, the handshapes /2/ and /3/ are distinguished by the presence or absence of the feature [± closed thumb], as illustrated to the right.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|12}} ASL has processes of [[allophony]] and [[phonotactic]] restrictions.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|12,19}} There is ongoing research into whether ASL has an analog of [[syllable]]s in spoken language.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|1}}

== Grammar ==
{{main|American Sign Language grammar}}
[[File:ASL family.jpg|thumb|alt=two men and a woman signing|Two men and a woman signing]]

=== Morphology ===
ASL has a rich system of verbal [[inflection]], which involves both [[grammatical aspect]]: how the action of verbs flows in time—and [[agreement (linguistics)|agreement]] marking.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|27–28}} Aspect can be marked by changing the manner of movement of the verb; for example, [[continuous aspect]] is marked by incorporating rhythmic, circular movement, while punctual aspect is achieved by modifying the sign so that it has a stationary hand position.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|27–28}} Verbs may agree with both the [[grammatical subject|subject]] and the [[grammatical object|object]], and are marked for [[grammatical number|number]] and reciprocity.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|28}} Reciprocity is indicated by using two one-handed signs; for example, the sign SHOOT, made with an L-shaped handshape with inward movement of the thumb, inflects to SHOOT<sub>[reciprocal]</sub>, articulated by having two L-shaped hands "shooting" at each other.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|29}}

ASL has a productive system of [[Classifier constructions in sign languages|classifiers]], which are used to classify objects and their movement in space.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|26}} For example, a rabbit running downhill would use a classifier consisting of a bent V classifier handshape with a downhill-directed path; if the rabbit is hopping, the path is executed with a bouncy manner.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|26}} In general, classifiers are composed of a "classifier handshape" [[bound morpheme|bound]] to a "movement root".<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|26}} The classifier handshape represents the object as a whole, incorporating such attributes as surface, depth, and shape, and is usually very iconic.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Valli|Lucas|2000|p=86}}</ref> The movement root consists of a path, a direction and a manner.<ref name="bahan"/>{{rp|26}}

In linguistics, there are two primary ways of changing the form of a word: derivation and inflection. Derivation involves creating new words by adding something to an existing word, while inflection involves changing the form of a word to convey grammatical information without altering its fundamental meaning or category.

For example, adding the suffix "-ship" to the noun "friend" creates the new word "friendship", which has a different meaning than the original word. Inflection, on the other hand, involves modifying a word's form to indicate grammatical features such as tense, number, gender, person, case, and degree of comparison.

In American Sign Language (ASL), inflection is conveyed through facial expressions, body movements, and other non-manual markers. For instance, to indicate past tense in ASL, one might sign the present tense of a verb (such as "walk"), and then add a facial expression and head tilt to signify that the action occurred in the past (i.e., "walked").

According to the book Linguistics of American Sign Language, ASL signs have two main components: hold segments and movement segments. Hold segments consist of hand-shape, location, orientation, and non-manual features, while movement segments possess similar features.

Morphology is the study of how languages form words by using smaller units to construct larger units. The smallest meaningful unit in a language is known as a "morpheme", with some morphemes able to stand alone as independent units (free morphemes), while others must occur with other morphemes (bound morphemes).

For example, the plural "-s" and third person "-s" in English are bound morphemes. In ASL, the 3 handshape in signs like THREE-WEEKS and THREE-MONTHS are also bound morphemes.

Affixes, which are morphemes added to words to create new words or modify their meanings, are part of the derivational process. For example, in English, prefixes like "re-" and suffixes like "-able" are affixes. In ASL, affixation can be used to modify the sign for CHAIR to indicate different types of chairs. The inflectional process, on the other hand, adds grammatical information to existing units.

By studying morphemes and how they can be combined or modified, linguists gain insight into the underlying structure of language and the creative ways in which it can be used to express meaning. Understanding morphology is essential to understanding how languages are built and how new signs or words can be formed.

Furthermore, understanding morphology has practical applications in language learning and teaching. For example, teaching students the basic morphological structures of a language can help them to better understand the language's grammar and syntax, and can also aid in their acquisition of new vocabulary.

In summary, morphology is an essential component of language and provides valuable insights into the structure and function of languages. By understanding the morphological processes involved in language formation, we can gain a deeper understanding of how languages work and how they can be effectively taught and learned.

==== Fingerspelling ====
{{main|Fingerspelling}}
[[File:Asl alphabet gallaudet.svg|thumb|upright=1.1|right|alt=chart of letters in the American manual alphabet, with Latin script equivalents|The American manual alphabet and numbers]]
American Sign Language possesses a set of 26 signs known as the [[American manual alphabet]], which can be used to spell out words from the English language.<ref name="cxxiv">{{Harvcoltxt|Costello|2008|p=xxiv}}</ref> It is rather a representation of the English alphabet, and not a unique alphabet of ASL, although commonly labeled as the "ASL alphabet".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sign language alphabets |url=https://www.handspeak.com/learn/212/ |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=www.handspeak.com}}</ref> It is borrowed from French Sign Language (LSF), as much of ASL is derived from LSF.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-10-29 |title=What Is American Sign Language (ASL)? {{!}} NIDCD |url=https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/american-sign-language |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=www.nidcd.nih.gov |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-09-23 |title=The Many Languages of Sign Language |url=https://www.littlepassports.com/blog/world-community/the-many-languages-of-sign-language/ |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=Little Passports |language=en-US}}</ref> Such signs make use of the 19 handshapes of ASL. For example, the signs for 'p' and 'k' use the same handshape but different orientations. A common misconception is that ASL consists only of fingerspelling; although such a method ([[Rochester Method]]) has been used, it is not ASL.<ref name="cxxv">{{Harvcoltxt|Costello|2008|p=xxv}}</ref>

Fingerspelling is a form of [[borrowing (linguistics)|borrowing]], a linguistic process wherein words from one language are incorporated into another.<ref name="cxxv" /> In ASL, fingerspelling is used for [[proper nouns]] and for technical terms with no native ASL equivalent.<ref name="cxxv" /> There are also some other loan words which are fingerspelled, either very short English words or abbreviations of longer English words, e.g. ''O-N'' from English 'on', and ''A-P-T'' from English 'apartment'.<ref name="cxxv" /> Fingerspelling may also be used to emphasize a word that would normally be signed otherwise.<ref name="cxxv" />

=== Syntax ===
ASL is a [[subject–verb–object]] (SVO) language, but various phenomena affect that basic word order.<ref name="Neidle 2000 59">{{cite book|last=Neidle|first=Carol|title=The Syntax of American Sign Language: Functional Categories and Hierarchical Structures|year=2000|publisher=The MIT Press|location=Cambridge, MA|isbn=978-0-262-14067-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/syntaxofamerican00caro/page/59 59]|url=https://archive.org/details/syntaxofamerican00caro/page/59}}</ref> Basic SVO sentences are signed without any pauses:<ref name="Valli 2005 84">{{cite book|title=Linguistics of American Sign Language: An Introduction|last=Valli|first=Clayton|publisher=Clerc Books|year=2005|isbn=978-1-56368-283-4|location=Washington, D.C.|page=169}}</ref>

{{interlinear|lang=ase|indent=3
|FATHER LOVE CHILD
|"The father loves the child."<ref name="Valli 2005 84"/>}}

However, other word orders may also occur since ASL allows the [[topic (linguistics)|topic]] of a sentence to be moved to sentence-initial position, a phenomenon known as [[topicalization]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Valli|first=Clayton|title=Linguistics of American Sign Language: An Introduction|year=2005|publisher=Clerc Books|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=978-1-56368-283-4|page=85}}</ref> In [[object–subject–verb]] (OSV) sentences, the object is topicalized, marked by a forward head-tilt and a pause:<ref name="Valli 2005 86">{{cite book|last=Valli|first=Clayton|title=Linguistics of American Sign Language: An Introduction|year=2005|publisher=Clerc Books|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=978-1-56368-283-4|page=86}}</ref>

{{interlinear|lang=ase|indent=3
|CHILD<sup>topic</sup>, FATHER LOVE
|"The father loves the child."<ref name="Valli 2005 86"/>}}

Besides, word orders can be obtained through the phenomenon of subject copy in which the subject is repeated at the end of the sentence, accompanied by head nodding for clarification or emphasis:<ref name="Valli 2005 84"/>

{{interlinear|lang=ase|indent=3
|FATHER LOVE CHILD FATHER<sup>copy</sup>
|"The father loves the child."<ref name="Valli 2005 84"/>}}

ASL also allows [[null subject]] sentences whose subject is implied, rather than stated explicitly. Subjects can be copied even in a null subject sentence, and the subject is then omitted from its original position, yielding a [[verb–object–subject]] (VOS) construction:<ref name="Valli 2005 86"/>

{{interlinear|lang=ase|indent=3
|LOVE CHILD FATHER<sup>copy</sup>
|"The father loves the child."<ref name="Valli 2005 86"/>}}

Topicalization, accompanied with a null subject and a subject copy, can produce yet another word order, [[object–verb–subject]] (OVS).

{{interlinear|lang=ase|indent=3
|CHILD<sup>topic</sup>, LOVE FATHER<sup>copy</sup>
|"The father loves the child."<ref name="Valli 2005 86"/>}}

Those properties of ASL allow it a variety of word orders, leading many to question which is the true, underlying, "basic" order. There are several other proposals that attempt to account for the flexibility of word order in ASL. One proposal is that languages like ASL are best described with a [[topic–comment]] structure whose words are ordered by their importance in the sentence, rather than by their syntactic properties.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lillo-Martin|first=Diane|title=Two Kinds of Null Arguments in American Sign Language|journal=Natural Language and Linguistic Theory|date=November 1986|volume=4|issue=4|page=415|doi=10.1007/bf00134469|s2cid=170784826 }}</ref> Another hypothesis is that ASL exhibits [[free word order]], in which syntax is not encoded in word order but can be encoded by other means such as head nods, eyebrow movement, and body position.<ref name="Neidle 2000 59"/>

== Iconicity ==
Common misconceptions are that signs are iconically self-explanatory, that they are a transparent imitation of what they mean, or even that they are [[pantomime]].<ref name="cxxiii">{{Harvcoltxt|Costello|2008|p=xxiii}}</ref> In fact, many signs bear no resemblance to their referent because they were originally arbitrary symbols, or their iconicity has been obscured over time.<ref name="cxxiii" /> Even so, in ASL [[iconicity]] plays a significant role; a high percentage of signs resemble their referents in some way.<ref name="l60" /> That may be because the medium of sign, three-dimensional space, naturally allows more iconicity than oral language.<ref name="cxxiii" />

In the era of the influential linguist [[Ferdinand de Saussure]], it was assumed that the mapping between form and meaning in language must be completely arbitrary.<ref name="l60">{{Harvcoltxt|Liddell|2002|p=60}}</ref> Although [[onomatopoeia]] is a clear exception, since words like "choo-choo" bear clear resemblance to the sounds that they mimic, the Saussurean approach was to treat them as marginal exceptions.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Liddell|2002|p=61}}</ref> ASL, with its significant inventory of iconic signs, directly challenges that theory.<ref name="l62">{{Harvcoltxt|Liddell|2002|p=62}}</ref>

Research on acquisition of pronouns in ASL has shown that children do not always take advantage of the iconic properties of signs when they interpret their meaning.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Thompson|first1=Robin L.|last2=Vinson|first2=David P.|last3=Vigliocco|first3=Gabriella|date=March 2009|title=The Link Between Form and Meaning in American Sign Language: Lexical Processing Effects|journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition|volume=35|issue=2|pages=550–557|doi=10.1037/a0014547|issn=0278-7393|pmc=3667647|pmid=19271866}}</ref> It has been found that when children acquire the pronoun "you", the iconicity of the point (at the child) is often confused, being treated more like a name.<ref name="petitto">{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/0010-0277(87)90034-5 |title=On the autonomy of language and gesture: Evidence from the acquisition of personal pronouns in American sign language |year=1987 |last1=Petitto |first1=Laura A. |journal=Cognition |volume=27 |pages=1–52 |pmid=3691016 |issue=1|s2cid=31570908 }}</ref> That is a similar finding to research in oral languages on pronoun acquisition. It has also been found that iconicity of signs does not affect immediate memory and recall; less iconic signs are remembered just as well as highly-iconic signs.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Klima|Bellugi|1979|p=27}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[American Sign Language grammar]]
* [[American Sign Language literature]]
* [[Baby sign language]]
* [[Bimodal bilingualism]]
* [[Great ape language]], of which ASL has been one attempted mode
* [[Inspirisles]]
* [[Legal recognition of sign languages]]
* [[Pointing]]
* [[Sign name]]
* [[ASL interpreting]]
* [[Bilingual–bicultural education|Billingual-Bicultural Education]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{citation|last1=Armstrong|first1=David|last2=Karchmer|first2=Michael|year=2002|contribution=William C. Stokoe and the Study of Signed Languages|editor1-last=Armstrong|editor1-first=David|editor2-last=Karchmer|editor2-first=Michael|editor3-last=Van Cleve|editor3-first=John|title=The Study of Signed Languages|publisher=Gallaudet University|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pc-Rcg2-L0UC&q=William+C.+Stokoe+and+the+Study+of+Signed+Languages|access-date=November 25, 2012|isbn=978-1-56368-123-3|pages=xi–xix}}
* {{cite book|last=Bahan|first=Benjamin|year=1996|title=Non-Manual Realization of Agreement in American Sign Language|publisher=Boston University|url=http://louis-xiv.bu.edu/pub/asl/disserts/Bahan96.pdf|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20171011051748/ftp://louis-xiv.bu.edu/pub/asl/disserts/Bahan96.pdf|url-status=live|archive-date=October 11, 2017|access-date=November 25, 2012}}
* {{cite book|last1=Bailey|first1=Carol|last2=Dolby|first2=Kathy|year=2002|title=The Canadian dictionary of ASL|location=Edmonton, AB|publisher=The University of Alberta Press|isbn=978-0888643001|url=https://archive.org/details/canadiandictiona00bail}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Bishop|first1=Michele|last2=Hicks|first2=Sherry|year=2005|title=Orange Eyes: Bimodal Bilingualism in Hearing Adults from Deaf Families|journal=Sign Language Studies|volume=5|issue=2|pages=188–230|doi=10.1353/sls.2005.0001|s2cid=143557815}}
* {{cite book|last=Collins|first=Steven|year=2004|title=Adverbial Morphemes in Tactile American Sign Language|publisher=Union Institute & University}}
* {{cite book|last=Costello|first=Elaine|year=2008|title=American Sign Language Dictionary|publisher=Random House|url=https://archive.org/details/randomhousewebst00elai_0|url-access=registration|isbn=978-0375426162|access-date=November 26, 2012}}
* {{citation|contribution=A Preliminary Survey of the Signed Languages of Malaysia|last=Hurlbut|first=Hope|year=2003|title=Cross-linguistic perspectives in sign language research: selected papers from TISLR|pages=31–46|location=Hamburg|publisher=Signum Verlag|editor-last=Baker|editor-first=Anne|editor2-last=van den Bogaerde|editor2-first=Beppie|editor-last3=Crasborn|editor-first3=Onno|url=http://www.signwriting.org/archive/docs6/sw0593_SignLanguages_Malaysia_Hurlbut.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.signwriting.org/archive/docs6/sw0593_SignLanguages_Malaysia_Hurlbut.pdf|archive-date=2022-10-09|url-status=live|access-date=December 3, 2012}}
* {{cite book|last1=Johnson|first1=Trevor|last2=Schembri|first2=Adam|title=Australian Sign Language (Auslan): An introduction to sign language linguistics|year=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521540568|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dnxDgCvEnJoC&q=asl+bsl+mutually+intelligible&pg=PA68|access-date=November 27, 2012|archive-date=March 19, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319153227/https://books.google.com/books?id=dnxDgCvEnJoC&q=asl+bsl+mutually+intelligible&pg=PA68|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Kegl|first=Judy|year=2008|contribution=The Case of Signed Languages in the Context of Pidgin and Creole Studies|editor1-last=Kouwenberg|editor1-first=Silvia|editor2-last=Singler|editor2-first=John|title=The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|isbn=978-0521540568|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AyFK3L-U_PIC&q=ASL+creole&pg=PA493|access-date=November 27, 2012|archive-date=March 19, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319153222/https://books.google.com/books?id=AyFK3L-U_PIC&q=ASL+creole&pg=PA493|url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book
| last1 = Klima
| first1 = Edward S.
| author-link = Edward Klima
| last2 = Bellugi
| first2 = Ursula
| author2-link = Ursula Bellugi
| title = The signs of language
| url = https://archive.org/details/signsoflanguage00klim_0
| url-access = registration
| place = Boston
| publisher = Harvard University Press
| year = 1979
| isbn = 978-0-674-80796-9
}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Lane|first1=Harlan|last2=Pillard|first2=Richard|last3=French|first3=Mary|year=2000|title=Origins of the American Deaf-World|journal=Sign Language Studies|volume=1|issue=1|pages=17–44|doi=10.1353/sls.2000.0003|doi-access=free}}
* {{citation|last=Liddell|first=Scott|year=2002|contribution=Modality Effects and Conflicting Agendas|editor1-last=Armstrong|editor1-first=David|editor2-last=Karchmer|editor2-first=Michael|editor3-last=Van Cleve|editor3-first=John|title=The Study of Signed Languages|publisher=Gallaudet University|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pc-Rcg2-L0UC&q=William+C.+Stokoe+and+the+Study+of+Signed+Languages|access-date=November 26, 2012|isbn=978-1-56368-123-3|pages=xi–xix}}
* {{cite book|author-link1=Ceil Lucas|author-link3=Clayton Valli|last1=Lucas|first1=Ceil|last2=Bayley|first2=Robert|last3=Valli|first3=Clayton|year=2003|title=What's your sign for pizza?: An introduction to variation in American Sign Language|location=Washington, DC|publisher=Gallaudet University Press|isbn=978-1563681448}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Mitchell|first1=Ross|last2=Young|first2=Travas|last3=Bachleda|first3=Bellamie|last4=Karchmer|first4=Michael|title=How Many People Use ASL in the United States?: Why Estimates Need Updating|journal=Sign Language Studies|volume=6|issue=3|year=2006|issn=0302-1475|url=http://research.gallaudet.edu/Publications/ASL_Users.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://research.gallaudet.edu/Publications/ASL_Users.pdf|archive-date=2022-10-09|url-status=live|access-date=November 27, 2012}}
* {{citation|last=Nyst|first=Victoria|year=2010|contribution=Sign languages in West Africa|pages=405–432|editor-last=Brentari|editor-first=Diane|title=Sign Languages|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-88370-2}}
* {{citation|last=Padden|first=Carol|year=2010|contribution=Sign Language Geography|pages=19–37|title=Deaf Around the World|editor1-last=Mathur|editor1-first=Gaurav|editor2-last=Napoli|editor2-first=Donna|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0199732531|access-date=November 25, 2012|url=http://communication.ucsd.edu/cpadden/sites/default/files/Padden%20SL%20Geography.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110603020029/http://communication.ucsd.edu/cpadden/sites/default/files/Padden%20SL%20Geography.pdf|archive-date=June 3, 2011|url-status=dead}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Shaw |first1=Emily |last2=Delaporte |first2=Yves |title=A historical and etymological dictionary of American Sign Language : the origin and evolution of more than 500 signs |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-56368-622-1 |publisher=Gallaudet University Press |location=Washington, DC |oclc=915119757 }}
* {{cite book |last=Solomon |first=Andrea |year=2010 |title=Cultural and Sociolinguistic Features of the Black Deaf Community |type=Honors Thesis |url=http://repository.cmu.edu/hsshonors/62/ |access-date=December 4, 2012 |publisher=Carnegie Mellon University |archive-date=April 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120403073832/http://repository.cmu.edu/hsshonors/62/ |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite journal|last1=Supalla|first1=Samuel|last2=Cripps|first2=Jody|title=Toward Universal Design in Reading Instruction|journal=Bilingual Basics|volume=12|issue=2|year=2011|url=http://www.towson.edu/asld/documents/SupallaCripps_FNL_000.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.towson.edu/asld/documents/SupallaCripps_FNL_000.pdf|archive-date=2022-10-09|url-status=live|access-date=January 5, 2012}}
* {{cite book|last1=Valli|first1=Clayton|last2=Lucas|first2=Ceil|title=Linguistics of American Sign Language|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mfS3GlTLAUMC|access-date=December 2, 2012|year=2000|publisher=Gallaudet University Press|isbn=978-1-56368-097-7}}
* {{citation|last1=van der Hulst|first1=Harry|last2=Channon|first2=Rachel|contribution=Notation systems|year=2010|title=Sign Languages|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-88370-2|pages=151–172|editor-last=Brentari|editor-first=Diane}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Incubator|ase}}
{{sister project links|d=Q14759|c=category:American Sign Language|n=no|v=no|voy=no|s=no|wikt=Category:American Sign Language|m=no|mw=no|q=no|species=no}}
* [http://www.spreadthesign.com Accessible American Sign Language vocabulary site]
* [http://www.signlanguageforum.com/asl/ American Sign Language discussion forum]
* [http://www.handspeak.com/ One-stop resource American Sign Language and video dictionary]
* [https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/american-sign-language National Institute of Deafness ASL section]
* [http://www.nad.org/issues/american-sign-language National Association of the Deaf ASL information]
* [http://www.lifeprint.com/ American Sign Language]
* [http://www.bu.edu/asllrp/ The American Sign Language Linguistics Research Project]
* [http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm Video Dictionary of ASL]
* [https://www.signasl.org American Sign Language Dictionary]

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