Reply to thread

I have to agree with Jillio that ASL is indeed a foreign language. Simply because a person is born of a particular language, it doesn't mean that they'll be using the same form of communication as everyone else. The American Sign Language syntax (sentence structure) and semantics (the meaning) are applied differently from spoken and written American English...just as it is from French, Mandarin, Japanese, etc. As stated above, it is from a culture (the Deaf culture, that is) that ASL became what it is today. In addition, a lot of people think that ASL is signed word-for-word or signed as the spoken language, but the fact that it has it's own structure, it clearly indicates that it is not a sub-language. In sum, if ASL could be regarded as a foreign language, I'd say "Heck Yeah." :)


Back
Top