Making Contact Through Signed Languages

Abstract

Reviews the book Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities, Vol. 13 edited by D. Quinto-Pozos (2007). This volume of the Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities series focuses on contact between signed languages and its effects, including creation, borrowing, and attrition. Two contributions discuss lexical creation in signed languages. McKee, McKee, Smiler, and Pointon describe struggles of Deaf Maori to create cultural signs in New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). Two other contributions also focus on borrowing. Davis compares lexical items from North American Indian Signed Languages to historical records of ASL and concludes that ASL and Indian Signed Languages (with lexical similarities around 50%) have a history of contact and borrowing. Sasaki’s lexical comparison of Japanese Sign Language (JSL) and Taiwan Sign Language (TSL) finds that 55.4% are phonologically identical or phonologically similar, that is, only differ in one parameter. In sum, this collection of articles addresses common outcomes of language contact (creation, borrowing, and attrition) but with effects unique to manual communication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)