By: Cheryl Lu, Social Media Coordinator
The International Day of Sign Languages is celebrated across the world every year on Sept. 23. It was proposed by the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and established by the United Nations to support and protect the linguistic identity and cultural diversity of the deaf and hard of hearing communities. While the roots of deafness and signing can be traced back to ancient history, the celebration of its diversity is relatively recent. Though the official date was established in 1951, the first recorded celebration, however, took place in 2018.
Just like how spoken languages have evolved into different families and dialects throughout history, sign language is also incredibly diverse. In today’s world, there are over 300 sign languages being used across the globe, each with its own unique regional variations, dialects, and slang that often won’t appear in formal educational materials.
Due to the absence of a universal sign language, interpretation play is vital role when people who are deaf and hard of hearing from different countries and areas meet and communicate. Different sign languages not only use different vocabularies to describe the same thing but also can have their own grammar, word order, semantics and expressions. While some sign languages closely resemble visual representations of the spoken version in the same geographical region, others have no direct relation to the spoken languages and are languages of their own rights. Therefore, while subtitles may offer convenience to the hearing population, they can never replace the profound significance of sign language interpretation on television and other forms of media.
Sign Language and Spoken Language
One pair of examples where the sign language doesn’t work as a derivative of the spoken language is American Sign Language (ASL) and English. In ASL, words like “the” “an” and “a” don’t exist. Pluralization is expressed by using a quantifier sign, reduplicating of signs or adding numbers; rather than through suffixes like “s.” Tenses are also nonexistent. Time in ASL is expressed through the words’ special position in relation to the signer: Behind the signer’s body means the past, and out away means the future. With an entirely different system and logic behind the language, ASL is far from a simple word-for-word translation of English.
(Difference between ASL and word-for-word Signed Exact English)
Difference between Sign Languages
1. Vocabulary
The most noticeable difference between different sign languages at first sight is their vocabularies. Below is a side-by-side comparison between some of the common ASL and British Sign Language (BSL) vocabularies:
2. Unique signs
Some sign languages preserve unique and distinct signs for vocabularies that aren’t found anywhere else in the world. In Chinese Sign Language (CSL), some of the signs are character-based, which means they are signed by mimicking the way those characters are written in Chinese. In the Our Language Rights Canada Conference 2023 hosted by MCIS earlier this year, one of our panelists mentioned the unique sign of “hamburger” in the endangered Maritime Sign Language (MSL) of Canada: In ASL it’s signed with two palms against each other like the shape of a typical sandwich, whereas in MSL it’s signed by mimicking the mechanism of a manual meat grinder.
(Recording of the Keynote Speech on MSL at the LAD23 Conference. Content about unique vocabularies can be found after 23’6’’)
3. Alphabet
Other differences between sign languages across the world can include alphabet, facial expression (which is a very important component of sign language) and more. In ASL, the entire alphabet can be signed using only one hand, whereas in BSL and Australian Sign Language (Auslan), many of the letters are signed with two hands.
(Difference between ASL and Auslan)
(Difference between sign languages in the U.S., the U.K., Germany and Denmark)
Sign Language Interpretation
Thanks to the modern technology and videography, we are able to now preserve, educate and learn about sign languages through visual mediums. Given the immense diversity and differences among sign languages, interpretation is the bridge that connects Deaf communities and Hearing communities around the world. Very much like interpreters of spoken languages, sign language interpreters are proficient in their bilingual specialty. These professional are trained and accredited to mediate meanings across languages and cultures, and are bound by the Code of Ethics.
At MCIS, we provide services for sign language interpretation 24/7 in both ASL and La langue des signes québécoise (LSQ), Canada’s two officially recognized sign languages. To learn more about our sign language interpretation, check out our Accessibility Services at https://www.mcislanguages.com/interpretation/. If you are interested in becoming an interpreter, please check out our Training page at: https://www.mcislanguages.com/programs-training/interpreter/.