Emerging Sign Languages of the Americas


Book Description

This volume is the first to bring together researchers studying a range of different types of emerging sign languages in the Americas, and their relationship to the gestures produced in the surrounding communities of hearing individuals. Contents Acknowledgements Olivier Le Guen, Marie Coppola and Josefina Safar Introduction: How Emerging Sign Languages in the Americas contributes to the study of linguistics and (emerging) sign languages Part I: Emerging sign languages of the Americas. Descriptions and analysis John Haviland Signs, interaction, coordination, and gaze: interactive foundations of “Z”—an emerging (sign) language from Chiapas, Mexico Laura Horton Representational strategies in shared homesign systems from Nebaj, Guatemala Josefina Safar and Rodrigo Petatillo Chan Strategies of noun-verb distinction in Yucatec Maya Sign Languages Emmanuella Martinod, Brigitte Garcia and Ivani Fusellier A typological perspective on the meaningful handshapes in the emerging sign languages on Marajó Island (Brazil) Ben Braithwaite Emerging sign languages in the Caribbean Olivier Le Guen, Rebeca Petatillo and Rita (Rossy) Kinil Canché Yucatec Maya multimodal interaction as the basis for Yucatec Maya Sign Language Marie Coppola Gestures, homesign, sign language: Cultural and social factors driving lexical conventionalization Part II: Sociolinguistic sketches John B. Haviland Zinacantec family homesign (or “Z”) Laura Horton A sociolinguistic sketch of deaf individuals and families from Nebaj, Guatemala Josefina Safar and Olivier Le Guen Yucatec Maya Sign Language(s): A sociolinguistic overview Emmanuella Martinod, Brigitte Garcia and Ivani Fusellier Sign Languages on Marajó Island (Brazil) Ben Braithwaite Sociolinguistic sketch of Providence Island Sign Language Kristian Ali and Ben Braithwaite Bay Islands Sign Language: A Sociolinguistic Sketch Marie Coppola Sociolinguistic sketch: Nicaraguan Sign Language and Homesign Systems in Nicaragua




Emerging Sign Languages of the Americas


Book Description

This volume is the first to bring together researchers studying a range of different types of emerging sign languages in the Americas, and their relationship to the gestures produced in the surrounding communities of hearing individuals. Contents Acknowledgements Olivier Le Guen, Marie Coppola and Josefina Safar Introduction: How Emerging Sign Languages in the Americas contributes to the study of linguistics and (emerging) sign languages Part I: Emerging sign languages of the Americas. Descriptions and analysis John Haviland Signs, interaction, coordination, and gaze: interactive foundations of “Z”—an emerging (sign) language from Chiapas, Mexico Laura Horton Representational strategies in shared homesign systems from Nebaj, Guatemala Josefina Safar and Rodrigo Petatillo Chan Strategies of noun-verb distinction in Yucatec Maya Sign Languages Emmanuella Martinod, Brigitte Garcia and Ivani Fusellier A typological perspective on the meaningful handshapes in the emerging sign languages on Marajó Island (Brazil) Ben Braithwaite Emerging sign languages in the Caribbean Olivier Le Guen, Rebeca Petatillo and Rita (Rossy) Kinil Canché Yucatec Maya multimodal interaction as the basis for Yucatec Maya Sign Language Marie Coppola Gestures, homesign, sign language: Cultural and social factors driving lexical conventionalization Part II: Sociolinguistic sketches John B. Haviland Zinacantec family homesign (or “Z”) Laura Horton A sociolinguistic sketch of deaf individuals and families from Nebaj, Guatemala Josefina Safar and Olivier Le Guen Yucatec Maya Sign Language(s): A sociolinguistic overview Emmanuella Martinod, Brigitte Garcia and Ivani Fusellier Sign Languages on Marajó Island (Brazil) Ben Braithwaite Sociolinguistic sketch of Providence Island Sign Language Kristian Ali and Ben Braithwaite Bay Islands Sign Language: A Sociolinguistic Sketch Marie Coppola Sociolinguistic sketch: Nicaraguan Sign Language and Homesign Systems in Nicaragua




Sign Languages in Village Communities


Book Description

The book is a unique collection of research on sign languages that have emerged in rural communities with a high incidence of, often hereditary, deafness. These sign languages represent the latest addition to the comparative investigation of languages in the gestural modality, and the book is the first compilation of a substantial number of different "village sign languages".Written by leading experts in the field, the volume uniquely combines anthropological and linguistic insights, looking at both the social dynamics and the linguistic structures in these village communities. The book includes primary data from eleven different signing communities across the world, including results from Jamaica, India, Turkey, Thailand, and Bali. All known village sign languages are endangered, usually because of pressure from larger urban sign languages, and some have died out already. Ironically, it is often the success of the larger sign language communities in urban centres, their recognition and subsequent spread, which leads to the endangerment of these small minority sign languages. The book addresses this specific type of language endangerment, documentation strategies, and other ethical issues pertaining to these sign languages on the basis of first-hand experiences by Deaf fieldworkers.




Sign Language in Papua New Guinea


Book Description

This book presents in revised form and as a single monograph three papers on a sign language from the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea. Originally published in 1980, for more than twenty years these papers remained the only report of a sign language from that part of the world. The detailed descriptive analyses that the author provided are still fresh today, and in some respects they anticipate insights into the nature of sign languages that were not further explored until much more recently. The monograph is accompanied by two essays: Sherman Wilcox comments on value and relevance of the author’s work in the light of much more recent work on the linguistics of sign languages. An essay by Lauren Reed and Alan Rumsey provides an up to date survey of what is now known about sign languages in Papua New Guinea. Information about sign languages in the Solomon Island is also included.




A New Companion to Linguistic Anthropology


Book Description

Provides an expansive view of the full field of linguistic anthropology, featuring an all-new team of contributing authors representing diverse new perspectives A New Companion to Linguistic Anthropology provides a timely and authoritative overview of the field of study that explores how language influences society and culture. Bringing together more than 30 original essays by an interdisciplinary panel of renowned scholars and younger researchers, this comprehensive volume covers a uniquely wide range of both classic and contemporary topics as well as cutting-edge research methods and emerging areas of investigation. Building upon the success of its predecessor, the acclaimed Blackwell Companion to Linguistic Anthropology, this new edition reflects current trends and developments in research and theory. Entirely new chapters discuss topics such as the relationship between language and experiential phenomena, the use of research data to address social justice, racist language and raciolinguistics, postcolonial discourse, and the challenges and opportunities presented by social media, migration, and global neoliberalism. Innovative new research analyzes racialized language in World of Warcraft, the ethics of public health discourse in South Africa, the construction of religious doubt among Orthodox Jewish bloggers, hybrid forms of sociality in videoconferencing, and more. Presents fresh discussions of topics such as American Indian speech communities, creolization, language mixing, language socialization, deaf communities, endangered languages, and language of the law Addresses recent trends in linguistic anthropological research, including visual documentation, ancient scribes, secrecy, language and racialization, global hip hop, justice and health, and language and experience Utilizes ethnographic illustration to explore topics in the field of linguistic anthropology Includes a new introduction written by the editors and an up-to-date bibliography with over 2,000 entries A New Companion to Linguistic Anthropology is a must-have for researchers, scholars, and undergraduate and graduate students in linguistic anthropology, as well as an excellent text for those in related fields such as sociolinguistics, discourse studies, semiotics, sociology of language, communication studies, and language education.




Keeping Languages Alive


Book Description

Explores current efforts to record, collect and archive endangered languages which are in danger of falling silent.







Sign Language Ideologies in Practice


Book Description

This book focuses on how sign language ideologies influence, manifest in, and are challenged by communicative practices. Sign languages are minority languages using the visual-gestural and tactile modalities, whose affordances are very different from those of spoken languages using the auditory-oral modality.




The SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia


Book Description

The time has come for a new in-depth encyclopedic collection of entries defining the current state of Deaf Studies at an international level using critical and intersectional lenses encompassing the field. The emergence of Deaf Studies programs at colleges and universities and the broadened knowledge of social sciences (including but not limited to Deaf History, Deaf Culture, Signed Languages, Deaf Bilingual Education, Deaf Art, and more) have served to expand the activities of research, teaching, analysis, and curriculum development. The field has experienced a major shift due to increasing awareness of Deaf Studies research since the mid-1960s. The field has been further influenced by the Deaf community’s movement, resistance, activism and politics worldwide, as well as the impact of technological advances, such as in communications, with cell phones, computers, and other devices. This new Encyclopedia shifts focus away from the medical model that has view deaf individuals as needing to be remedied in order to correct so-called hearing and speaking deficiencies for the sole purpose of assimilation into mainstream society. The members of deaf communities are part of a distinct cultural and linguistic group with a unique, vibrant community, and way of being. As precedence, The SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia carves out a new and critical perspective that breathes meaning into organic deaf experiences through a new critical theory lens. Such a focus is novel in that it comes from deaf and hearing allies of the communities where historically, institutions of medicine and disability ride roughshod over authentic experiences.




The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies in Literacy


Book Description

"The Oxford Handbook on Deaf Studies Series began in 2010 with it first volume. The series presents state-of-the art information across an array of topics pertinent to deaf individuals and deaf learners, such as cognition, neuroscience, attention, memory, learning, and language. The present handbook, The Oxford Handbook on Deaf Studies in Literacy, is the 5th in this series, rounding out the topics with the most up-to-date information on literacy learning among deaf and hard of hearing learners (DHH)"--