Native speakers None ISO 639-3 ils | Language family pidgin Glottolog inte1259 | |
Region contact between sign languages, international contact between Deaf people and international events | ||
100 international sign camp guide
International Sign (IS) is a contact variety of sign language used in a variety of different contexts, particularly at international meetings such as the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) congress, events such as the Deaflympics, in video clips produced by Deaf people and watched by other Deaf people from around the world, and informally when travelling and socialising. It is a sign-language pidgin. It is not as conventionalised or complex as natural sign languages, and has a limited lexicon.
Contents
International sign language a lesson
Naming
While the more commonly used term is International Sign, it is sometimes referred to as Gestuno, or informally as International Sign Language (ISL), International Sign Pidgin and International Gesture (IG). International Sign is a term used by the World Federation of the Deaf and other international organisations.
History
Deaf people in the Western and Middle Eastern world have gathered together using sign language for 2,000 years. When Deaf people from different sign language backgrounds get together, a contact variety of sign language arises from this contact, whether it is in an informal personal context or in a formal international context. Deaf people have therefore used a kind of auxiliary gestural system for international communication at sporting or cultural events since the early 19th century. The need to standardise an international sign system was discussed at the first World Deaf Congress in 1951, when the WFD was formed. In the following years, a pidgin developed as the delegates from different language backgrounds communicated with each other, and in 1973, a WFD committee ("the Commission of Unification of Signs") published a standardized vocabulary. They selected "naturally spontaneous and easy signs in common use by deaf people of different countries" to make the language easy to learn. A book published by the commission in the early 1970s, Gestuno: International Sign Language of the Deaf, contains a vocabulary list of about 1500 signs. The name "Gestuno" was chosen, referencing gesture and oneness.
However, when Gestuno was first used, at the WFD congress in Bulgaria in 1976, it was incomprehensible to deaf participants. Subsequently, it was developed informally by deaf and hearing interpreters, and came to include more grammar — especially linguistic features that are thought to be universal among sign languages, such as role shifting and the use of classifiers. Additionally, the vocabulary was gradually replaced by more iconic signs and loan signs from different sign languages.
The first training course in Gestuno was conducted in Copenhagen in 1977 to prepare interpreters for the 5th World Conference on Deafness. Sponsored by the Danish Association of the Deaf and the University of Copenhagen, the course was designed by Robert M. Ingram and taught by Betty L. Ingram, two American interpreters.
The name Gestuno has fallen out of use, and the phrase "International Sign" is now more commonly used in English to identify this sign variety. Indeed, current IS has little in common with the signs published under the name 'Gestuno'.
A parallel development has been occurring in Europe in recent years, where increasing interaction between Europe's deaf communities has led to the emergence of a pan-European pidgin or creole sign. It is referred to by some sign linguists as "Eurosigns". Influence in Euro-Signs can be seen from British Sign Language, French Sign Language and Scandinavian signs.
Vocabulary
The lexicon of International Sign is limited, and varies between signers. IS interpreter Bill Moody noted in a 1994 paper that the vocabulary used in conference settings is largely derived from the sign languages of the Western world and is less comprehensible to those from African or Asian sign language backgrounds. A 1999 study by Bencie Woll suggested that IS signers often use a large amount of vocabulary from their native language, choosing sign variants that would be more easily understood by a foreigner. In contrast, Rachel Rosenstock notes that the vocabulary exhibited in her study of International Sign was largely made up of highly iconic signs common to many sign languages:
Over 60% of the signs occurred in the same form in more than eight SLs as well as in IS. This suggests that the majority of IS signs are not signs borrowed from a specific SL, as other studies found, but rather are common to many natural SLs. Only 2% of IS signs were found to be unique to IS. The remaining 38% were borrowed (or "loan") signs that could be traced back to one SL or a group of related SLs.
Grammar
People communicating in International Sign tend to make heavy use of role play, as well as a feature common to most sign languages researched to date: an extensive formal system of classifiers. Classifiers are used to describe things, and they transfer well across linguistic barriers. It has been noted that signers are generally better at interlingual communication than non-signers, even without a lingua franca. Perhaps, along with deaf people's experience with bridging communication barriers, the use of classifiers is a key reason.
A paper presented in 1994 suggested that IS signers "combine a relatively rich and structured grammar with a severely impoverished lexicon". Supalla and Webb (1995) describe IS as a kind of a pidgin, but conclude that it is "more complex than a typical pidgin and indeed is more like that of a full sign language".
Letters and numbers
A manual alphabet is used for fingerspelling names, which is based on the one-handed systems used in Europe and America for representing the Roman alphabet. In a two-way conversation, any manual alphabet known may be used; often one speaker will fingerspell using the alphabet of the other party, as it is often easier to spell quickly in an unfamiliar alphabet than to read quickly. ISL also has a standardised system of numbers as these signs vary greatly between sign languages.
Use of indigenous signs
Each region's own sign is preferred for country and city names. This may be used in conjunction with spelling and classifying for the first instance, and the indigenous sign used alone from then on.