Necroposting
Hi.
If you look hard on YouTube there are a few; I favourited a video a while ago, showing
parallel translations in PRSL, LSM, LSC and ASL.
Here are some songs translated into PRSL.
(Why is it that interpreters always pick the cheesiest songs to translate? I think it must be because—generally—interpreters are cheesy people.)
And
here’s a Puerto Rican news broadcast; I’m not a great signer, so you tell me how much it differs from signing on the Mainland. Although it’s also possible they’re sticking to some kind of “standard” ASL not reflective of what people sign on the street.
caramelitopr on YouTube has uploaded some PRSL videos, which you can check out on her userpage.
Is ASL used in Puerto Rico as well? Does PSL differ substantially from ASL?
Linguamón’s Casa das Linguas sez:
Despite the deaf community's efforts to establish Puerto Rican Sign Language as the country's main institutional sign language, American Sign Language is used to a much greater extent in schools and the media.
If I can be excused for quoting at length from the Summer Institute of Linguistics’ paper
The Puerto Rican Deaf Community:
Although Puerto Rican Sign Language (PRSL) may have been present before the establishment of the first school and its use of Signed English and ASL, high amounts of contact with the deaf community in the United States and continued use of ASL in deaf schools have led to ASL being the majority sign language of Puerto Rico… only one of the interpreting agencies indicates offering PRSL interpretation. Although some form of PRSL may still be used in the less populated areas in the western and central parts of the country, it appears that ASL is poised to be the sole sign language of the Puerto Rican deaf community in the future. Some local sources who are familiar with PRSL and ASL indicate that they do not differ greatly and PRSL could be considered an ASL variety…
Of course, differing greatly or substantially is relative.
According to the Evangelical School for the Deaf administrator Betsy Hoke, the main differences between PRSL and ASL are in palm orientation and rate of signing. PRSL is signed more slowly and includes more repetition of signs than ASL.
You can see a comparison of vocabulary within a restricted field
here, which puts the similarity of documented forms at 54%—which is interesting, because that’s only a slightly higher lexical similarity than listed for ASL and LSF. I wonder how much that’s based on whatever dialectical differences happened to make it into the dictionary, though, and if there are other, common signs for the same concepts that would be identical in Puerto Rico and the Lower 48.
This person would agree the Puerto Rico should have its own, distinct Deaf language. But as stated, ASL is dominant in urban areas, and will likely supplant PRSL entirely in the coming years.
This has been an issue, particularly where Peace Corps volunteers have
gone in to work with the Deaf. It's a combination of the volunteers not
learning the autochthonous SL, combined with the locals wanting to
learn a "better" SL.
Incidentally, I just read about
Hawaiian “Pidgin” Sign being documented for the first time; it, too, is on the brink of death as it’s replaced by ASL.
I’d forgotten about
this thread, and just ran across it right before I was about to post, but it’s probably the best single source of information about the nature of PRSL right now on the Web.
This post includes some examples of PRSL signs.
[T]he ASL sign for funny, means "ugly" in PRSL. The sign for funny is made
with a flattened O, tapping on the nose.
I, too, was curious about this question and found some information in the
Gallaudet Encyclopedia of Deaf People and Deafness, but it’s been a while. If I find anything new the next time I get get to the SFPL Deaf Services Center, I’ll post it here.
