What Are The Differences Between Different Sign Languages?

LoveBlue

LoveBlue

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A friend asked me to day, after talking about Nyle on Dancing with the Stars, about sign languages. I told her that ASL is what the Deaf community uses in the USA but that there were different sign languages in other countries. I also mentioned SEE, though I never seen it myself.

Can those of you in the Deaf community give me some background on the different ones? I know it's been discussed before but thought this would be a good place, at least for me, to get a synopsis of the info.

Thanks. :ty:
 
In the US--

ASL- American Sign Language- is a language all it's own. The grammar is different than an English sentence so to speak

SEE (or MCE these days...) is signing in exact english order all the way down to the endings line in -ing or -ed.

There's everything else in between- a mix of ASL and Signed English where a lot of people will sign in word order but don't bother to add the endings.

I'll do my best (Reba or others can correct me)- I tend to be somewhere in the middle as I'm so rusty now :( -

sentence- I'm going to the store to get a new dress for the wedding

ASL-
me store go why? for wedding, new dress buy (or get).

SEE
It's signed exactly like the sentence. I'm would become I am though. I and am are initialized, a, -ing and the have their own signs.

something in between (or maybe how I'd sign...)-
I go store plan buy new dress for wedding.

Nyle seems to switch back and forth between ASL and PSE (or whatever it is called now lol). I could be wrong; have noticed he does mouth some words though.
 
I do not mean to offend anyone, but ASL has a tough learning curve, or maybe its just me. I suppose you could say that I sign SEE, what confuses me is, dhh in the USA always say "learn ASL" why not just say, "learn sign language"?
 
Thank you DD. You made the differences clear for me. I wood say, that I am in the SEE or mixed group. Alot of ASL users have a big question mark/funny look in their faces when I sign, ing and ed.
 
LoveBlue said:
What color dress do you look best in? *ducks* :lol:
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:P LMAO didn't think of that when I was typing it. Besides-- green or blue would look dashing...;)

Cappy- I don't know... "ASL" seems to be the default term for any sign language these days when it shouldn't be.
 
DeafDucky said:
:P LMAO didn't think of that when I was typing it. Besides-- green or blue would look dashing...;)
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Then you'd love the dress I wore for my daughter's wedding. Depending on the lighting it's either green or blue. I like blue (or should I say Love Blue) and when my kids picked this out for me we all thought it was blue. But every time I see it hanging in the closet, it looks green to me. But they still say it's blue. I guess it's turquoise .
 
LoveBlue said:
Depending on the lighting it's either green or blue
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You seem to have the same colour blind issue that I have. Blue and green. Playing UNO, everyone tells me, wrong colour!
 
DeafDucky said:
"ASL" seems to be the default term for any sign language these days when it shouldn't be
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I agree with that statement. ASL is top level signing. Newbies should start with the lowest level, not the highest.
 
Cappy said:
You seem to have the same colour blind issue that I have. Blue and green. Playing UNO, everyone tells me, wrong colour!
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I don't think I'm color blind. Turquoise is a blue/green color, so I think it's just a matter of the lighting. (asks my neighbor what color my car is....)
 
Your neighbor says, same colour as DeafDucky's dress. :D
 
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Here is another twist for this thread. Most of us know that ASL (American Sign Language!) is a different language than American Spoken/Written English. But . . .I wonder how much the sign language used is other countries differs from the language spoken/written in that same country?
 
Cappy said:
Newbies should start with the lowest level, not the highest.
Click to expand...

Wondering about your meaning that newbies should start at the lowest. Did you mean newbies shouldn't call their signing ASL because they haven't mastered ASL yet or did you mean newbies should start with signed English and learn ASL later or did I completely not understand your statement?
 
Other than just American asl and see there are other signed languages. Like british (bsl), Japanese (jsl), Scottish (ssl). You should look them up. In Scotland one of the letters in the alphabet is the same sign as nice in asl
 
Jane B. said:
Here is another twist for this thread. Most of us know that ASL (American Sign Language!) is a different language than American Spoken/Written English. But . . .I wonder how much the sign language used is other countries differs from the language spoken/written in that same country?
Click to expand...

BSL is kind of the same as the spoken language I think. Can't speak for other languages like FSL or JSL or even any of the African nations languages. I'm guessing that in general the IDEAS and CONCEPTS are the same (like chair or love or blue...) but how it is signed is probably different than how it is written or spoken.
 
DeafNerdMommy said:
Other than just American asl and see there are other signed languages. Like british (bsl), Japanese (jsl), Scottish (ssl). You should look them up. In Scotland one of the letters in the alphabet is the same sign as nice in asl
Click to expand...

Now I really want to come to Scotland... meet Scot deaf and see the Sign language there. My ancestry on both sides of the family has Scottish in the line. One Grandmother used to go regularly before she was too ill to travel.
 
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