American Sign Language (ASL) is a sign language, a language which uses the hands, facial expression, and body language rather than the voice. Like other sign languages, its grammar and syntax are distinct from oral languages such as English. In the 1960s, ASL was sometimes referred to as "Ameslan" but this term is now considered obsolete.
ASL is the predominant sign language of deaf communities in the United States and English-speaking parts of Canada. Although the United Kingdom and the United States / Canada share English as a common oral and written language, British Sign Language (BSL) is a completely different language from ASL, and they are not mutually intelligible. ASL is instead related to French Sign Language.
Besides North America, dialects of ASL or ASL-based creoles are used, sometimes alongside indigenous sign languages, in the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Chad, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Mauritania, Kenya, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Barbados, Bolivia, China, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.
Read more about American Sign Language: Population, Variations in Signed English, History, Linguistics, Variation, Classifiers, Fingerspelling, Writing Systems, ASL and Baby Sign
Famous quotes containing the words american, sign and/or language:
“The pursuit of happiness, which American citizens are obliged to undertake, tends to involve them in trying to perpetuate the moods, tastes and aptitudes of youth.”
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990)
“Prepare for death, if here at night you roam,
And sign your will before you sup from home.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Our language has wisely sensed these two sides of man’s being alone. It has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone. Although, in daily life, we do not always distinguish these words, we should do so consistently and thus deepen our understanding of our human predicament.”
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965)