Concept
Sign language
Overview
Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning rather than spoken words. They are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers, and are full-fledged natural languages with their own grammar and lexicon. Sign languages are not universal and are usually not mutually intelligible, although there are similarities among different sign languages.
Wherever communities of deaf and hard of hearing people exist, sign languages have developed as a means of communication and form the core of local Deaf cultures. Although signing is used primarily by deaf and hard of hearing people, it is also used by hearing individuals, such as those with deaf family members including children of deaf adults (CODAs).
Sign languages are distinct from body language, a type of nonverbal communication. Linguists also distinguish natural sign languages from other systems that are precursors to them or derived from them, such as constructed manual codes for spoken languages, home sign, baby sign language, and signs used with non-human primates.
The number of sign languages worldwide is not precisely known. Each country generally has its own native sign language, and some have more than one. The 2021 edition of Ethnologue lists 150 sign languages, while the SIGN-HUB Atlas of Sign Language Structures lists over 200 and notes that there are more that have not yet been documented. As of 2021, Indo-Pakistani Sign Language is the most widely used sign language in the world, and Ethnologue ranks it as the 151st most "spoken" language in the world.
Some sign languages have obtained some form of legal recognition.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
Ants appear to be able to communicate a certain amount of information by means of their antennae. Probably writing itself, which we now regard as merely a way of representing speech, was originally an independent language, as it has remained to this day in China. Writing seems to have consisted originally of pictures, which gradually became conventionalized, coming in time to represent syllables, and finally letters…
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
States what Sign language is.
This seems, accordingly, to be the universal practice of all the ancient languages.
Adam Smith, The Essays of Adam Smith
States what Sign language is.
All our languages are the result of art. It has long been a subject of inquiry whether there ever was a natural language common to all; no doubt there is, and it is the language of children before they begin to speak. This language is inarticulate, but it has tone, stress, and meaning. The use of our own language has led us to neglect it so far as to forget it altogether. Let us study children and we shall soon…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile
States what Sign language is.
Philosophers who discussed Sign language
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Place in the tradition
Part of Language.