This is referred to as PSE (Pidgin Signed English) or contact signing. Additionally, when native speakers of English and native users of ASL try to communicate, the “language” that results is a mixture of both English and ASL vocabulary and grammar. These codes have various names including Signed Exact English (SEE) and Manual Coded English (MCE).

We can express almost anything we would like to anyone with the sign language. It is not English on the hands.īecause ASL is not English, educators have developed a number of signed codes which use ASL vocabulary items, modify them to match English vocabulary, and put them together according to English grammatical rules. Sign language is indeed a very powerful language.

While it borrows elements from spoken English and old French sign language, it has unique grammatical, lexical and linguistic features of its own. Other areas of the world use their own sign languages, such as England (British Sign Language) and Australia (Australian Sign Language).Īmerican Sign Language (ASL) is a distinct visual-gestural-kinesthetic language.

American Sign Language (ASL) is the language used by a majority of people in the Deaf community in the United States, most of Canada (LSQ is used in Quebec), certain Caribbean countries and areas of Mexico. Sign language is no more universal than spoken languages.

Learn pidgin sign language