h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Found your (revised) article very informative and fair. I don't know ASL at all, but I've been picking up BSL for about 3 or 4 years, mostly from a friend who did a college course.

Does ASL use a one-handed manual alphabet? BSL uses both hands, and the deafblind alphabet is very similar to the sighted alphabet. I go to Jehovah's Witness meetings for the deaf, although I am hearing, and I also go to the hearing meetings. (I am a Jehovah's Witness). It is good to see how the same information is put across in English and in BSL. I find the deaf people at these meetings use a wide variety of signs, with some of them using fingerpelling almost exclusively, and others using lots of regional signs. Does ASL have large regional differences? What about sign languages in the Native American community?

Kate

Hi Kate,

I'm glad you liked the article. To be honest, I don't claim any advanced expertise on ASL. I have been and still am taking classes on ASL and deaf culture in my university and this article is just a compilation of most important basics I've learned from the beginning. I know a good amount but I should say I'm still learning. Thanks for your info on BSL.

To answer your questions:
1. "Does ASL use a one-handed manual alphabet?"

ASL's manual alphabet is one-handed. Which hand is used is determined by your "dominant" hand. (I think there's a link in the article about the ASl manual alphabet.) In response to your comments aboutthe daefblind:I believe that American deafblind also use the American manual alphabet or something very similar, but my range of knowledge on this is fairly limited I can only cite the case of Helen Keller who I believe used the American manual alphabet. However, I have also seen a deaf person use ASL to his accompanying guardian, so I think it really depends on the situation.

2. "I find the deaf people at these meetings use a wide variety of signs, with some of them using fingerpelling almost exclusively, and others using lots of regional signs. Does ASL have large regional differences?"

I am also hearing and I have been to various deaf social function s at which ASL was the predominant form of communication. In doing this, I also saw a spectrum of people varying from relying entirely on fingerspelling, to signed English to full ASL. I also saw that YES, there are regional differences (or dialects as I like to consider them). I, for one, know that my ASL vocabulary is very much in the New York "dialect" of ASL, making it difficult at times to understand my ASL teacher from Iowa or another that I'd had from Arizona.

There's also different "levels" of ASL. Beginning ASL students are alowed to get away with a more relaxed, English-based or childlike ASL grammer structure, while native signers and advanced students have a much more advanced, abstract and strict grammer structure. I don't know if this is generally true for all ASL experience, but in mine, my teachers have always tried to "push up" our level of communicative ability in terms of fluidity and abstract concepts beyond what we need just to "get by" in the deaf community.

3. "What about sign languages in the Native American community?"

I'm sorry to say I don't know much about this at all. It's my understanding that Native Americans do have a level of signs/signals, even within the hearing community. However, I could just as well be wrong... As for NativeAmerican Sign Language, I have no idea. Sorry.


Hope this helped...
gelfling