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

could somebody please tell me for certain whether or not sign language is universal? i realize there may be different "dialects" and such, but could an american understand the signs of, say, a japanese person speaking in signs?

As I understand it, sign language is no more universal than any other language. Some of the more obvious signs might be recognisable, but sign languages are often developed spontaniously, then spread throughout a small deaf community. I read about when the pupils of a school for the deaf, where children were encouraged only do use spoken and lip-read language, developed their own sign language in two generations of schoolchildren. It became as fully grammatically developed as, say, English, and today it is widespread in that country. The book I read this in used it as part proof that the instinct to develope language is innate to humans.

so it's a no then?

A friend of mine who's fluent in British Sign Language once managed to interpret for a group of Estonians. There were some clear vocabulary differences, but they got through OK.

That's just anecdotal, though, and they were confined to pretty simple vocabulary. BSL and ASL are definitely different languages, with their own grammars, and I don't think they're truly fully comprehensible to each other.

I have learned that ASL shares some signs with FSL (French Sign Langauge) Then again, I've never seen FSL before to be sure.

American, French and Irish are very similar - the French and Irish versions developed from the hand signs used by monks who'd taken vows of silence. I presume the American version was exported from these. British Sign language is quite different to these, and there is also a lot of variation in regions of the UK, for example here in Northern Ireland there are quite a few differences.

A friend of mine emigrated to Australia a few years ago and took up interpreting again there - he soon found quite a few common greetings that are obscene words in Australian sign language. So be careful! Even in BSL a sign for 'lemonade' is shared with 'f***'.

One that might be worldwide (I'm not sure) is Macataw (sp?) which is a language that is apparently quite easy for non-speaking disabled people to use - can anyone confirm or disprove this?

Oliver Sacks touches on this subject towards the end of his excellent book "Seeing Voices" all about language and the Deaf community.
There is apparently an artificial universal sign language called Gestuno, the Sign equivalent of Esperanto, but I don't think it's widely used.
It also seems that for some unknown reason 'speakers' of different sign languages learn to communicate with each other far more quickly than speakers of different spoken languages do. Sacks mentions in passing the natural development of a pidgin International Sign Language incorporating elements of numerous national sign languages.

Isn't it Called C ?

Just like spoken languages, sign languages take from each other (take for example english; a language combined of the danish conquors language spoken all around and the noblemens french).
The answer to the easy-to-learn bit is, i think, quite simple; everyone can make a gesture, but you try to make an englishman say apple in danish (æble) not to mention (rødgrød med fløde).
Also, sign laguages havn't been quite as differed (can you say that?) as the spoken languages 'cause, not as many people use them.

On top of that, think about how you communicate with people with whom you doesn't share a language...signs