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Facts About American Sign Language

Guest post from Language Lizard Press, Read Your World’s 2024 Platinum Sponsor.

American Sign Language (ASL) is a visual-gestural language used by the deaf and hard-of-hearing community in the United States and parts of Canada.

Let’s learn some facts about ASL:

• ASL is one of the most well-known sign languages; however, it is only one of the 200+ sign languages used globally today. 
• It is a visual language that conveys meaning through hand gestures, facial expressions, and body movements.
• There is a common misconception that ASL is a signed version of English. It is a separate and distinct language with rules for pronunciation, word construction, and sentence structure. 
• ASL can be traced back to the early 19th century. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), the exact beginnings of ASL are unclear, but they seem to originate from the intermixing of local sign languages and French sign language. It is also believed to be strongly influenced by the work of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. 
• ASL is considered a foreign language and is offered in many high schools and universities as part of their foreign language programs.

Check out the following ASL videos of two popular books published by Language Lizard, We Can All Be Friends and Who Are We?, from the Living in Harmony Series:

We Can All Be Friends: https://youtu.be/MMpSh80fiA8?feature=shared

Who Are We? https://youtu.be/34Z3ajH2F9U?feature=shared

For more information and resources on ASL, visit the National Association of the Deaf at nad.org.