Re: Some thoughts on mutli-modal (signing / speech) languages and communication.

Hmm I don't think anyone in this thread has mentioned Martha's
Vineyard, which is a classic historical example of combining the
modalities of speech and sign.  It's a legendary story in the Deaf
community.  A long time ago, Martha's Vineyard had a disproportionate
number of deaf people, which lead to most hearing people there knowing
sign as well.  Legend has it that one of the ways that hearing people
there would combine modalities amongst themselves would be to use sign
for just the punchline of dirty jokes.  Martha's Vineyard Sign
Language is extinct now, but it was one of the main ancestors of ASL.

I guess that says something to the questions we've been asking here,
about whether it's possible for speech and sign to combine, and if so
why it isn't more common.  When one person in four on the island (even
more in the highest concentration areas) was deaf, there was
apparently the motivation and ability for everyone to learn sign.  As
the proportion of deaf people declined, the sign language disappeared
as well.  So it does seem there's some pressure-- perhaps just the
ordinary difficulty of learning any language-- that suppresses the
general adoption of sign language in the absence of some
countervailing need.

I can relate that directly to my own experience: I'm quite sure that
if I had any Deaf friends, I would know ASL.  I've always wanted to,
but just watching videos online (even now that there's a lot more of
them!) doesn't have the personal or motivational qualities of knowing
and conversing regularly with someone.  So it may be less about
physical practical considerations, and more about having access to a
rich enough trove of language.  People do learn the few signs they
encounter (rubbing fingers to say "money"), and some more inventive
people even come up with a few new ones of their own, but without a
strong continual pressure-- like being deaf and needing any words at
all to speak-- they don't work all day at inventing gestures, and the
critical mass chemistry doesn't get together to make their sign a rich
medium.

On the other hand, I believe that this is just a slight tilt of the
table, and that a society that consciously valued signed communication
could decide to lean that little bit against the trend.  I'd like to
see us give that a try.  I'm going to go study a little ASL now and do
my part. :)

<3,
mungojelly

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