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FACTS
American Sign Language in Canada
           By: Mia Stefishen  &  Emilie Levesque  

How it works
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Centurion mall - how to say hello in sign language.Facebook. (n.d.). https://www.facebook.com/CenturionMallZA/posts/how-to-say-hello-in-sign-languageextend-your-fingers-and-cross-your-thumb-in-fro/10158167671462751/  

What is Sign Language?

  • Natural language has two modalities: spoken language and sign language

  • Sign languages are natural human languages

  • They use the visual-kinetic modality

  • They are primary means of communication in Deaf communities

  • Canada does not have its own “Canadian” sign language

(Esipova and Yinning, 2018)

Articulators

  • Articulators: hands and face

  • Signal: multidimensional, visual signals

  • Perception: visual system such as the eyes

(Esipova and Yinning, 2018)

Mouth gestures

  • Signs can be accompanied with mouthing, the production of visual syllables based on spoken language counterparts.

(Esipova and Yinning, 2018)

Phonetics

Articulatory parameters in sign language include:

  • hand shape

  • location

  • movement

  • orientation

  • mouth gestures

(Esipova and Yinning, 2018)

Similarities between sign and spoken languages

Modality matters:

  • Synchronicity

  • Use of space

  • Iconicity

(Esipova and Yinning, 2018)

HISTORYof the language in Canada

In the 19th century, deaf immigrants brought their own sign languages to Canada:

​

  • The English: the British Sign Language (BSL)

  • The French: Langue des Signes Française (LSF)

  • The teachers and students who had attended or worked in schools for deaf students in the Unites States: the American Sign Language (ASL).

 

  • Today, the use of the American Sign Language (ASL), is very popular amongst deaf Canadians

​

  • In Québec, the deaf community prefers using their own distinct language known as Langue des Signes Québécoise (LSQ). 

​​

  • Both ASL and LSQ have regional variations, in other words different “dialects” or “accents”. 

​​

  • From the late 1800s through the 1960s, the use of sign language was not permitted in a lot of classrooms in Canada since it was believed to “impair speech development in deaf children”.

​​

  • Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Deaf community has fought for their rights to be able to receive an education in their preferred sign language.

​​

  • A few legislatures have formally recognized ASL as the language of the anglophone Deaf community in Canada. In 1988, Manitoba became the first province to officially recognize ASL.

(Carbin and Smith, 2006)

  • There was no formal Deaf Culture of Deaf community in Canada prior to the establishment of residential schools for deaf students. 

​

  • Deaf people were isolated from each other and many did not receive an education.

​

  • There were only a few that were able to attend schools in Europe and the United States before the Canadian provinces began to set up their own schools for deaf children. 

​

  • The first school for deaf students in Canada opened on June 15th 1831 in Québec. 

​

  • The Manitoba Institution for the "Education of the deaf and Dumb" (now the Manitoba School for the Deaf) opened in Winnipeg in 1888.

(Carbin and Smith, 2006)

Video Courses

Current Status in Canada

  • According to the Canadian Association of the Deaf, there are 357,000 culturally Deaf Canadians and 3.21 million hard of hearing Canadians. 

​

(Canadian Association of the Deaf, 2022) 

 

ASL Ancestors

 

                                            (Academy Hearing, 2016)


Country(s) of

Origin

​

  • The origin of ASL was from the French sign language (LSF) but emerged in North American schools for the deaf. The first school for the deaf was founded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1817. It is used in the United States and in Canada.

                                                (American school for the deaf, n.d)

“Sign is a live, contemporaneous, visual-gestural language and consists of hand shapes, hand positioning, facial expressions, and body movements. Simply put, it is for me the most beautiful, immediate, and expressive of languages, because it incorporates the entire human body.”

​
― Myron Uhlberg, Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love


Related Languages

There are common signs and similarities present in ASL, French Sign Language (LSF), Quebec Sign Language (LSQ), and Irish Sign Language as they are all descendants of Old French Sign Language.
                                                                                                           (Deaf Education Without Boarders, 2019)



Language Vitality

Status

Stable: The language is not being sustained by formal institutions, but it is still the norm in the home and community that all children learn and use the language.
                                                                                        (Ethnologue, 2023)
1.-Sign-Languages-of-Canada-Map-1-scaled.jpg


Other Sign

Languages in Canada

Although ASL is the most common sign language in Canada, it is not the only sign language Canadians use. The other sign languages present in Canada are Quebec Sign Language, Inuit Sign Language, Plains Indian Sign Language, Oneida Sign Language, and Maritime Sign Language.
                                   

 (Language Museum, n.d)

Audiology, C. A. of. (2022, January 18). 1.-sign-languages-of-canada-map-1: Canadian audiologist. Canadian Audiologist | The Official Publication of the Canadian Academy of Audiology. https://canadianaudiologist.ca/sign-languages-of-canada-the-canadian-language-museums-newest-travelling-exhibit/1-sign-languages-of-canada-map-1/  

Contact

Linguistic Structure


Sign Order
The most common structure in ASL is OSV (object+subject+verb), but it is not the only structure used. Some ASL sentences call for the use the SVO order (subject+verb+object).
                        (Humphries, T., & Padden, 1992)

Signs and Alphabet

American Sign Language has around 10,000 different signs that correspond to English. The ASL alphabet has 26 signs representing each letter. This can be used to spell out any word using the letter symbols, although it takes much more time.

                                                                               (Lingvano ASL, 2023)

Recent changes

in deaf education 

  • Changes have been applied to the education of deaf students in Canada.

​

  • These changes include: early intervention programs, integration (“mainstreaming”) of deaf students into local schools, technological devices, a bilingual/bicultural approach using ASL and written English as the classroom languages as well as introducing Deaf Studies into the school curriculum. 

(Carbin and Smith, 2006)

Organizations

YouTube. (2020, December 21). Greetings in American sign language (ASL). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TYC8mCQ9E14 

in Canada

  • Deaf Canadians formed debating societies, religious organizations, literary sociewies, athletic clubs and social clubs. 

​

  • The oldest Deaf community organization which is still active in Canada is the Ontario Association of the Deaf which was founded in 1886. 

​

  • Other official organizations by members of the Deaf community include the Canadian Association of the Deaf, the Canadian Association of the Deaf, the Canadian Deaf Sports Association and the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf.

(Carbin and Smith, 2006)

Interesting Facts!

1

Did you know...

Sign language is not mime!

2

Did you know...

There are more than simply one sign language.

3

Did you know...

Sign languages are not signed versions of spoken languages.

(Esipova and Yinning, 2018)

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