this question has plagued me for a long time, because in high school i dated a deaf girl, i would alway's wonder how she would make her intentions clear to others of a different countries, with the language barrier. any idea's besides writing them down.
2006-07-15 17:45:21 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
no it is not universal, every country has its own way. some countries use a two handed alphabet. where we use only one handed. There is a wonderful dicticnary out. I used it to learn several different sign signlanguages from different countries.
a few years ago i got a movie from the vidio store about a hearing woman with deaf parents that didnt want her to play an instrument (cant remember the exact movie) i could figuare out why ic ouldnt understand the signing! it was in german thats why.!! hahah I am deaf soo have meet deaf from other countries so...
2006-07-15 17:57:54 · answer #1 · answered by ravenmistmoon 1 · 31⤊ 7⤋
It is not universal. almost every country has their own sign language. Although there are sometimes similar signs, for the most part sign languages are as different in other countries as spoken languages are. I'm an American Sign Language interpreter, and I was in Kazakhstan 2 years ago where they use Russian sign language (because it used to be part of the Soviet Union). I met deaf people and went to a deaf club, and there were only about 4 signs that I recognized. Also, the alphabet is completely different because they use the cyrillic alphabet, so the handshapes are completely different. I would not even say that "large part of sign language is universal". There are some parts of all sign languages that are natural looking gestures, expresssion, and pantomime, but the signs for words and concepts are different place by place. The sign for "eat" in American sign language is very obvious, so anyone would understand it, as well as the sign for "drink". But most signs are more abstract, and reflect not only the spoken language of that country, but also cultural differences as well. In Kosovo, the sign for engaged is "ring, earring", because when they get engaged they are given different types of jewelry besides just a ring like in the US. In ASL it's the letter "E" (as in engaged) placed on top of the left ring finger in the position where a diamond would be. This not only reflects the lanugage (in kosovo an e would not be the same letter that starts their word for engaged) but also the traditions of that culture.
2016-03-27 07:07:16 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No
2014-04-24 16:49:49 · answer #3 · answered by sam 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Unfortunately there is no universal language. If there were, we could all communicate better and there might be more peace in the world.
Words that represent emotions and numbers may be the same, but words that represent specific words (eg. pronouns - the word I is an I moving from the chest out) are different in each language.
Wouldn't it be nice if there was a universal language that we could each learn in our own language and be understood by all.
2006-07-17 16:48:31 · answer #4 · answered by ? 3 · 11⤊ 0⤋
Sign language is not universal. There is American Sign Language, British S.L., French S.L., German S.L. and so on. I once met deaf Germans back in my college days. It was challenging trying to communicate in sign language because the signs are not the same. One sign in American would mean something else in German. So it took some creative mime-like signing to try to communicate. But I can say that foreign deaf people CAN communicate much better despite the language barrier more than hearing people who do not speak the same language because we deaf people have the skill of being able to communicate in a visual manner that can be understood universally that hearing people just cannot do as well.
You also have to be careful because some signs that aren't offensive in American S.L. would happen to be offensive signs in other countries.
2006-07-15 18:36:10 · answer #5 · answered by Amma's Child 5 · 23⤊ 0⤋
Your question implies that you believe sign languages are simply signed versions of spoken languages. This is not true.
American Sign Language (ASL), for example, is its own language, and is not related to English. Grammatically they are as different as, say, English and French. For example, in ASL, an adjective goes after a noun (while in English it goes before.)
There are many sign languages all over the world. Again these are not signed versions of spoken languages, but are different languages used among deaf people of different areas (similar to how hearing people of different areas have different languages). An example of a sign language that was created entirely by deaf people is Nicaraguan Sign Language.
2006-07-17 19:00:00 · answer #6 · answered by drshorty 7 · 21⤊ 0⤋
it is different. Some things are the same, but not everything. That is why it is called American sign language.
2006-07-15 17:51:40 · answer #7 · answered by mike i 4 · 11⤊ 1⤋
It's different in each country.
2006-07-15 18:00:18 · answer #8 · answered by Devon M 4 · 9⤊ 0⤋
i think it universal
2006-07-15 18:26:01 · answer #9 · answered by pena_reyna 2 · 1⤊ 12⤋
the same everywhere
2006-07-15 17:50:47 · answer #10 · answered by krystalbay2005 2 · 0⤊ 19⤋