Who Invented Sign Language?

Who Invented Sign Language - Sign Language Used in Space

In July 2010, NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson made history by bringing a new language to the International Space Station. In a six-minute video recorded on-board, she spoke directly to deaf people around the world using American Sign Language (ASL).

Sign Language in Space Tracy Caldwell Dyson

Caldwell Dyson's goal was to encourage deaf persons to pursue careers in science and technology. "This story should be an avenue for deaf students – from children in kindergarten to college undergraduates to doctoral candidates – to see themselves belonging to this amazing thing called NASA and participating in scientific research and space exploration," she said.

The astronaut had first become interested in sign language when she met a fellow sprinter on her high school track team who was deaf. She learned ASL and later tutored a deaf student who was struggling in chemistry while in graduate school.

The origins of sign language go back thousands of years. In the fifth century BC, Plato wrote about a system of signs that were used by deaf persons. There is also a record of deaf-mutes communicating by lip motions in Judea during the second century AD.

Who Invented Sign Language - Modern Sign Language

A Spanish priest named Juan Pablo Bonet invented modern sign language during the 1610's while serving as a secretary to a wealthy duke. The duke's extended family had a number of deaf and mute persons. Bonet set about developing a system of signs and a manual alphabet to help them to communicate.

Who invented Sign Language? _ Juan Pablo Bonet

Juan Pablo Bonet

In 1620, Bonet published a book, "Reduction of Letters and Art for Teaching Mute People to Speak," that laid out his system. The book was highly influential, inspiring the development of Spanish, French and American Sign Languages.

A wealthy Frenchman, Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée, took the priest's work further. Fusing Bonet's writing with sign language used by the deaf in Paris, l'Épée developed a manual alphabet. In 1760, he opened the first deaf school, the National Institute for Deaf Youth in Paris. He published a dictionary and a book titled, "Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Using Methodical Sign," in 1776. The sign language alphabet that l‘Épée invented has survived virtually unchanged in France and North America ever since.

Who Invented Sign Language - Amerian Sign Language (ASL)

An American minister, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, helped to develop ASL. In 1815, he journeyed to Paris to investigate methods of teaching Alice Cogswell, the deaf daughter of his friend, Dr. Mason Cogswell. In Paris, he met with educators at the Royal Institution for the Deaf and learned about French Sign Language.

Who invented sign language? thomas Hopkins Gallaudet

Statue of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet with Alice Cogswell and Painting of Gallaudet

Gallaudet persuaded one of the institution's faculty members, Laurant Clerc, to travel to America. They opened the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons in 1817. Initially, they taught deaf children French Sign Language. Students infused it with sign language they had learned at home. Out of this fusion of influences came ASL.

One of Gallaudet's sons, Edward Miner Gallaudet, founded the world's first college for the deaf in Washington, D.C. in 1864. It was later renamed Gallaudet University after Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, the man who helped to invent ASL.

Links for Who Invented Sign Language

Astronaut Caldwell Dyson Sends Sign Language Message From Space Station

ALSPro.com

Handspeak.com

 

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