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Sign languages - giving voice to the voiceless

How more than 200 different sign languages and dialects use hand gestures and other types of body language

Hands spelling out in sign language the words 'Use a condom'; advertisement for safe sex by the British Deaf Association. Black and white lithograph.
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Jolan Wuyts (otvorí sa v novom okne) (Europeana Foundation)

Sign languages are ways of visual communication using hand gestures and other types of body language. There are over 200 different sign languages and dialects in the world.

They are often less connected to spoken languages than one might think and have complex and rich histories, linguistics and grammar.

photograph of six piles of cards with different images and text on each.

Every year on 23 September, the International Day of Sign Languages is celebrated. This marks the day in 1951 when the World Federation of the Deaf was founded. It is a significant day in Deaf culture. The International Day of Sign Languages was first celebrated in 2018, as part of the International Week of the Deaf, which has been marked since 2009.

Even though these international organisations and events are quite recent, sign languages have existed for centuries. They sprang up out of necessity so deaf and hard of hearing people could communicate.

Poster of a black and white drawing with a vicar using sign language to the congregation at a service at a deaf church.

Most of the knowledge we have on historical sign languages is limited to manual alphabets, which were a way of translating between spoken languages and visual language. Some of the oldest preserved manual alphabets date from the 17th century.

A lot of remnants of these manual alphabets can still be found in modern sign languages. The vowels in British Sign Language, for instance, are still made by pointing at the tips of your fingers on the left hand.

A colour engraving showing hands spelling out a sign language alphabet.

Even though sign languages were largely developed organically by the users of those languages, throughout history some individuals have been instrumental in formalising and disseminating those languages.

The Spanish Benedictine Monk Pedro Ponce de Léon developed a manual alphabet as early as the 16th Century.

The French abbot Charles-Michel de l'Épée published his version of the manual alphabet in the 18th Century, which has stayed largely unchanged in the current French and American Sign Languages. de l'Épée founded the first school for deaf children in Paris. One of the graduates of this first school went on to found the first school for the deaf in the United States.

Poster of the Abbot de L'Epée with text above him saying 'Gloire' and below his portrait are hands signing the alphabet.

Because graduates of the French school for the deaf imported their sign language to the United States, there still are a lot of similarities between ASL (American Sign Language) and LSF (French Sign Language).

Since most sign languages develop and spread largely independently from spoken languages, there are a lot of differences between the geographical influences, geographical spread, grammar and linguistic traits of sign languages compared to spoken languages.

illustration showing hands spelling letters in French sign language surrounded by an ornate border.

One of the biggest influences in the development and spread of a certain sign language is the founding of schools for the deaf.

black and white photograph of a female teacher teaching young boys in a school for deaf kids.

An example of this is the influence of Carl Oscar Malm and Fritz Hirn on Finnish Sign Language.

Black and white photograph of Carl Oscar Malm, a teacher at the School for Deaf children.

Finnish Sign Language developed from Swedish Sign Language through Carl Oscar Malm. Carl had studied at the Stockholm School of the Deaf, where Swedish Sign Language was taught. He took this sign language back with him to Finland, where he founded the first Finnish school for the Deaf in Porvoo in 1846. He later founded a second, state-sponsored school in Turku. 

Fritz Hirn was a private student of Malm's, and later thought at the school for the Deaf in Turku.

photograph of David Fredrik sitting by a table with his head resting on his hand.

The home of Fritz and his wife Maria Hirn quickly became a popular spot for the deaf community of Turku to gather. Out of these lively weekly Sunday gatherings, the first Finnish Association of the Deaf was born, mirroring the Swedish Association of the Deaf.

Fritz would go on to start formalising the Finnish Sign Language and found the first deaf kindergarten in Helsinki.

black and white photo of Fritz playing chess with a man. Beside them are two ladies, one of them being Maria Hirn.

The Deaf community is richly varied, with dozens of different schools throughout Europe reaching different languages and dialects, but all united in serving Deaf and Hard of Hearing people.

The International Day of Sign Languages in 2020 has the slogan 'Sign Languages are for Everyone!' and the theme of the International Week of Deaf people is 'Reaffirming Deaf people's Rights'. Learn more about these celebrations on the World Federation of the Deaf's website, and support Deaf people's rights by signing the WFD Charter.

a dark haired female teacher smiling at a young blonde boy sitting on a table with a sheet of paper in front of him.

Some of the images used in this blog use the word 'dumb' or 'mute' to refer to people from the Deaf community. Even though these words are used in their historical context, these terms are derogatory today and shouldn't be used to refer to members of the Deaf community.

This blog was not written by a member of the Deaf community. Is there something in this blog you think is inaccurate or should be changed? Please contact us at [email protected]

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