ASL History

Design & Purpose

The purpose of this wiki is to give an in depth view of the American Sign Language.  People will know where it came from, where it is right now, and where it is going.  The main goal of this wiki is to allow people to see how the language works, and where people can go to learn the language.  If you've ever been interested in sign language and want to learn it this site is for you.  If just want to take a gander at the language feel free to look at the rest of the wiki, and I hope you take a little of the language with you.

History of the American Sign Language

The first thing to know about sign language is who invented it and why.  

In the 16th century a man named Geronimo Cardano, a physican of Padua in northern Italy, said that deaf people could learn written combinations of symbols by associating them with the things they represented.  However, Juan Pablo de Bonet published the first book on teaching sign language to deaf people in 1620.  The book also contained a manual alphabet.

This is Juan Pablo de Bonet.

The information listed above is found at this link.

In 1755 a priest named Abbe Charles Michel De L 'Epee visited a home that had two little girls in it that would not speak to him.  At first he thought it was rude, but later he was told that the girls were deaf.  That inspired him to create a language of sign that would be used among the deaf of his community.

This is Abbe Charles Michel De L 'Epee.

The information listed above is found at this link.

The abbe was a creative person.  He developed his sign language by regonizing and learning the manual signs that already existed from a group of deaf people in Paris, and then he added his own his own gestures that resulted in a signed version of spoken French.

Another deaf educator of 1778 was Samuel Heinicke of Leipzig, Germany.  He taught speech and speechreading.  He established the first public school for deaf people that was recongnized by the government.

This is Samuel Heinicke.

The two methods of manual and oral sign were the founders for today's concept of total communication.  Which is the use of all means of available communication such as sign language, gesturing, fingerspelling , speechreading, speech, hearing aids, reading writing, and pictures.

In America, the Great Plains Indians developed a system of signing that was mainly used for intertribial communication.  It wasn't really used for the deaf.  Yet, it's interesting how the similarities exist between the Indian sign language and the present system even though the Indian signs had no influence on the presesnt system.

America owes a lot of gratitude to Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a Congregational minister who became interested in helping his neighbors yound deaf daughter Alice Cogswell.  He traveled to Europe on 1815 to study methods of communicating with deaf people.  In London, he met Abbe Roche Ambroise Sicard who invited him to study at his school for deaf people in Paris.  He also met Laurent Clerc, and after several months he returned to the United States with Clerc.

The above image is Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.

The information listed above is found at this link.

Laurent Clerc was a young deaf man and recent graduate of the deaf Paris school.  He travelled back to Paris with Sicard and Gallaudet to study methods deaf education and he signed with Gallaudet along the way.  Gallaudet convinced him to go to America to establish the first school for the deaf.  The school is called The American School for the Deaf, and is located in Hartford, Connecticut. Although, the school was originally called the American Asylum for the deaf and Dumb.

The above image is Laurent Clerc.

On the voyage from France to America, Clerc taught Gallaudet the signed language that was used at the school in Paris, and Gallaudet taught Clerc English.  Together they developed a sign language that they thought would meet the needs of the deaf children in America.

They made modifications to adapt the signed language to include the grammer of English.  Signs were invented for English verb endings, articles, prepositions, etc.

The information listed above can be found at this link.

Soon after 1817, more schools began to apper in several states.  The New York School for the Deaf opened in 1818.  In 1820 a school opened in Pennsylvania.  A total fo twenty-two schools had been established throughout the United States by the year 1863.

An important milestone in sign language history was the found of Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C., in 1864.  Which remains to be the only liberal arts college for deaf people in the United States and the world.

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet's son Edward Miner Gallaudet and Amos Kendall made his father's dream of a college a reality.  Edward Gallaudet became the first president of the new college.

The above image is Edward Miner Gallaunet.

The information listed above can be found at this link.

The charter fot the college was signed in 1864 by President Abraham Lincoln.  This little bit of information is found at this link.