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Nicaraguan Sign Language (or ISN, Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua or Idioma de Signos Nicaragüense) is a signed language spontaneously developed by deaf children in a number of schools in western Nicaragua in the 1970s and 1980s. It is of particular interest to linguists because it offers a unique opportunity to study the "birth" of a new language.
History
Before the 1970s, there was no deaf community in Nicaragua. Deaf people were largely isolated from each other, and used simple home sign systems and gesture ('mimicas') to communicate with their families and friends. The conditions necessary for a language to arise occurred in 1977, when a center for special education established a program initially attended by 50 young deaf children. The number of students at the school (in the Managua neighborhood of San Judas) grew to 100 by 1979, the year of the Sandinista revolution.
In 1980, a vocational school for adolescent deaf children was opened in the area of Managua called Villa Libertad. By 1983 there were over 400 deaf students enrolled in the two schools. Initially, the language program emphasised spoken Spanish and lipreading, and the use of signs by teachers limited to fingerspelling (using simple signs to sign the alphabet). The program achieved little success, with most students failing to grasp the concept of words. However, while the children remained linguistically disconnected from their teachers, the playground, hallways and the bus to-and-from school provided fertile ground for them to communicate with each other, and by combining gestures and elements of their home-sign systems, a pidgin-like form, and then a creole-like language rapidly emerged. They were creating their own language. This "first-stage" pidgin has been called Lenguaje de Signos Nicaragüense (LSN), and is still used by some of those who were already teenagers when they attended the school at this time.
More on [ Nicaraguan Sign Language ]
RT @kafila Breaking Rules: Reflections on Knowledge http://bit.ly/fI1JH <- On Nicaraguan sign language, intell. property, social mvms
propertyvine (Property Sale Direct) Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:24:38 -0000
RT @kafila Breaking Rules: Reflections on Knowledge http://bit.ly/fI1JH <- On Nicaraguan sign language, intell. property, social mvms
RT @kafila Breaking Rules: Reflections on Knowledge http://bit.ly/fI1JH <- On Nicaraguan sign language, intell. property, social mvms
fhi_duke (Franklin Humanities) Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:23:03 -0000
RT @kafila Breaking Rules: Reflections on Knowledge http://bit.ly/fI1JH <- On Nicaraguan sign language, intell. property, social mvms
A Language at Its Genesis - Article on the birth of Nicaraguan Sign Language, and researcher Judy Kegl's work to document the process.
A Linguistic Big Bang - A journalist interviews some of the deaf Nicaraguan school children who use a new sign language they invented on their own. From the New York Times Magazine.
Birth Of A Language - Article and video from 60 Minutes about the development of the language.
Meta Description: [ In the 1980s, to be deaf in Nicaragua was to be lost. But one group of deaf children overcame these obstacles in an astounding way. Scott Pelley reports on their remarkable story. ]
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Children's Contribution to the Birth of Nicaraguan Sign Language - Abstract of PhD thesis by Ann Senghas.
Evolution: Birth of a Language - Background information focusing on the emergence of language, and a video from the PBS show.
Gallaudet University Press News - Includes an article about the development of NSL.
Nicaraguan Sign Language Projects, Inc. - University of Maine research effort. Descriptions of study projects, schools at Bluefields and Condega, publications list, and staff resumes.
SignWriting in Nicaragua - Covers the written representation of the signed language, the spread of literacy, and first-person reports from those teaching deaf children to read and write their native signed language.
Talking Hands - Profile of Judy and James Shepard-Kegl, who are bringing the sign language developed on Nicaragua's Pacific coast to uneducated deaf people in isolated communities on the Atlantic coast.
Meta Description: [ The Alumni Magazine from Brown University, published bi-monthly since 1900. ]
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