Comparative ASL/English Language Continuum
American Sign Language
English
(principle is operational for other signed languages)
SSS (Sign Supported Speech)
Voicing spoken English and signing an MCE. Sometimes called Simultaneous Communication (SimCom) or Total Communication (TC).
Not a language.
“Contact signing” (Cokely, 1983; Lucas & Valli, 1989; Woodward, 1973)
b
Con
)
E
C
tact Sig
(M
n / Manually Coded English f
(principle is operational
for other spoken languages)
g
h i
j
< more like AS
L more like English >
d
e
c
CASE (Conceptually Accurate Signed English)
Popular alternative to Signed English, sometimes called PSE (Pidgin Signed English). Combines ASL signs and concepts in an MCE form. Not a language.
b
ASL (American
Sign Language)
Visio-gestural language, preferred and connate language of American Deaf people. Topic-comment grammatical structure and approach (cf. Baker & Cokely, 1980); utilizes language- and code- borrowing from majority spoken language. Formerly ‘the sign language’ (Veditz, 1913) and ‘Ameslan’ (Fant, 1972). Etymologically related to Old French SL and American regional signs developed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
c
d
e
SE (Signed English)
SEE1 (Seeing SEE2 (Signing Essential English) Exact English)
Simplified English-based code; only 14 added grammatical markers. (Developed mid-1970s, Harry Bornstein, Gallaudet College; 1983, Bornstein, Saulnier, & Hamilton)
(Formerly ‘SEE1’) Intended to reinforce basic English morphemic structure: • compound words are
formed with separate signs (‘butter’+‘fly’)
• same/one sign
used for homonyms (‘bear’ and ‘bare’)
• heavy use of
initialization (haVe)
• affixes, articles, and
‘to be’ verb added
(Developed 1966, David Anthony, Gallaudet College)
Overlapping approaches drawn for distinction and not accuracy purposes.
©2012 Doug Stringham, Utah Valley University; revised 2011, 2008, 2006.
(Formerly ‘SEE2’) Similar to SEE1 but:
• compound words
are conceptually accurate (‘butterfly,’ not ‘butter’+ ‘fly’)
• more ASL signs
(one sounded word = one sign)
• at least seventy
artificial/ invented signs and affixes
added to this system
(Developed 1972, Gerilee Gustason)
f
g
LOVE (Linguistics Rochester of Visual English) Method
h
Cued Speech
Not a signed language. Based on Seeing Essential Each lexical unit produced Combines eight arbitrary English (SEE1). Used using the manual alphabet. handshapes and four Stokoe Notation System Extensively used in schools locations to visually and phonetically represent (tab-dez-sig; Stokoe, for the deaf in the late English. (Developed 1966, 1960; Stokoe, Casterline, nineteenth century. Dr. Robert Cornett, Sometimes used in & Croneberg, 1965) to Gallaudet College)
codify. Defunct. (Developed tactile/deaf-blind signing 1972, Dennis Wampler) situations; some Deaf I
adults still use this method. Written English
(Developed 1878, Zenas Westervelt, Western New J
York Institute for Deaf- Spoken English
Mutes, later Rochester School for the Deaf)