Contact Sign
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'''Contact Sign''' is a [[Variety (linguistics)|variety]] or [[Stylistics (linguistics)|style]] of language that arises from contact between a Deaf [[sign language]] and a spoken language (or the written or [[Manually Coded English|manually coded]] form of the spoken language). [[Contact language]]s also arise between different sign languages, although the term [[pidgin]] rather than Contact Sign is used to describe such phenomena.
==Language contact==
[[Language contact]] is extremely common in most [[Deaf community|deaf communities]], which are almost always located within a dominant spoken language ("Hearing") culture. Deaf people are exposed to the spoken language that surrounds them, if only in visual forms like [[lip reading|mouthing]] or writing, from early childhood. [[Hearing (person)|Hearing]] parents and teachers of deaf children, if they sign at all, are usually [[second language]] learners and their signing style will exhibit features of [[Language transfer|interference]] from the spoken language. A mixing of languages and modes may also occur when [[interpreting]] between a spoken and a signed language.
While deaf sign languages are distinct from spoken languages, with a different vocabulary and grammar, a boundary between the two is often hard to draw. A language 'continuum' is often described between signing with a strongly sign-language grammar to signing with a strongly spoken-language grammar, the middle-regions of which are often described as Contact Sign (or Pidgin Sign). In a conversation between a native signer and a second-language learner, both conversation partners may be signing at different ends of the spectrum. A blend that is often seen is vocabulary from the sign language signed in the [[word order]] of the spoken language, with a simplified or reduced grammar typical of contact languages.
However, even a dialog between two Deaf native signers often shows some evidence of language contact. Deaf people in the USA may use a more English-like signing style in a more formal setting, or if unfamiliar with the interlocutor.<ref>{{cite book | last =Lucas | first =Ceil | coauthors = [[Clayton Valli]] | year = 1989 | chapter = Language Contact in the American Deaf Community | title = The Sociolinguistics of the Deaf Community | editor = Ceil Lucas, ed. | pages = 11–40 | location = San Diego | publisher = Academic Press | isbn = 9780124580459 | oclc = 18781573 }}</ref>
==Linguistic features of language contact==
Sign language researchers [[Ceil Lucas]] and [[Clayton Valli]] note several differences between the language contact arising between two sign languages, and the contact phenomena that arise between a signed and a spoken language.<ref>{{cite book | last = Lucas | first = Ceil | coauthors = [[Clayton Valli]] | year = 1992 | title = Language contact in the American deaf community | location = San Diego | publisher = Academic Press | isbn = 9780124580404 | oclc = 25316891 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | first = Ceil | last = Lucas | title = Language contact phenomena in deaf communities | journal = Estudios de Sociolingüística | format = PDF | language = English | url = http://www.sociolinguistica.uvigo.es/articulo1.asp?id=19 | accessdate = 2007-10-24 | volume = 1 | issue = 1 | pages = 145–152 | issn = | id = {{OCLC|48513134}} }}</ref> When two sign languages meet, the expected contact phenomena occur — [[lexicon|lexical]] borrowing, foreign "accent," interference, [[code switching]], [[pidgin]]s, [[creole language|creole]]s, and mixed systems. However, between a sign language and a spoken language, while lexical borrowing and code switching also occur, the interface between the spoken and signed [[Grammatical mood|mode]]s produces unique phenomena: [[fingerspelling]] (see below), fingerspelling/sign combination, initalisation, [[CODA]] talk (see below), [[Telecommunications devices for the deaf|TTY]] conversation, mouthing and contact signing.
Long-term contact with spoken languages has generated a large influence on the vocabulary and grammar of sign languages. [[Loan translation]]s are common, such as the [[American Sign Language]] signs BOY and FRIEND forming a compound meaning "boyfriend", or the [[Auslan]] partial-[[calque]] DON'T MIND, which involves the sign for the [[noun]] MIND combined with an upturned palm, which is a typical Auslan [[negation]]. At what point a loan-translation becomes fully acceptable and considered as "native" (rather than Contact Signing) is a matter over which native signers will differ in opinion. This process appears to be very common in those sign languages that have been best documented, such as [[American Sign Language]], [[British Sign Language]], and [[Auslan]]. In these cases, signers are increasingly [[bilingual]] in both a sign and a "spoken" language (or visual forms of it) as the Deaf signing community's [[literacy]] levels increase. In such bilingual communities, loan translations are common enough that deeper grammatical structures may also borrowed — in this case, from the spoken language. This is known as [[metatypy]]. [[Malcolm Ross]] writes:
{{bquote|Usually, the language undergoing metatypy (the modified language) is emblematic of its speakers’ identity, whilst the language which provides the metatypic model is an inter-community language. Speakers of the modified language form a sufficiently tightknit community to be well aware of their separate identity and of their language as a marker of that identity, but some bilingual speakers, at least, use the inter-community language so extensively that they are more at home in it than in the emblematic language of the community.<ref>{{cite book | authorlink = Malcolm Ross | last = Ross | first = Malcolm D. | year = 1997 | chapter = Social networks and kinds of speech-community event | editor = R. Blench; Matthew Spriggs, eds. | title = Archaeology and language 1: Theoretical and methodological orientations | pages = pp. 209-261 | location = London | publisher = Routledge | isbn = 9780415117609 | oclc = 35673530 }}</ref>}}
Some populations with a high proportion of deaf people have developed sign languages that are used by both hearing and deaf people in the community, such as [[Martha's Vineyard Sign Language]], [[Yucatec Maya Sign Language]], [[Adamorobe Sign Language]] and [[Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language]]. It is unclear what kind of language contact phenomena (if any) occur in such environments.
==Fingerspelling==
{{Main|Fingerspelling}}
One of the most striking contact sign phenomena is [[fingerspelling]], in which a [[writing system]] is represented with manual signs. In those sign languages where such a system exists, the manual alphabet is structurally quite different from the more "native" grammatical forms, which are often spatial, visually motivated, and multilayered. Manual alphabets facilitate the input of new terms such as technical vocabulary from the dominant spoken language of the region, and allow a [[transliteration]] of phrases, names, and places. They may also be used for [[function word]]s such as "at", "so" or "but".
==Pidgin Sign English==
The phrase Pidgin Sign English<ref>{{cite journal | last = Woodward | first = James | year = 1973 | title = Some Characteristics of Pidgin Sign English | journal = Sign Language Studies | volume = 2 | issue = 3 | pages = 39–46 | issn = 0302-1475 | id = {{OCLC|1779938}} }}</ref> (PSE, sometimes "Pidgin Signed English") is often used to describe the different contact languages that arise between the [[English language]] and either [[British Sign Language]], [[New Zealand Sign Language]], [[Auslan]] or [[American Sign Language]], but the term is increasingly falling out of favor.
==CODA talk==
Contact phenomena have been observed in the reverse direction, from a sign language to a spoken language. Hearing adults who grew up in Deaf signing households ([[Child of Deaf Adult|Children of Deaf Adults]], CODAs) sometimes communicate with each other in spoken and written English while knowingly using ASL loan translations and underlying grammatical forms.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Bishop | first = Michele | title = Orange Eyes: Bimodal Bilingualism in Hearing Adults from Deaf Families | journal = Sign Language Studies | volume = 5 | issue = 2 | date = Winter 2005 | pages = pp. 188–230 | issn = 0302-1475 | id = {{OCLC|92476830}} | doi = 10.1353/sls.2005.0001 }}</ref>
==See also==
*[[Bimodal Bilingualism (in the American Deaf Community)]]
*[[Manually Coded English]]
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
* {{cite book | last = Ann | first = Jean | year = 1998 | chapter = Contact between a sign language and a written language: Character signs in Taiwan Sign Language | editor = [[Ceil Lucas]], ed. | title = Pinky Extension and Eye Gaze: Language Use in Deaf Communities | location = Washington, D.C. | publisher = Gallaudet University Press | isbn = 9781563680700 | oclc = 40137540 }}
* {{cite journal | last = Reilly | first = Judy S. | coauthors = Marina L. McIntire | title = ASL and Pidgin Sign English: What's the difference? | journal = Sign Language Studies | volume = 9 | issue = 27 | year = 1980 | pages = 151–192 | issn = 0302-1475 | id = {{OCLC|1779938}} }}
* {{cite journal | last = Cokely | first = Dennis Richard | title = When is a Pidgin not a Pidgin? An alternate analysis of the ASL-English contact situation | journal = Sign Language Studies | volume = 12 | issue = 38 | date = Spring 1983 | pages = 1–24 | issn = 0302-1475 | id = {{OCLC|92819277}} }}
* {{cite book | last = Supalla | first = T. | coauthors = R. Webb | year = 1995 | chapter = The grammar of international sign: A new look at pidgin languages | editor = Karen Emmorey, Judy S. Reilly, eds. | title = Language, gesture and space | pages = pp. 333-352 | location = Hillsdale, New Jersey | publisher = Lawrence Erlbaum Associates | isbn = 9780805813784 | oclc = 31434174 }}
* {{cite book | first = Barbara | last = Luetke-Stahlman | chapter = Three PSE studies: Implications for educators | editor = Mary Pat Moeller, ed. | title = Proceedings: Issues in Language and Deafness | year = 1993 | location = Omaha, Nebraska | publisher = Boys Town National Research Hospital | isbn = | oclc = }}
[[Category:Sign languages]]
[[Category:Pidgins and creoles]]