Italian Sign Language
Encyclopedia
Italian Sign Language or ISL (Lingua dei Segni Italiana, or LIS) is the visual language
employed by deaf people in Italy
. Deep analysis of it began in the 1980s, along the lines of William Stokoe
's research on American Sign Language
in the 1960s. Until recently, most of the studies about Italian Sign Language have dealt with its phonology and vocabulary. According to the European Union for the Deaf, the majority of the 60,000 Deaf use ISL.
, but shares some features with non-Indo-European
oral languages (e.g. it is verb final, like the Basque language
; it has inclusive and exclusive pronominal forms like oceanic languages; interrogative particles are verb final (You go where?).
A sign variety of spoken Italian also exists, the so-called Signed Italian (Italiano Segnato)
which combines ISL lexicon with the grammar of spoken Italian: this is not Italian Sign Language, however.
Some features of ISL are typical of signed languages in general, e.g. agreement between nouns, adjectives and verbs is not based on gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) but it is based on place, that is the spatial position in which the sign is performed: nouns can be placed everywhere in the space but their position must be consistent with that of pronouns and verbs. The ISL translation of the sentence "The child speaks to the mother" appears as Child-here mother-there this-speak-that , rather than involving forms like "he, she". The voice intonation is replaced by facial expressions which mark interrogative sentences, imperatives and relative clauses. Other features of Italian Sign Language which can be found also in oral languages are: classifiers; dual, trial, quattrial and even quinquial forms in addition to the general plural; verbs inflected for person.
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
employed by deaf people in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Deep analysis of it began in the 1980s, along the lines of William Stokoe
William Stokoe
William C. Stokoe, Jr. was a scholar who researched American Sign Language extensively while he worked at Gallaudet University. He coined the term cherology, the equivalent of phonology for sign language .Stokoe graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY in 1941, and in...
's research on American Sign Language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
in the 1960s. Until recently, most of the studies about Italian Sign Language have dealt with its phonology and vocabulary. According to the European Union for the Deaf, the majority of the 60,000 Deaf use ISL.
Structure
Like many signed languages, ISL is in some ways different from its "spoken neighbour"; thus, it has little in common with spoken ItalianItalian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, but shares some features with non-Indo-European
Indo-European
Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...
oral languages (e.g. it is verb final, like the Basque language
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
; it has inclusive and exclusive pronominal forms like oceanic languages; interrogative particles are verb final (You go where?).
A sign variety of spoken Italian also exists, the so-called Signed Italian (Italiano Segnato)
Manually Coded Language
Manually coded languages are representations of spoken languages in a gestural-visual form; that is, "sign language" versions of spoken languages...
which combines ISL lexicon with the grammar of spoken Italian: this is not Italian Sign Language, however.
Some features of ISL are typical of signed languages in general, e.g. agreement between nouns, adjectives and verbs is not based on gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) but it is based on place, that is the spatial position in which the sign is performed: nouns can be placed everywhere in the space but their position must be consistent with that of pronouns and verbs. The ISL translation of the sentence "The child speaks to the mother" appears as Child-here mother-there this-speak-that , rather than involving forms like "he, she". The voice intonation is replaced by facial expressions which mark interrogative sentences, imperatives and relative clauses. Other features of Italian Sign Language which can be found also in oral languages are: classifiers; dual, trial, quattrial and even quinquial forms in addition to the general plural; verbs inflected for person.
External links
- "Signs as Words", a divulgative website on italian Deaf people and ISL
- http://elis.eurac.edu Il primo Dizionario elettronico di base bilingue LIS-italiano (http://elis.eurac.edu/diz)
- DIZLIS
- The Grammar of LIS (.PDF)
- Mason Perkins Deafness Fund
- "Collana Cultura Sorda" è la più importante e accurata raccolta italiana di libri e pubblicazioni per imparare, insegnare o affinare la Lingua Italiana dei Segni. Curata da Mason Perkins Deafness Fund.
- www.eud.eu