Hostname: page-component-6898cfcb55-zkb6p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-11T23:18:43.891Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sign Language Endangerment and Linguistic Diversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Ben Braithwaite
Ben Braithwaite*
Affiliation:
University of the West Indies at St. Augustine
*
[ben.braithwaite.best@gmail.com]
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It has become increasingly clear that current threats to global linguistic diversity are not restricted to the loss of spoken languages. Signed languages are vulnerable to familiar patterns of language shift and the global spread of a few influential languages. But the ecologies of signed languages are also affected by genetics, social attitudes toward deafness, educational and public health policies, and a widespread modality chauvinism that views spoken languages as inherently superior or more desirable. This research report reviews what is known about sign language vitality and endangerment globally, and considers the responses from communities, governments, and linguists.

It is striking how little attention has been paid to sign language vitality, endangerment, and revitalization, even as research on signed languages has occupied an increasingly prominent position in linguistic theory. It is time for linguists from a broader range of backgrounds to consider the causes, consequences, and appropriate responses to current threats to sign language diversity. In doing so, we must articulate more clearly the value of this diversity to the field of linguistics and the responsibilities the field has toward preserving it.

Keywords

language endangermentlanguage vitalitylanguage documentationsigned languages

Information

Type
Research Report
Information
Language , Volume 95 , Issue 1 , March 2019, pp. e161 - e187
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adam, Robert. 2012. Unimodal bilingualism in the Deaf community: Language contact between two sign languages in Australia and the United Kingdom. London: University College London dissertation.Google Scholar
Ahmad, M. 2008. What factors contribute to sign language endangerment? London: School of Oriental and African Studies MA thesis.Google Scholar
Alesevich, Matt. 2015. In Bali's deaf village, everyone speaks sign language. Vice, November 19, 2015. Online: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8gkjag/theres-a-village-in-bali-where-everyone-knows-sign-language-511.Google Scholar
Ali, Kristian, Braithwaite, Ben, Dhanoolal, Ian; and Elvin, Kimone. 2017. Documenting language in visual and tactile modalities: Sign language in the Bay Islands, Honduras. Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC), University of Hawai'i, March 5, 2017.Google Scholar
Aoki, Kenichi, and Feldman, Marcus W.. 1991. Recessive hereditary deafness, assortative mating, and persistence of a sign language. Theoretical Population Biology 39. 358-72. DOI: 10.1016/0040-5809(91)90029-F.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Austin, Peter K., and Sallabank, Julia. 2011. Introduction. The Cambridge handbook of endangered languages, ed. by Austin, Peter K. and Sallabank, Julia, 1–24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511975981.001.Google Scholar
Beggs, John J., Haines, Valerie A.; and Hurlbert, Jeanne S.. 1996. Revisiting the rural-urban contrast: Personal networks in nonmetropolitan and metropolitan settings. Rural Sociology 61. 306-25. DOI: 10.1111/j.1549-0831.1996.tb00622.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bickford, J. Albert, Lewis, M. Paul; and Simons, Gary F.. 2015. Rating the vitality of sign languages. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 36. 513-27. DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2014.966827.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bickford, J. Albert, and McKay-Cody, Melanie. 2018. Endangerment and revitalization of sign languages. The Routledge handbook of language revitalization, ed. by Hinton, Leanne, Huss, Leena, and Roche, Gerald, 255-64. New York: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781315561271-32.Google Scholar
Blankmeyer Burke, Teresa, Snoddon, Kristin; and Wilkinson, Erin. 2016. Genetics and deafness: A view from the inside. Genetics of deafness, vol. 20, ed. by Vona, Barbara and Haaf, Thomas, 1–8. Basel: Karger. DOI: 10.1159/000442334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boudreault, Patrick, Baldwin, Erin E., Fox, Michelle, Dutton, Loriel, Tullis, Lee-Elle, Linden, Joyce, Kobayashi, Yoko; et al. 2010. Deaf adults' reasons for genetic testing depend on cultural affiliation: Results from a prospective, longitudinal genetic counseling and testing study. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 15. 209-27. DOI: 10.1093/deafed/enq012.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braithwaite, Ben. 2015. Deaf perspectives on Deaf education: An ethnographic study from Trinidad and Tobago. Caribbean Educational Research Journal 3. 18–26. Online: https://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/fhe/education/cerj/volume-3,-number-1-(april-2015)/article-ben-brathwaite.aspx.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, Ben. 2016. Sign language: Caribbean. The SAGE deaf studies encyclopedia, ed. by Gertz, Genie and Boudreault, Patrick, 792-92. California: SAGE. DOI: 10.4135/9781483346489.n251.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, Ben. 2018a. A sketch of the linguistic geography of signed languages in the Caribbean. Society for Caribbean Linguistics Occasional Papers 38.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, Ben. 2018b. Language contact and the history of sign language in Trinidad and Tobago. Sign Language Studies 19. 5–39. DOI: 10.1353/sls.2018.0024.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braithwaite, Ben, Drayton, Kathy-Ann; and Lamb, Alicia. 2011. The history of deaf language and education in Trinidad and Tobago since 1943. History in Action 2. Online: http://uwispace.sta.uwi.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2139/11124/Article%202%20-%20braithwaitedraytonlamb.pdf.Google Scholar
Britain, David. 2009. One foot in the grave? Dialect death, dialect contact, and dialect birth in England. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2009. 121-55. DOI: 10.1515/IJSL.2009.019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caselli, Naomi K., Hall, Wyatte C.; and Lillo-Martin, Diane. 2017. Operationalization and measurement of sign language. Pediatrics 140:e20172655B. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2017-2655B.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, Brenda, Rarrick, Samantha, Rentz, Bradley, Stabile, Claire, Uno, Sarah; and Woodward, James. 2016. Uncovering Creole Hawai'i Sign Language: Evidence from a case study. Poster presented at Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research 12, LaTrobe University.Google Scholar
Coppola, Marie, and Newport, Eliza L.. 2005. Grammatical subjects in home sign: Abstract linguistic structure in adult primary gesture systems without linguistic input. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102. 19249-53. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0509306102.Google ScholarPubMed
Crasborn, Onno, and Wit, Maya de. 2005. Ethical implications of language standardisation for sign language interpreters. International perspectives on interpreting: Selected proceedings from the Supporting Deaf People Online Conferences 2001–2005, ed. by Mole, Judith, 141-50. Brassington: Direct Learning Services.Google Scholar
Cumberbatch, Keren. 2012. Sociolinguistic sketch of Konchri Sain. In Zeshan & de Vos, 387-88.Google Scholar
Cumberbatch, Keren. 2015. Jamaican Sign Language. Sign languages of the world: A comparative handbook, ed. by Jepsen, Julie Bakken, Clerck, Goedele De, Lutalo-Kiingi, Sam, and McGregor, William B., 511-28. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton/Ishara.Google Scholar
Davidson, Kathryn, Lillo-Martin, Diane; and Pichler, Deborah Chen. 2014. Spoken English language development among native signing children with cochlear implants. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 19. 238-50. DOI: 10.1093/deafed/ent045.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, Jeffrey E. 2010. Hand talk: Sign language among American Indian nations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
De Meulder, Maartje. 2016. The power of language policy: The legal recognition of sign languages and the aspirations of deaf communities. Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities 301. Online: https://jyx.jyu.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/52219/978-951-39-6876-2_vaitos16122016.pdf.Google Scholar
de Vos, Connie. 2011. A signers' village in Bali, Indonesia. Minpaku Anthropology Newsletter (Where sign language studies can take us) 33. 4–5. Online: https://www.mpi.nl/publications/1334659.Google Scholar
de Vos, Connie. 2016. Sampling shared sign languages. Sign Language Studies 16. 1–16. DOI: 10.1353/sls.2016.0002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Vos, Connie, and Nyst, Victoria (eds.) 2018. Rural sign languages. Special issue of Sign Language Studies 18(4). Online: https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/39035.Google Scholar
de Vos, Connie, and Pfau, Roland. 2015. Sign language typology: The contribution of rural sign languages. Annual Review of Linguistics 1. 265-88. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-linguist-030514-124958.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dikyuva, Hasan. 2012. Mardin Sign Language: Signing in a ‘deaf family’. In Zeshan & de Vos, 395-99.Google Scholar
Dolman, David. 1985. The language of St Elizabeth's deaf community. Jamaica Journal 18. 10–15.Google Scholar
Dolman, David. 1986. Sign languages in Jamaica. Sign Language Studies 52. 235-42. DOI: 10.1353/sls.1986.0027.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doran, Edwin. 1952. Inbreeding in an isolated island community. Journal of Heredity 43. 263-66. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a106326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dye, Matthew W., Kushalnagar, Poorna; and Henner, Jon. 2017. Concerns with data analysis and interpretation: Commentary on Geers et al. (2017). Pediatrics 140: e20163489. Online: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/140/1/e20163489.comments#concerns-with-data-analysis-and-interpretation.Google Scholar
Enns, Emily E., Boudreault, Patrick; and Palmer, Christina G. S.. 2010. Examining the relationship between genetic counselors' attitudes toward deaf people and the genetic counseling session. Journal of Genetic Counseling 19. 161-73. DOI: 10.1007/s10897-009-9272-6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erard, Michael. 2014. The discovery of a new language can help explain how we communicate. Al Jazeera America, April 17, 2017. Online: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/4/17/inventing-a-language.html.Google Scholar
Evans, Nicholas, and Levinson, Stephen C.. 2009. The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32. 429-48. DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X0999094X.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fischer, Susan D. 1996. By the numbers: Language-internal evidence for creolization. International review of sign linguistics, vol. 1, ed. by Edmondson, William and Wilbur, Ronnie B., 1–22. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Fischer, Susan D. 2009. Sign language field methods: Approaches, techniques, and concerns. Taiwan Sign Language and beyond, ed. by Tai, James H.-Y. and Tsay, Jane, 1–19. Chia-Yi: Taiwan Institute for the Humanities, National Chung Cheng University.Google Scholar
Fisher, Jami, Hochgesang, Julie; and Tamminga, Meredith. 2016. Examining variation in the absence of a ‘main’ ASL corpus: The case of the Philadelphia Signs Project. Paper presented at the 7th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Corpus Mining at the Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), Portorož, Slovenia.Google Scholar
Fox, Margalit. 2007. Talking hands: What sign language reveals about the mind. London: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Friedman, Joshua J. 2013. Village sign languages, vanishing fast. Boston Globe, July 28, 2013. Online: https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/07/27/village-sign-languages-vanishing-fast/JKD8eE0LRHpbWW8YZsYPvO/story.html.Google Scholar
Gayle, Bertram. 2016. Selected features of Konchri Sain morphology and syntax. Mona: University of the West Indies, Mona MPhil thesis.Google Scholar
Geers, Ann E., Mitchell, Christine M., Warner-Czyz, Andrea, Wang, Nae-Yuh, Eisenberg, Laurie S.; and CDaCI, The Team, Investigative. 2017. Early sign language exposure and cochlear implantation benefits. Pediatrics 140:e20163489. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2016-3489.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gialluisi, Alessandro, Dediu, Dan, Francks, Clyde; and Fisher, Simon E.. 2013. Persistence and transmission of recessive deafness and sign language: New insights from village sign languages. European Journal of Human Genetics 21. 894-96. DOI: 10.1038/ejhg.2012.292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, David, Looney, Dennis; and Lusin, Natalia. 2015. Enrollments in languages other than English in United States institutions of higher education, Fall 2013. New York: Modern Language Association. Online: https://apps.mla.org/pdf/2013_enrollment_survey.pdf.Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan. 2003. The resilience of language: What gesture creation in deaf children can tell us about how all children learn language. New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan. 2005. What language creation in the manual modality tells us about the foundations of language. The Linguistic Review 22. 199–225. DOI: 10.1515/tlir.2005.22.2-4.199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan, and Brentari, Diane. 2015. Gesture, sign, and language: The coming of age of sign language and gesture studies. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 40:E46. DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X15001247.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldin-Meadow, Susan, Mylander, Carolyn; and Franklin, Amy. 2007. How children make language out of gesture: Morphological structure in gesture systems developed by American and Chinese deaf children. Cognitive Psychology 55. 87–135. DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2006.08.001.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Groce, Nora Ellen. 1985. Everyone here spoke sign language: Hereditary deafness in Martha's Vineyard. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gulliver, Michael Stewart. 2009. DEAF space, a history: The production of DEAF spaces emergent, autonomous, located and disabled in 18th and 19th century France. Bristol: University of Bristol dissertation.Google Scholar
Hale, Ken, Krauss, Michael, Watahomigie, Lucille J., Yamamoto, Akira Y., Craig, Colette, Jeanne, Laverne Masayesva; and England, Nora C.. 1992. Endangered languages. Language 68. 1–42. DOI: 10.1353/lan.1992.0052.Google Scholar
Hall, Matthew L., Eigsti, Inge Marie, Bortfeld, Heather; and Lillo-Martin, Diane. 2017. Auditory deprivation does not impair executive function, but language deprivation might: Evidence from a parent-report measure in deaf native signing children. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 22. 9–21. DOI: 10.1093/deafed/enw054.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Matthew L., Schönström, Krister; and Spellun, Arielle. 2017. Failure to distinguish among competing hypotheses. Pediatrics 140:e20172655C. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2017-2655C.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hall, Wyatte C., Levin, Leonard L.; and Anderson, Melissa L.. 2017. Language deprivation syndrome: A possible neurodevelopmental disorder with sociocultural origins. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 52. 761-76. DOI: 10.1007/s00127-017-1351-7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hochgesang, Julie A., and McAuliff, Kate. 2016. An initial description of the Deaf community in Haiti and Haitian Sign Language (LSH). Sign Language Studies 16. 227-94. DOI: 10.1353/sls.2016.0003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofer, Theresia. 2017. Is Lhasa Tibetan Sign Language emerging, endangered, or both? International Journal for the Sociology of Language 245. 113-45. DOI: 10.1515/ijsl-2017-0005.Google Scholar
Hoyer, Karin. 2004. The sociolinguistic situation of Finland-Swedish Deaf people and their language, Finland-Swedish Sign Language. To the lexicon and beyond: Sociolinguistics in European Deaf communities, ed. by Herreweghe, Mieke Van and Vermeerbergen, Myriam, 3–23. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, Trevor. 2003. BSL, Auslan and NZSL: Three signed languages or one? Crosslinguistic perspectives in sign language research: Selected papers from TISLR 2000, ed. by Baker, Anne, van, Beppie Bogaerde, den, and Crasborn, Onno, 47–69. Hamburg: Signum.Google Scholar
Johnston, Trevor. 2004. W(h)ither the deaf community? Population, genetics, and the future of Australian sign language. American Annals of the Deaf 148. 358-75. DOI: 10.1353/aad.2004.0004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kastner, Itamar, Meir, Irit, Sandler, Wendy; and Dachkovsky, Svetlana. 2014. The emergence of embedded structure: Insights from Kafr Qasem Sign Language. Frontiers in Psychology 5:525. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kerswill, Paul. 2004. Dialect levelling and geographical diffusion in British English. Social dialectology: In honour of Peter Trudgill, ed. by Cheshire, Jenny and Britain, David, 223-43. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Kisch, Shifra. 2008. ‘Deaf discourse’: The social construction of deafness in a Bedouin community. Medical Anthropology 27. 283–313. DOI: 10.1080/01459740802222807.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kisch, Shifra. 2012. Demarcating generations of signers in the dynamic sociolinguistic landscape of a shared sign language: The case of the Al-Sayyid Bedouin. In Zeshan & de Vos, 87–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krauss, Michael. 1992. The world's languages in crisis. Language 68. 4–10. DOI: 10.1353/lan.1992.0052.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kusters, Annelies. 2009. Deaf utopias? Reviewing the sociocultural literature on the world's ‘Martha's Vineyard situations’. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 15. 3–16. DOI: 10.1093/deafed/enp026.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kusters, Annelies. 2012. ‘The gong gong was beaten’—Adamorobe: A ‘deaf village’ in Ghana and its marriage prohibition for deaf partners. Sustainability 4. 2765-84. Online: https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v4y2012i10p2765-2784d20884.html.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kusters, Annelies. 2014. Language ideologies in the shared signing community of Adamorobe. Language in Society 43. 139-58. DOI: 10.1017/S0047404514000013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kusters, Annelies, and Friedner, Michele (eds.) 2015. It's a small world: International deaf spaces and encounters. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Lanesman, Sara, and Meir, Irit. 2012. The survival of Algerian Jewish Sign Language alongside Israeli Sign Language in Israel. In Zeshan & de Vos, 153-79.Google Scholar
Lattig, M. C., Gelvez, N., Plaza, S. L., Tamayo, G., Uribe, J. I., Salvatierra, I.; and Tamayo, M. L.. 2007. Deafness on the island of Providencia-Colombia: Different etiology, different genetic counseling. Genetic Counseling 19. 403-12.Google Scholar
Leeson, Lorraine, and Grehan, Carmel. 2004. To the lexicon and beyond: The effect of gender on variation in Irish Sign Language. To the lexicon and beyond: Sociolinguistics in European Deaf communities, ed. by Herreweghe, Mieke van and Vermeerbergen, Myriam, 39–73. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
LeMaster, Barbara. 2006. Language contraction, revitalization, and Irish women. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 16. 211-28. DOI: 10.1525/jlin.2006.16.2.211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Amber J., Napoli, Donna Jo; and Smith, Scott R.. 2017. Re: Methodological concerns suspend interpretations. Pediatrics 140:e20172655A. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2017-2655A.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCaskill, Carolyn, Lucas, Ceil, Bayley, Robert; and Hill, Joseph. 2011. The hidden treasure of Black ASL: Its history and structure. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
McKee, Rachel. 2017. Assessing the vitality of New Zealand Sign Language. Sign Language Studies 17. 322-62. DOI: 10.1353/sls.2017.0008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKee, Rachel, and McKee, David. 2011. Old signs, new signs, whose signs? Sociolinguistic variation in the NZSL lexicon. Sign Language Studies 11. 485–527. DOI: 10.1353/sls.2011.0012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meir, Irit, and Sandler, Wendy. 2008. A language in space: The story of Israeli Sign Language. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Meir, Irit, Sandler, Wendy, Padden, Carol; and Aronoff, Mark. 2010. Emerging sign languages. The Oxford handbook of deaf studies, language, and education, vol. 2, ed. by Marschark, Marc and Spencer, Patricia Elizabeth, 267-80. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195390032.013.0018.Google Scholar
Moriarty Harrelson, Erin. 2017. Deaf people with ‘no language’: Mobility and flexible accumulation in languaging practices of deaf people in Cambodia. Applied Linguistics Review. DOI: 10.1515/applirev-2017-0081.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko S. 2004. Language birth and death. Annual Review of Anthropology 33. 201-22. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.33.070203.143852.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko S. 2017. Language vitality: The weak theoretical underpinnings of what can be an exciting research area. Language 93(4). e202–e223. DOI: 10.1353/lan.2017.0065.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nance, Walter E., and Kearsey, Michael J.. 2004. Relevance of connexin deafness (DFNB1) to human evolution. The American Journal of Human Genetics 74. 1081-87. DOI: 10.1086/420979.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nonaka, Angela M. 2004. The forgotten endangered languages: Lessons on the importance of remembering from Thailand's Ban Khor sign language. Language in Society 33. 737-67. DOI: 10.1017/S004740450404504X.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nonaka, Angela M. 2014. (Almost) everyone here spoke Ban Khor Sign Language—until they started using TSL: Language shift and endangerment of a Thai village sign language. Language and Communication 38. 54–72. DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2014.05.005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyst, Victoria. 2010. Sign language in West Africa. Sign languages: A Cambridge language survey, ed. by Brentari, Diane, 405-32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nyst, Victoria. 2012. Shared sign languages. Sign language: An international handbook, ed. by Pfau, Roland, Steinbach, Markus, and Woll, Bencie, 552-74. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Nyst, Victoria. 2015a. The sign language situation in Mali. Sign Language Studies 15. 126-50. DOI: 10.1353/sls.2015.0000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyst, Victoria. 2015b. Sign language fieldwork. Research methods in sign language studies: A practical guide, ed. by Orfanidou, Eleni, Woll, Bencie, and Morgan, Gary, 107-22. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI: 10.1002/9781118346013.ch7.Google Scholar
Osugi, Yutaka, Supalla, Ted; and Webb, Rebecca. 1999. The use of word elicitation to identify distinctive gestural systems on Amami Island. Sign Language & Linguistics 2. 87–112. DOI: 10.1075/sll.2.1.12osu.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parks, Elizabeth S. 2014. Constructing national and international deaf identity: Perceived use of American sign language. Language, borders and identity, ed. by Watt, Dominic and Llamas, Carmen, 206-17. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Perlin, Ross. 2016. The race to save a dying language. The Guardian, August 10, 2016. Online: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/aug/10/race-to-save-hawaii-sign-language.Google Scholar
Pfau, Roland, and Zeshan, Ulrike. 2016. Positive signs: How sign language typology benefits deaf communities and linguistic theory. Linguistic Typology 20(3). 547-99. DOI: 10.1515/lingty-2016-0026.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, Gary. 2010. Schoolization: An account of the origins of regional variation in British Sign Language. Sign Language Studies 10. 476–501. DOI: 10.1353/sls.0.0056.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinto-Pozos, David, and Adam, Robert. 2013. Sign language contact. The Oxford handbook of sociolinguistics, ed. by Bayley, Robert, Cameron, Richard, and Lucas, Ceil, 379–401. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199744084.013.0019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romm, Cari. 2015. The life and death of Martha's Vineyard Sign Language. The Atlantic, September 25, 2015. Online: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/marthas-vineyard-sign-language-asl/407191/.Google Scholar
Rubin, Shira. 2016. The race to study a dying sign language before it disappears. New York Magazine, August 30, 2016. Online: http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/08/linguists-are-racing-to-study-a-dying-sign-language.htm.Google Scholar
Safar, Josefina, and Webster, Jenny. 2014. Cataloguing endangered sign languages at iSLanDS. Preston: University of Central Lancashire, ms. Online: https://islandscentre.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/report-endangered-sls_070814.pdf.Google Scholar
Sandler, Wendy. 2009. Sign languages. Concise encyclopedia of languages of the world, ed. by Brown, Keith and Ogilvie, Sarah, 939-49. Oxford: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Schembri, Adam. 2010. Documenting sign languages. Language Documentation and Description 7. 105-43. Online: http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/083.Google Scholar
Schuchman, John S. 2004. The silent film era: Silent films, NAD films, and the Deaf community's response. Sign Language Studies 4. 231-38. DOI: 10.1353/sls.2004.0013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Senghas, Ann. 1995. Children's contribution to the birth of Nicaraguan Sign Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT dissertation.Google Scholar
Senghas, Ann, Kita, Sotaro; and Özyürek, Asli. 2004. Children creating core properties of language: Evidence from an emerging sign language in Nicaragua. Science 305. 1779-82. DOI: 10.1126/science.1100199.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shaw, Emily, and Delaporte, Yves (eds.) 2014. A historical and etymological dictionary of American Sign Language. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Simons, Gary F., and Fennig, Charles D. (eds.) 2018. Ethnologue: Languages of the world. 21st edn. Dallas: SIL International.Google Scholar
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. 2011. Language ecology: Pragmatics in practice, ed. by Ostman, Jan-Ola, 177-98. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Snoddon, Kristin. 2016. Whose ASL counts? Linguistic prescriptivism and challenges in the context of parent sign language curriculum development. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 21(8). 1004-15. DOI: 10.1080/136700502016.1228599.Google Scholar
Stamp, Rose, Schembri, Adam, Fenlon, Jordan, Rentelis, Ramas, Woll, Bencie; and Cormier, Kearsy. 2014. Lexical variation and change in British Sign Language. PLoS ONE 9(4):e94053. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094053.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tervoort, Bernard T. 1978. Bilingual interference. Sign language of the deaf: Psychological, linguistic, and sociological perspectives, ed. by Schlesinger, I. M. and Namir, Lila, 169–240. New York: Academic Press. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-625150-0.50011-3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, Graham H. 1995. Contact signing and language shift. Proceedings of the Fourth European Congress on Sign Language Research, 211-29.Google Scholar
van den Bogaerde, Beppie. 2005. Everybody signs in Kosindo also? Deaf Worlds 21. 103-7.Google Scholar
Vonen, Arnfinn Muruvik. 2006. Comments on ‘W(h)ither the Deaf community?‘: A timely warning. Sign Language Studies 6. 220-24. DOI: 10.1353/sls.2006.0013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vonen, Arnfinn Muruvik, and Hjulstad, Oddvar. 2004. Linguistic rights paving the way towards language endangerment? The case of Norwegian Sign Language. Endangered languages and linguistic rights: On the margins of nations, ed. by Argenter, Joan A. and Brown, R. McKenna, 209-14. Bath: Foundation for Endangered Languages.Google Scholar
Washabaugh, William. 1980. The organization and use of Providence Island Sign Language. Sign Language Studies 26. 65–92. DOI: 10.1353/sls.1980.0019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washabaugh, William. 1981. The deaf of Grand Cayman, British West Indies. Sign Language Studies 31. 117-34. DOI: 10.1353/sls.1982.0016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washabaugh, William. 1986. Five fingers for survival. Ann Arbor, MI: Karoma.Google Scholar
Welles, Elizabeth B. 2004. Foreign language enrollments in United States institutions of higher education, Fall 2002. Profession 2004. 128-53. Online: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25595784.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, and Schilling-Estes, Natalie. 1995. Moribund dialects and the endangerment canon: The case of the Ocracoke Brogue. Language 71. 696–721. DOI: 10.2307/415741.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, James. 1978. Historical bases of ASL. Understanding language through sign language research, ed. by Siple, Patricia, 333-48. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Woodward, James. 1982. How you gonna get to Heaven if you can't talk to Jesus? On depathologizing deafness. Silver Spring, MD: T. J. Publishers.Google Scholar
Woodward, James. 1991. Sign language varieties in Costa Rica. Sign Language Studies 73. 329-45. DOI: 10.1353/sls.1991.0022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, James. 1996. Modern Standard Thai Sign Language, influence from ASL, and its relationship to original Thai sign varieties. Sign Language Studies 92. 227-52. DOI: 10.1353/sls.1996.0012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, James. 2003. Sign languages and Deaf identities in Thailand and Viet Nam. Many ways to be deaf: International variation in Deaf communities, ed. by Monaghan, Leila and Schmaling, Constanze, 283–301. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Woodward, James. 2010. Response: Some observations on research methodology in lexicostatistical studies of sign languages. Deaf around the world: The impact of language, ed. by Mathur, Gaurav and Napoli, Donna Jo, 38–53. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoel, Judith. 2007. Evidence for first-language attrition of Russian Sign Language among immigrants to Israel. Sign languages in contact (Sociolinguistics in Deaf communities 13), ed. by Quinto-Pozos, David, 153-91. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Zeshan, Ulrike. 2007. The ethics of documenting sign languages in village communities. Proceedings of Conference on Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory, 269-79. London: SOAS.Google Scholar
Zeshan, Ulrike. 2009. Sign languages of the world. Concise encyclopedia of languages of the world, ed. by Brown, Keith and Ogilvie, Sarah, 953-60. Oxford: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Zeshan, Ulrike. 2013. Sign languages. The world atlas of language structures online, ed. by Dryer, Matthew S. and Haspelmath, Martin. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Online: http://wals.info/chapter/s9.Google Scholar
Zeshan, Ulrike, and Vos, Connie de (eds.) 2012. Sign languages in village communities. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton/Ishara.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeshan, Ulrike, and Dikyuva, Hasan. 2013. Documentation of endangered sign languages—The case of Mardin Sign Language. Keeping languages alive: Documentation, pedagogy, and revitalization, ed. by Jones, Mari and Ogilvie, Sarah, 29–41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeshan, Ulrike, and Panda, Sibaji. 2015. Two languages at hand: Code-switching in bilingual deaf signers. Sign Language & Linguistics 18. 90–131. DOI: 10.1075/sll.18.1.03zes.CrossRefGoogle Scholar