Hand talk provides an in-depth look at the sign language used by the North American Indians of the Great Plains. Although Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL) was once the lingua franca of Indian nations spanning “40 different linguistic groups” and covering “over one and a half million square miles,” today it is an endangered language (6, 8). Hand talk was written with the purpose of documenting and promoting revitalization of PISL. With this aim, one great resource is the website that accompanies the book (www.handtalkbook.com). It makes available documents, illustrations, images, and video clips of the language. The two decades of research that went into this book have resulted in a piece that not only brings together previous research on PISL, but also explores current issues of language contact and change.
Hand talk is organized into nine chapters. The first discusses the context in which PISL was developed and used. The following chapters chronologically follow the documentation of PISL, beginning with the earliest written records and ending with Davis's most recent work on the language. In Ch. 1 Davis describes the linguistic diversity in North America that led to the development of a lingua franca. The nomadic lifestyle of the Indian nations inhabiting the Great Plains, especially with the reintroduction of the horse, led to constant interaction between groups of people with distinct languages. Davis hypothesizes that this high level of contact most likely resulted in a pidgin sign language that eventually became a creole as deaf individuals learned it as their native language. Chs. 2–6 trace the historical record of PISL through the individuals who documented the language, most notably Garrick Mallery (Chs. 3 and 4), Hugh Lenox Scott (Ch. 5), and LaMont West (Ch. 6). The work of these scholars and others resulted in the documentation of over 7,500 signs (not accounting for duplications), numerous writings, and the filming of a three-day Indian Sign Language Council. Additionally, Davis places their work in the context of the major historical events taking place at the time as well as the development of anthropology and linguistics.
The last three chapters of Hand talk cover Davis's most recent linguistic work on PISL. In Ch. 7 Davis describes the lexical similarity studies he conducted comparing the historical collections of PISL signs and comparing PISL and American Sign Language (ASL). These studies allow him to analyze language change over time and language contact, respectively. The latter speaks to the probability that PISL was a contributor to the formation of ASL. Ch. 8 not only documents Davis's findings from the level of the phonetics of PISL all the way to semantics, but also thoroughly explains each of these concepts, thereby making it accessible to a reader not well versed in linguistics. Finally, Ch. 9 contextualizes PISL in relation to other communication systems based in the manual modality such as home sign and primary signed languages. Additionally, Davis sketches his current fieldwork with users of PISL and his continued revitalization efforts.
