1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Sign Language & Linguistics
  4. Volume 23, Issue 1
  5. Article
Volume 23, Issue 1-2
  • ISSN 1387-9316
  • E-ISSN: 1569-996X
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

In the study of sign language phonology, little attention has been paid to the phonetic detail that distinguishes one sign language from another. We approach this issue by studying the foreign accent of signers of a young sign language – Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) – which is in contact with another sign language in the region, Israeli Sign Language (ISL). By comparing ISL signs and sentences produced by ABSL signers with those of ISL signers, we uncover language particular features at a level of detail typically overlooked in sign language research. For example, within signs we find reduced occlusion (lack of contact), and across phrases there is frequent long distance spreading of the nondominant hand. This novel study of an emerging language in a language contact environment provides a model for comparative sign language phonology, and suggests that a community’s signature accent is part of the evolution of a phonological system.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/sll.00050.san
2020-10-30
2025-04-20

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/sll.00050.san
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Al-Fityani, Kinda & Carol Padden
    2010 Sign language geography in the Arab world. In Diane Brentari (Ed.), Sign languages: A Cambridge survey, 433–450. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511712203.020
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511712203.020 [Google Scholar]
  2. Archangeli, Diana & Douglas Pulleyblank
    1994 Grounded phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Aronoff, Mark , Irit Meir , Carol Padden & Wendy Sandler
    2004 Morphological universals and the sign language type. In Geert Booj & Jaap van Marle (Eds.), Yearbook of morphology, 19–39. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Baker, Charlotte & Carol Padden
    1978 Focusing on the non-manual components of ASL. In Patricia Siple (Ed.), Understanding language through sign language research, 27–57. New York: Academic Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Battison, Robbin
    1978 Lexical borrowing in American Sign Language. Silver Spring, MD: Linstok Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Brentari, Diane
    1998 A prosodic model of sign language phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Brentari, Diane & Laurinda Crossley
    2002 Prosody on the hands and face: Evidence from American Sign Language. Sign Language & Linguistics5(2). 105–130. 10.1075/sll.5.2.03bre
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.5.2.03bre [Google Scholar]
  8. Browman, Catherine & Louis Goldstein
    1992 Articulatory phonology: An overview. Phonetica49. 155–180. 10.1159/000261913
     https://doi.org/10.1159/000261913 [Google Scholar]
  9. Bybee, Joan
    2001 Phonology and language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511612886
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511612886 [Google Scholar]
  10. Clements, George N.
    1985 The geometry of phonological features. Phonology Yearbook2. 225–252. 10.1017/S0952675700000440
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952675700000440 [Google Scholar]
  11. Corina, David
    1993 To branch or not to branch: Underspecification in ASL handshape contours. In Geoffrey Coulter (Ed.), Phonetics and phonology, Vol 3: Current issues in ASL Phonology, 63–94. San Diego: Academic Press. 10.1016/B978‑0‑12‑193270‑1.50008‑X
     https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-193270-1.50008-X [Google Scholar]
  12. Coulter, Geoffrey
    1982 On the nature of ASL as a monosyllabic language. Paper presented at theAnnual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, San Diego, CA.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Dachkovsky, Svetlana , Christina Healy & Wendy Sandler
    2013 Visual intonation in two sign languages. Phonology30(2). 211–252. 10.1017/S0952675713000122
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952675713000122 [Google Scholar]
  14. Dachkovsky, Svetlana & Wendy Sandler
    2009 Visual intonation in the prosody of a sign language. Language and Speech52(2–3). 287–314. 10.1177/0023830909103175
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830909103175 [Google Scholar]
  15. Docherty, Gerard J. & Paul Foulkes
    2000 Speaker, speech & knowledge of sounds. In Noel Burton-Roberts , Philip Carr & Gerard J. Docherty (Eds.), Phonological knowledge: Conceptual & empirical issues, 105–129. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Hay, Jennifer & Katie Drager
    2007 Sociophonetics. Annual Review of Anthropology36. 89–103. 10.1146/annurev.anthro.34.081804.120633
     https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.34.081804.120633 [Google Scholar]
  17. Hockett, Charles
    1960 The origin of speech. Scientific American203. 88–96. 10.1038/scientificamerican0960‑88
     https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0960-88 [Google Scholar]
  18. Israel, Assaf & Wendy Sandler
    2011 Phonological category resolution in a new sign language: A comparative study of handshapes. In Rachel Channon & Harry van der Hulst (Eds.), Formational units in sign languages, 177–202. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9781614510680.177
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614510680.177 [Google Scholar]
  19. Kaisse, Ellen & Patricia S. Shaw
    1985 On the theory of lexical phonology. Phonology Yearbook2. 1–30. 10.1017/S0952675700000361
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952675700000361 [Google Scholar]
  20. Kastner, Itamar
    2011 Tracing the phonetics of an emerging sign language in the Negev: No phonology or ‘No, phonology!’Working paper, University of Haifa.
  21. Kisch, Shifra
    2008 The social construction of deafness in a Bedouin community in the Negev. Medical Anthropology27(3). 283–313. 10.1080/01459740802222807
     https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740802222807 [Google Scholar]
  22. Klima, Edward & Ursula Bellugi
    1979 The signs of language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Lanesman, Sara & Irit Meir
    2012 The survival of Algerian Jewish Sign Language alongside Israeli Sign Language in Israel. In Ulrike Zeshan & Connie de Vos (Eds.), Sign languages in village communities: Anthropological and linguistic insights, 153–179. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton & Nijmegen: Ishara Press. 10.1515/9781614511496.153
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614511496.153 [Google Scholar]
  24. Lehiste, Ilse
    1988 Lectures on language contact. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Liddell, Scott K.
    2003 Grammar, gesture, and meaning in American Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511615054
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511615054 [Google Scholar]
  26. Liddell, Scott K. & Robert E. Johnson
    1986 American Sign Language compound formation processes, lexicalization, and phonological remnants. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory8, 445–513. 10.1007/BF00134470
     https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00134470 [Google Scholar]
  27. 1989 American Sign Language: the phonological base. Sign Language Studies64(1). 195–277. 10.1353/sls.1989.0027
     https://doi.org/10.1353/sls.1989.0027 [Google Scholar]
  28. Major, Roy C.
    2001 Foreign accent: The ontogeny and phylogeny of second language phonology. London: Lawrence Erlbaum. 10.4324/9781410604293
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410604293 [Google Scholar]
  29. Mandel, Mark
    1977 Iconic devices in American Sign Language. In. Lynn A. Friedman (Ed.), On the other hand, 57–107. London: Academic Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Meir, Irit , Assaf Israel , Wendy Sandler , Carol Padden & Mark Aronoff
    2013 Community structure and language structure. Linguistic Variation12(2). 247–291. 10.1075/lv.12.2.04mei
     https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.12.2.04mei [Google Scholar]
  31. Meir, Irit & Wendy Sandler
    2008 A language in space: The story of Israeli Sign Language. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. 2020 Variation and conventionalization in language emergence: A study of two young sign languages of Israel. In Edit Doron , Malka Rappaport Hovav , Yael Reshef & Moshe Taube (Eds.), Linguistic contact, continuity and change in the genesis of Modern Hebrew, 337–363. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/la.256.13mei
     https://doi.org/10.1075/la.256.13mei [Google Scholar]
  33. Nespor, Marina & Wendy Sandler
    1999 Prosody in Israeli Sign Language. Language and Speech42(2–3). 143–176. 10.1177/00238309990420020201
     https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309990420020201 [Google Scholar]
  34. Nespor, Marina & Irene Vogel
    1986 Prosodic phonology. Dordrecht: Foris.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Padden, Carol , Irit Meir , Mark Aronoff & Wendy Sandler
    2010 The grammar of space in two new sign languages. In Diane Brentari (Ed.), Sign languages: A Cambridge language survey, 570–592. New York: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511712203.026
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511712203.026 [Google Scholar]
  36. Pierrehumbert, Janet
    2001 Exemplar dynamics: Word frequency, lenition, and contrast. In Joan Bybee & Paul Hopper (Eds.), Frequency effects and the emergence of linguistic structure, 137–157. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/tsl.45.08pie
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.45.08pie [Google Scholar]
  37. Pietraszewski, David & Alex Schwartz
    2014 Evidence that accent is a dimension of social categorization, no a byproduct of coalitional categorization. Evolution and Human Behavior35. 51–57. 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.09.005
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.09.005 [Google Scholar]
  38. Perlmutter, David M.
    1992 Sonority and syllable structure in American Sign Language. Linguistic Inquiry23(3). 407–442.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Quinto-Pozos, David G.
    2008 Sign language contact and interference: ASL and LSM. Language in Society37(2). 161–189. 10.1017/S0047404508080251
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404508080251 [Google Scholar]
  40. Sandler, Wendy
    1989 Phonological representation of the sign: Linearity and nonlinearity in American Sign Language. Dordrecht: Foris. 10.1515/9783110250473
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110250473 [Google Scholar]
  41. 1990 Temporal aspects and ASL phonology. In Susan Fischer & Patricia Siple (Eds.), Theoretical issues in sign language research, Vol I: Linguistics, 7–36. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  42. 1993 A sonority cycle in American Sign Language. Phonology10(2). 209–241. 10.1017/S0952675700000051
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952675700000051 [Google Scholar]
  43. 1999 Cliticization and prosodic words in a sign language. In Tracy Hall & Ursula Kleinhenz (Eds.), Studies on the phonological word, 223–255. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/cilt.174.09san
     https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.174.09san [Google Scholar]
  44. 2009 Symbiotic symbolization by hand and mouth in sign language. Semiotica174. 241–275.
     [Google Scholar]
  45. 2011 The phonology of movement in sign language. In Mark van Oostendorp , Colin Ewen , Karen Rice & Elizabeth Hume (Eds.), The Blackwell companion to phonology, 577–603. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. 10.1002/9781444335262.wbctp0024
     https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444335262.wbctp0024 [Google Scholar]
  46. 2012 The phonological organization of sign languages. Language and Linguistics Compass6/3. 162–182. 10.1002/lnc3.326
     https://doi.org/10.1002/lnc3.326 [Google Scholar]
  47. 2017 The challenge of sign language phonology. Annual Review of Linguistics3. 43–63. doi:  10.1146/annurev‑linguistics‑011516‑034122
     https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011516-034122 [Google Scholar]
  48. Sandler, Wendy , Mark Aronoff , Irit Meir & Carol Padden
    2011 The gradual emergence of phonological form in a new language. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory29(2). 503–543. 10.1007/s11049‑011‑9128‑2
     https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-011-9128-2 [Google Scholar]
  49. Sandler, Wendy , Irit Meir , Svetlana Dachkovsky , Carol Padden & Mark Aronoff
    2011 The emergence of complexity in prosody and syntax. Lingua121(13). 2014–2033. 10.1016/j.lingua.2011.05.007
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2011.05.007 [Google Scholar]
  50. Schembri, Adam & Ceil Lucas
    (Eds.) 2015 Sociolinguistics and Deaf communities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781107280298
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107280298 [Google Scholar]
  51. Stokoe, William C.
    1960 Sign language structure: an outline of the visual communication systems of the American deaf. Studies in Linguistics: Occasional Papers. Buffalo: University of Buffalo.
     [Google Scholar]
  52. Wilbur, Ronnie B.
    1994 Eyeblinks and ASL phrase structure. Sign Language Studies84. 221–240. 10.1353/sls.1994.0019
     https://doi.org/10.1353/sls.1994.0019 [Google Scholar]
  53. 2000 Phonological and prosodic layering of non-manuals in American Sign Language. In Karen Emmorey & Harlan Lane (Eds.), The signs of language revisited: An anthology to honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima, 215–244. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
     [Google Scholar]
  54. 2011 Sign syllables. In Mark van Oostendorp , Colin J. Ewen , Elizabeth Hume & Karen Rice (Eds.), The Blackwell companion to phonology, 1309–1334. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. 10.1002/9781444335262.wbctp0056
     https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444335262.wbctp0056 [Google Scholar]
  55. Van der Hulst, Harry
    1993 Units in the analysis of signs. Phonology10(2). 209–241. 10.1017/S095267570000004X
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S095267570000004X [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/sll.00050.san
Loading
Visual foreign accent in an emerging sign language
Sign Language & Linguistics 23, 233 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.00050.san
/content/journals/10.1075/sll.00050.san
/content/journals/10.1075/sll.00050.san
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): foreign accent; language contact; language emergence; phonology and phonetics; sign language; sociophonetics

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error