The recorded history of sign language in Western societies extends from the 16th century, as a visual language or method of communication. Sign language is composed of a system of conventional gestures, mimic, hand signs and finger spelling, plus the use of hand positions to represent the letters of the alphabet. Signs usually represent complete ideas, not only individual words.
Most sign languages are natural languages, different in construction from oral languages used in proximity to them, and are employed mainly by deaf people in order to communicate.
Read more about History Of Sign Language: Development of Sign Language
Famous quotes containing the words history, sign and/or language:
“The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness. A spirited mind never stops within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its strength.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“We might hypothetically possess ourselves of every technological resource on the North American continent, but as long as our language is inadequate, our vision remains formless, our thinking and feeling are still running in the old cycles, our process may be “revolutionary” but not transformative.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)