International Signs

It has often been said that when Deaf people from different language backgrounds meet, it is possible for them to communicate with each other, and that it is not as easy for hearing people from different language backgrounds to be able to do this. In the absence of the one universal sign language, how is this possible? To understand this phenomenon, it is useful to look at both how deaf people have lived over the millennia and how sign language is structured.

The first descriptions of deaf people communicating by gesture or signs are from civilizations around the Mediterranean from the 5th century BCE. Greek, Roman, and Jewish philosophers wrote about deaf people, their place in society, their status in law (including marriage), and how they lived their daily lives. It can be surmised that for as long has there have been Deaf communities, Deaf people have come into contact with others from other communities. Examples of cross-national signed communication were reported by the French in the 19th century. On the occasion of the visit of Laurent Clerc to the Braidwood School in London, Charles Laffon de Ladébat wrote in 1815 about how Clerc met with the deaf children:

The Paris banquets for deaf-mutes, which were also extensively reported in the newspapers, discuss another example of Deaf people meeting in a transnational context and communicating across sign languages:

This transnational contact continues to this day, albeit on a larger scale. The international Deaf [Page 486]community is highly mobile, and in the 21st century, there are regular international events, including the World Congresses of the World Federation of the Deaf, Deaflympics Games, and other international and regional events. The World Federation of the Deaf had, as of 2014, 133 ordinary members (national organizations of Deaf people) across all the continents, and the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf has 104 national sports federations as members. Additionally, social media websites such as Facebook and YouTube enable Deaf people to record and upload video clips of themselves signing for other Deaf people from within and outside their country to watch. Hence, a great variety of sign languages are potentially in use whenever Deaf people gather together in a transnational context.

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