A new dictionary aims to raise awareness about the complexities of sign language and how it is used.
IMAGINE if you were told that your mother tongue is not a “real” language, but merely a shadow of one. This is what many
A new dictionary aims to raise awareness about the complexities of sign language and how it is used.
IMAGINE if you were told that your mother tongue is not a “real” language, but merely a shadow of one. This is what many deaf communities face when it comes to sign language.
According to the World Federation of the Deaf, some 70 million deaf people around the world say that sign language is their first language.
Despite this, the common misconception is that sign language is a crude imitation or ‘inferior’ to spoken languages such as English.
“Sign language is a visual language, which is actually equal to any spoken languages because this visual language has its own grammar, structure and meaning,” says advocate for the deaf, Anthony Chong.
“Many people misunderstand that sign language represents spoken language because hearing people (and even deaf people) see signs based on Bahasa Malaysia or English words.”
Chong, who is deaf himself, has a background in both linguistics as well as deaf studies.
Some think that sign language is just a collection of simple iconic gestures, and hence should be easy and universal. However, as sign language naturally developed within deaf communities and was not artificially handed down to them, different countries and even regions have their own distinct sign language.
For example, studies show that only 30% of the signs in American Sign Language and British Sign Language are similar. In Malaysia, the language used by the deaf community is Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia (BIM or Malaysian Sign Language). Even sign representations of letters (or fingerspelling) in the written Roman alphabet may vary depending on where you are from.
For instance, a BIM user may easily understand fingerspelling in the United States or Germany, but he will be at a loss in countries such as England or Sweden.
The basic characteristics of sign language are handshape (the way the hand and fingers form a sign); location (of the hand); orientation (of the palm); and movement. Ainun Rozana at the launch of the dictionary.
The way these characteristics are combined, coupled with facial expressions and body positions, lay the groundwork for complex linguistic rules.
For example, there are two separate signs to describe “delicious” and “no”; but instead of using two signs to say “not delicious”, a proficient BIM user can say this with just one sign, thanks to the internal rules that govern sign language.
Despite their richness, some are still reluctant to recognise sign languages as legitimate languages – something sign language linguistics expert Ho Koon Wei says is caused by a simple lack of awareness.
In a previous interview with The Star, Ho shared that even her own parents were initially not too pleased when she picked up sign language.
Persuading her to communicate through spoken languages, Ho’s parents also forbade her four brothers from communicating with her through sign language.
Despite this, Ho’s youngest brother was keen to learn sign language, and the two would secretly sign to each other at home.
“He still sometimes interprets for me, especially during family reunions,” says Ho, in an email interview conducted for this article. “Later on, his wife also learned sign language, and both of them sign with me whenever they can.
“I think my mother later wanted to communicate directly with me, so she started to learn as well.”
Currently, BIM is only recognised as “the official sign language for the deaf in Malaysia” under 