SASL Newsletter - Spring 2020 Issue Issue 17 - Spring 2020 | Page 13

By Samuel J. Supalla
Citation
Bickford, J. A., & McKay-Cody, M. (2018). Endangerment and revitalization of sign languages. In L.
Hinton, L. Huss, & G. Roche (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of language revitalization (pp.
255-264). Routledge.
Abstract
To date, relatively little effort has been expended on revitalizing sign languages. To understand the
current vitality of sign languages, it is important to distinguish two sociolinguistic types of sign
languages. The better-known type can be termed Deaf communities, typically urban and national in
character. Alongside the are shared-signing communities, typically in rural areas with a high
incidence of hereditary deafness, in which many hearing people actively use the sign language in
addition to deaf people. These two types differ in patterns of intergenerational transmission and
language loss. Although we can be cautiously optimistic about the future of Deaf community
languages, shared-signing communities are facing massive erosion already. To date, most attempts
to strengthen sign languages have focused on supporting continued use of Deaf community
languages; efforts to support and even revitalize dying shared signing communities have only just
begun.
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(9 ½ minutes long)
The Power of ASL
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Spring 2020 – Issue 17