SASL Executive Council 2015 – 2017
President Samuel J. Supalla University of Arizona ssupalla @ email. arizona. edu
Vice President Deirdre Schlehofer Rochester Institute of Technology dxsnss @ rit. edu
Recording Secretary / Newsletter Editor Andrew P. J. Byrne Framingham State University abyrne @ framingham. edu
Treasurer Harvey Nathanson Austin Community College harvey. nathanson @ austincc. edu
Membership Director Ron Fenicle Towson University rfenicle @ towson. edu
SASL Journal Editor Jody H. Cripps Towson University jcripps @ towson. edu
Members-at-Large
Patrick Boudreault Gallaudet University patrick. boudreault @ gallaudet. edu
Russell Rosen CUNY – Staten Island russell. rosen @ csi. cuny. edu
Gabriel Arellano Georgetown University ga430 @ georgetown. edu
By Andrew P. J. Byrne
Have you ever wondered who actually coined the term American Sign Language and shortened it to ASL? We are all familiar with the fact that William C. Stokoe was the first researcher ever to analyze ASL for its linguistic structure. It is generally assumed that he coined the term American Sign Language and shortened it to ASL. I cannot help but wonder whether this assumption is correct so I decided to investigate. After exhausting every publication by Stokoe from 1960 to 1972 and reading a book on Stokoe’ s works by Jane Maher, I conclude the following.
Stokoe begun his linguistic research in 1955 and published a groundbreaking paper entitled Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf in 1960. In this paper, he created the term American sign language or the American sign language( the lowercasing of the initial letters of the last two words).
Five years later, with his Deaf colleagues Dorothy Casterline and Carl Croneberg, Stokoe published A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles. This is where the shortening of A S L( a space in between each letter) first appeared. When he wrote Linguistic Description of Sign Languages in 1966, he changed from A S L to A. S. L.( a period in between each letter). In his 1969 paper entitled Sign Language Diglossia, he once again changed to ASL( no space in between each letter). Also, in this paper, American Sign Language was used( the initial letters of the last two words being uppercased).
In their 1965 dictionary, Stokoe and his colleagues referred to Virginia Covington’ s unpublished paper entitled Juncture in American Sign Language in 1964. Her paper was subsequently revised and published in Sign Language Studies in 1973. The term American Sign Language was shown on the first page but the subsequent pages showed American sign language. Covington used the shortening of ASL( no space in between each letter) throughout her paper. Was she the first person to coin American Sign Language and shorten it to ASL as we use today? It is difficult to confirm without first reading her original unpublished paper as we do not know what kind of revisions were made in her published article in 1973.
Based on the physical evidence of Stokoe’ s publications, he appeared to be the one who both coined the term American Sign Language( the initial letters of the words in capital letters) and shortened it to ASL in 1969. In three years from today, it will be 50 years of usage by many people of all ages!
The Power of ASL 2 Summer 2016 – Issue 2