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In their 1965 dictionary , Stokoe and his colleagues referred to Virginia Covington ’ s unpublished paper entitled Juncture in American Sign Language in 1964 .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