Continued from page 1: Hawai`i Sign Language: A Critically Endangered Language Isolate
historically related sign languages. When a similar comparison is made between HSL and ASL, only
12% of signs are even remotely similar (Clark et al., 2016). Thus, HSL and ASL are separate
languages and are not historically related—they are as similar as Original Chiang Mai Sign Language
and ASL, which have never come into contact (Woodward, 1996).
Figure 1 below shows a few HSL signs to give readers a sense of how different HSL and ASL
are in terms of basic vocabulary items.
Figure 1. Some Examples of HSL Signs for Some Basic Vocabulary Items
In addition to vocabulary, the grammatical structure of HSL and ASL are very different. HSL
with a basic word order of Subject+Object+Verb also is distinct grammatically from any other
language used in Hawai`i, as shown in Example 1.
Example 1. Basic Subject, Object, Verb Word Order in HSL
Best English Translation: “Mother eats / ate grapes.”
The Power of ASL
7
(Continued on the next page)
Summer 2017 – Issue 6