What Is ASL?

What is ASL?

Marie Baeta: Let's jump right in. What is American Sign Language?

Sam Sanders: [communicating in ASL] 

Interpreter: Certainly. Best way to start. American Sign Language, ASL, it's a visual language, and it's used by many different people to express themselves with communication, to describe the visual world using space, so it's a full and legitimized language with a rich history behind it. Many years ago in Europe, a person named Laurent Clerc, a European person, came over to the U.S. to start a deaf school in the United States, and that spread across the country, instituting a center for Deaf culture and as well was taught and passed down through the Deaf community and deaf people expressive and storytelling, and ASL is a vital part of deaf people's experience. Yeah, that's a bit of the history.

Marie: Yeah. Thank you for sharing. I think the more you dig into the history of ASL, it's just really fascinating to see it develop over the years, and I'm excited to learn more. You touched on this a little bit, but I'm curious, what do you think ASL - what makes ASL unique?

Sam: [communicating in ASL] 

Interpreter: Sure. Wow. I mean, it's very rich in history and description. We have a lot of different ways of expressing language. One handshape you can show not just a vehicle, but the car moving, the motor. For the sound, you can move your cheeks and mouth to indicate different aspects and parts of the car. Say there's a bump. You can show the car speeding over a bump by incorporating facial expressions, and it's a critical part of American Sign Language, which some people may not realize. Facial expression, as well as the signs in sign language, that's what makes this so expressive. For example, if you watch my hands, I'm describing a seed growing. I put it in the soil. It starts to pop up and sprout its leaves. You can see my facial expression is indicating the sunshine feeding and blooming. Just as a quick example. American Sign Language, we use space and movement to create our world in front of your eyes.

Marie: Oh, that's so beautiful. I just love how expressive it is and how it just builds a whole world right in front of your eyes. There's nothing like it. I think it's really interesting, because in some cultures, facial expressions and very overt body language cannot be appropriate in their culture. But in Deaf culture, in ASL, it's critical to the language and the meanings, too.