Volume 61, November 2007

Message from the Editor Featured Industry: Financial Small Business Incubators Conferences & Events Useful Links Featured Language: American Sign Language ASL At-a-Glance Using ASL Interpreters in the Medical Setting Useful Links Latest News Tips & Tools Inside the Next Issue

Featured Language: American Sign Language ASL At-a-Glance American Sign Language (ASL) is a visual-spatial language that is used by the Deaf community in the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico. It is a linguistically complete, natural language. ASL is the native language of many deaf men and women, as well as some hearing children born into deaf families. According to several studies and sources, including the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University, ASL is the third most common primary language in the United States, preceded only by English and Spanish. ASL shares no grammatical similarities to English and should not be considered to be a broken, mimed, or gestural form of English. In terms of syntax, for example, ASL has a topic-comment syntax, while English uses Subject-Object-Verb. Some people have described ASL and other sign languages as "gestural" languages, however hand gestures are only one component of ASL. Facial features such as eyebrow motion and lip-mouth movements are also significant in ASL as they form a crucial part of the grammatical system. In addition, ASL makes use of the space surrounding the signer to describe places and persons that are not present. Sign languages develop specific to their communities and are not universal. For example, ASL is completely different from British Sign Language even though both countries speak English. SOURCES: http://www.deaflibrary.org/asl.html http://www.aslpro.org clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/InfoToGo/index.html

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