The Evolution of Sign Language

Earliest recorded monastic sign list Found in Cluny (Modern day France)

Reforms in the church led to the enforcement of the Rule (Benedictine Reform)

Monastic list created in Hirsau (Modern Day Germany)

First Anglo-Saxon monastic list created

Portugese monastic sign list created

Juan Pablo Bonet publishes: Reducción de Las Letras y Arte para Enseñar a Hablar a Los Mudos

Sign Language in Britain Standardized

Popular Englisgh writer John Bulwer wrote about a deaf man that could talk because he was proficient in sign language

George Dalgarno publsihed Didascalocophus, showing a alphabet where pointing to different areas of the hand meant different letters

Digiti Lingua published: Showed letters from earlier aplabets. Became the basis of most British Sign Languages

John Bulwer Created his own alphabet know as a Chirologia

French Revolution made the government more open to helping the deaf

L'Épée created a Paris School for the deaf

Helen Keller born, goes on to shift public perception on the deaf and blind

L'Épée got his version of sign language to be standard in France

Milan International Congress of Teachers for the Deaf-Mute decided L'Épée's language was obsolete and banned it from all schools

Fabius law was passed in the French parliment, recognizing L'Épée's language and helped contribute resources to deaf education

American School for the Deaf founded in Hartford, Connecticut

William Stokoe brought back using hands in sign language and got ASL to be recognized as the standard deaf language

Civil Rights Movement helped support deaf equality

Monastic sign language was not meant for the deaf and was only used to keep periods of scilence

Very little words other than nouns; Most lists had a handful of verbs and adjectives

Sign language was used by the deaf, but wasn't widely used and varied between people. A larger use was for secret communication

It looked a lot like what it does today, with modifiers and conjunctions, but with a small vocabulary; alphabet developed

Great shift all over the world seeing deafness as an illness instead of a product of being dumb

Sign language and its alphabet are standardized to what they are today, where every word in English could be said in sign language

Sign language is used by almost every deaf person as a means of communication

Development of deaf communities in New England like Martha's Vineyard, Henniker and the Sandy River Valley

Sign language as something used by hands suppressed because many believed learning how to read lips and talk was superior