Phrasebook

Signs as language

People created languages in order to communicate. Even the deaf or hard of hearing have their own language. It's sign language, the basic language of all hearing impaired people. It is made up of combined symbols. This makes it a visual language, or ‘visible’. So is sign language understood on an international level? No, even signing has different national languages. Every country has its own sign language. And it is influenced by the culture of the country. Because language always evolves from culture. This is also true with languages that aren't spoken. There is, however, an international sign language. But its signs are somewhat more complicated. Nevertheless, national sign languages do resemble one another. Many signs are iconic. They are oriented towards the form of the objects they represent. The most widely used sign language is American Sign Language. Sign languages are recognized as fully-fledged languages. They have their own grammar. But it is different from the grammar of spoken languages. As a result, sign language can't be translated word for word. There are, however, sign language interpreters. Information is simultaneously communicated with sign language. That means that a single sign can express a whole sentence. There are also dialects in sign language. Regional particularities have their own signs. And every sign language has its own intonation. It's true for signs too: Our accent reveals our origin!