Hand Talk: Sign Language among American Indian Nations

by Jeffrey E. Davis

• ISBN13: 9780521690300
• ISBN10: 0521690307
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-09-06
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

American Indian nations of the Great Plains and cultural groups bordering this geographic area spoke so many different languages that verbal communication between them was difficult. As extensive trade networks developed and political alliances became necessary, an elegant language of the hands developed that cut across spoken language barriers. Though now endangered, this sign language continues to serve a vital role in traditional storytelling, rituals, legends, prayers, conversational narratives, and as a primary language of American Indians who are deaf. This volume contains the most current descriptions of all levels of the language from phonology to discourse, as well as comparisons with other sign languages. This is the first work of its kind to be produced in more than a century, and is intended for students of sign language as well as those wishing to learn more about American Indian languages and cultures.

Author Biography

Jeffrey E. Davis is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Tennessee.

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. x
List of diagrams	p. xiii
List of tables	p. xiv
Preface	p. xv
Acknowledgements	p. xxiii
List of tribal delegates at the Indian Sign Language Council, 1930	p. xxvii
Notational conventions	p. xxviii
The language landscape	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
The expanse of Native North America	p. 1
Endangered languages	p. 2
Issues of naming	p. 3
North American Indian signed language	p. 5
Frequently asked questions	p. 12
PISL today	p. 15
Summary	p. 17
Earliest historical linguistic accounts	p. 18
Spanish explorers	p. 18
Question of origins	p. 19
Nineteenth-century explorations to the west	p. 21
Earliest published lexical descriptions	p. 22
The natural language of signs	p. 23
Questions of historical sign language contact	p. 24
Martha's Vineyard Sign Language	p. 25
The consequences of industrialization	p. 27
Early descriptions of American Sign Language	p. 27
A national treasure	p. 30
The Smithsonian's Bureau of Ethnology	p. 31
The National Anthropological Archives	p. 31
Civil War Reconstruction	p. 33
Custer's Last Stand	p. 39
A calendar of the Dakota nation	p. 40
Mallery takes a controversial stand	p. 41
Shifting paradigms	p. 44
Discussion and summary	p. 47
Mallery's life and research: a historical and cultural chronology	p. 48
Early sign language studies	p. 51
Mallery's early publications on Indian Sign Language	p. 53
Collaborators	p. 54
Walter James Hoffman (1846-1899)	p. 55
The language of signs	p. 58
Mallery's theory of signs	p. 59
The emergent discipline of anthropology	p. 64
Ban on the subject of language origins	p. 66
The campaign against sign language	p. 67
Summary	p. 69
The spectrum of discourse: from ceremonial to conversational	p. 72
The Indian Sign Language Council, 1930	p. 72
Film dictionary of Indian Sign Language	p. 78
Sanderville's narratives	p. 80
White Horse's narrative	p. 81
Analysis of discourse genres	p. 83
Summary	p. 84
The convergence of anthropology and linguistics	p. 85
The lineage of Franz Boas	p. 85
Early anthropological linguistic fieldwork	p. 86
The arbitrary-iconic continuum: issues of language transparency	p. 87
The findings of LaMont West	p. 90
The emergence of sign language linguistics	p. 95
Summary	p. 97
Comparative studies of historical linguistic relatedness	p. 99
Research aims	p. 100
The comparative method of linguistic reconstruction	p. 101
Cross-linguistic studies of signed languages	p. 102
Thresholds of historical relatedness	p. 107
North American Indian Sign Language corpus	p. 109
Preliminary studies	p. 122
PISL and ASL lexical similarity	p. 124
Discussion of results and implications	p. 127
Summary, conclusion, and future research	p. 129
Linguistic analysis of PISL	p. 133
Phonology and phonetics	p. 133
Morphology	p. 140
PISL pronouns	p. 150
Constructed action or dialogue	p. 151
Syntax	p. 153
The lexicon	p. 160
Semantics	p. 167
Summary of findings	p. 169
Conclusions	p. 171
PISL yesterday, today, and tomorrow	p. 171
PISL compared with other signed languages	p. 174
Emergent sign systems	p. 176
The question of language youth	p. 178
Types of sign language communities	p. 179
Taxonomy of signed communication systems	p. 180
Comparison of sign language types	p. 183
Gesture studies	p. 184
Conclusion	p. 186
Myths about sign language	p. 188
Sample annotations of signs featured in the illustrations	p. 191
Introductions to films of the 1930 Indian Sign Language Council: transcription and translations	p. 197
Glossary of key terms	p. 202
Notes	p. 210
References	p. 225
Index	p. 240
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