A Re-examination of Sign Language Diglossia James Hawking ‘The study of the sociolinguistic aspects of American Sign Language has been greatly influenced by Stokoe’s (1969-1970) theory of sign language diglossla, which in turn was influenced by Ferguson's (1955) general theory of diglossia. Subsequent developments in the meani of the term diglossia and further study of sociolinguistic patterns give us cause to re-examine characterization of signed English a H a ship. Point-by-point analysis of Rmsicen Sign Cangunge se Lin's dion rears Ferguson's article shows a great discrepancy between his Arabic, French, German, and Greek examples and the American Sign Language situation. Although the conceptof diglossia remains of some use in understanding sign language communication, it must be expanded to a theory of bilingualism and diglossia. Consequences of recent developments and their potential for language change are speculated on. tokoe (1969-1970) characterized the relation- ship between signed English and American Sign Language (ASL) as diglossic with signed English playing the role of the socially superior language form (H) and ASL the role of the form perceived as inferior or colloquial (L). Writers on the sociolinguistic aspects of sign language such as Marcowicz (1972) or Woodward (1973b) have followed Stokoe's lead in this matter. Edu- cational textbooks such as Moore's (1978) have presented Stokoe’s theory to potential teachers. Stokoe (1969-70) borrowed the word diglssia from Ferguson. a prominent linguist who brought the term to the attention of Americans. Fergu- son (1959) used four language situations to define diglossia: Koranic Arabic (H) as opposed to Col loquial Arabic (L), Standard French (H) as opposed to Haitian Creole (L), High Geman (H) as opposed to Swiss German (L), and Clas- sical Greek (H) as opposed to modern spoken Greek (L). Koranic Arabic is clearly the language of pres- tige since pious Moslems believe this Arabic to be the language of Allah himself (Chejne, 1969, .9). Formal situations and literary productions require the use of this form of Arabic. Colloquial Arabic differs from country to country, there fore, the Arabic of the Koran unifies the Arabic world spatially as well as temporally French isthe prestige language in atl largely because of its identification with a broad lin- guistic community worldwide. Haitian Creole has its own folk literature and proud national- The author is coordinator of programs for the hearing impaired at the Chicago Urban Skills Institute. He i also a doctoral student and a Helmes Fein at Nerthern Inois University istic defenders, but there is still no doubt that Parisian French isthe language of prestige toward which upperclass Haitians aspire. Swiss German is also a source of nationalistic pride. Although Swiss speakers of German use the written forms of High German, theit pro- nuncation is distinctly Swiss. The rich literary tradition of ancient Greece strongly influences the spelling and writing of modern Greek. A nineteenth-century revival of Classical Greek accompanying the re-establish- ment of Greek independence made the older form of Greek a matter of national pride. ‘The comparison between these language sit- uations and signed English, as opposed to ASL, seems relevant. Certainly a bilingual situation exists. Signed English is a language in reach of an educational minority only. All sign-language speakers are familiar with ASL. A majority of deaf people have no real facility in signed Eng- lish. It would seem that signed English is eq. alent to H and American Sign Language is L. However, a point-by-point examination of Ferguson's (1959) characteristics of diglossia raises some serious problems with Stokoe's (1963-70) interpretation. Ferguson's characteristics are as follows: function, prestige, literary heritage, acquisition, standardization, stability, gram- mar, lexicon, and phonology. FUNCTION Using Ferguson's (1959) chart of diglossic sit- uations, Stckoe assigned sermons, speeches, lectures, news broadcasts, and poetry to signed English while ASL was seen as an appropriate vehicle for giving instructions to servants, hold- ing family conversations, and communicating AAD. | February 1983Sign Linguage Dghssia folk literature. Sermons by deafministers to deat congregations have long been given in ASL Sign poetry and most sign language theatre fol. low a convention that excludes signed English from their representations (Bragg. 1973). Lec- tures belong to the educational domain where signed English is supported by conscious policy rather than by sociolinguistic choice. American Sign Language can be used by deaf people in any of these situations and would be preferred by many. PRESTIGE One of the features of diglossia is that most speakers must perceive the H form as more prestigious and more beautiful. Ferguson (1959) ‘generalizes about these attitudes: Inallthe defining languages the speaker regard Has superior to Lin 4 number of respects. Sometimes the feeling ss strong that alone i regarded as real and L is reperted “nol to exist” (pp. 329-330) ‘Those who have commented on the beauty of sign language most often praise the form Stokoe (1969-70) characterizes as L. Anderson (1938) decries the tendencies caused by comm tion in the bilingual mode in the following passage: The sign language as my generation inherited iaaeoemenaoet te ihe spoken word. In oar school, the fashion ‘ow fs to address assembliee biingvally for the, benefit of the hardof-hesring_ pa Undoubtedly, inthis circumstance, the hands are weed gredgingly. 1 any slicing over of hought it done, the speaker does it on his hands. (p. 120) ‘Mann (1836), Peet (1851), and virtually all of the other nineteenth-century advocates of the “natural” sign language (ASL) stressed beauty and expressiveness as points in that language's favor. Even the authors ofa widely used signed English textbook referred to ASL as “a rich and expressive language” (Gustafson, Pletzing, & ‘Zawolkow, 1980, p. xi). Signed English is seen as an educational language. but these authors rade no claim to its superior prestige Inallof the four defining diglossic situations, the H form of the language gains some of its prestige from being the older. more established form. L develops its vocabulary by modifying criginal lexical items from H. American Sign Language antedates signed English, and signed Englishborzowsits vocabulary from ASL. In this important way one can see the L and H status As direcly the reverse of Stokoe’s model. AAD. February 1983 LUTERARY HERITAGE In the cases of Arabic, French, German, and Greek, the H form of the language is the repo- sitory ofa rich literary tradition. In each of these ceases, L developed froma previous varicty of H and it may have been the literary tradition of H that motivated educators to fight a rear-guard action to maintain the regularity of language. Allof the signed English systems used in Amer- ica developed from ASL. The literary tradition of the language is almost exclusively in ASL. In this important area, the relationship between H and Lis diametrically opposite that ofthe defin- ing language situations. Stokoe (1969-70) contends that signed Eng- lish has the literary heritage of English to draw upon. The essumption here is that the ability to use and understand signed English translates directly into the ability to read all English liter- ature. However, this process stil invoives the ability to decipher the written word and trans- late it into signed English. The process of rep- resenting the works of English literature in signed English involves translation, Most deaf people ‘would find that a translation into ASL better ‘maintains the spirit of the orginal. In the defining language situations, His always ‘the original language, and if L is written at all, itis done as with the use of F's script. The most commonly used writing for ASL, invented by Stokoe (1978), does not include phonemes exclusive to signed English such as the finger spelled letters “d”” or “3.” ACQUISITION Ferguson (1959) tells us that L is always spe- ken tochildren. The major use of signed English ith children. Some deaf people that sign ASL. think signed English is appropriate for children although not for themselves. This does not really suggest that signed English is a lower form of the language, but it docs show that the use of signed English is highly specialized end appli- cable largely in the educational domain. STANDARDIZATION Ferguson (1959) assesses the relative stan- dardization of various high and low formsin the following fashion: ‘Im ll the defining languages there i strong tradition of grammatical study of the H form of the language. There are grammars, dict:Sign Lenguage Diglosia ‘aries, treatises on pronunciation, style, and established norm for pro fand voesbulary which certain mits. (pp. Signed English is sometimes used asa generic name forall the signed English systemsalthough it is also the trademark for the Gallaudet pre- school program's language. Signing Exact Eng- lish and Seeing Essential English, both using the acronym SEE, are rival systems that split apart. Another splinter system is called LOVE or Linguistics of Visual English. The Washing- ton School for the Deaf propagates a system called manval English (Wilbur, 1979) The Paget- Gorman Sign System, a system invented in Great Britain, is unrelated to the everyday sign lan- guage of British deaf people. Jacobs (1856) invented his own system of signed English in the nineteenth century that contrasted with oth ers. Signed English has never been a standard- ized language. Covington (1977) draws atten- tion to this in her article advocating a national sign-language planning commission. ‘American Sign Language has been studied extensively in the last 10 years. There is no com- parable tradition of the study of signed English, which is simply presumed to have the gram- matical structure of English. Of the two varieties of sign language, ASL and signed English, ASL. has been more widely studied and is more stan- dard in form. STABILITY ‘One feature of diglossia is that the situation can remain stable for hundreds of years, e.g, more than a thousand years in the case of Ara bic. The nature of signed English has been ‘changed with every new textbook. Educational systems have gone from English signing to ASL and back again. The number of hard-of-hearing people educated with deaf people has varied from generation to generation. All of these fac- tors change the diglossic relationship. American Sign Language has remained stable since 1918 at least in so far as lexicon is con- cerned (Woodward, 1978). In defining diglossic situations, the H forms always remained more stable than the younger, stillevolving L forms. GRAMMAR ‘Grammatically H is in general more complex than L. The higher form of the language con- tains distinctions not made in the lower form. AL first glance, this may seom to support the idea that ASL is the L form, but this may not necessarily be tr. Signed English systems have a variety of morphemes to represent English, bout these are not necessarily used in all forms of signed English. English itself is not a highly inflective language especially when compared with Arabic, German, French, or Attic Greek. The grammatical aspects of sign language appear to be more complex than previously sup- posed. Investigations by Klima and Bellugi (1979) revealed the practice of modulating signs tomake cerlain subtie changes of meaning, The sysiem resembles the infixes used in Arabic and other Semitic languages. Friedman's work (1978) con- tains a number of grammatical possitilities con- ‘cerningaspect. Verbs can be modulated toinctude their subject or object. LEXICON, In defining situations, Hand L invariably share ‘much of the lexicon, However, H and L contain alarge number of paired words that canbe used to identify which variety is being spoken. Amer- xn Sign Language and English have few such pairs. Stokoe (1969-70) attempts to show that the fingerspelling of short words in H and the sign- ing ofthese same words in L constitute a pairing of sorts. However, fingerspelling appears in ASL utterances and the equivalent signs appear fre- ‘quently enough in signed English, showing that these cannot be true pairs. In fact, the rationale bbehind some signed English inventions is to reduce the amount of fingorspelling. The inven torsof signed English systemsare attempting to ‘expand sign language, and they are trying 10 avoidinventing words for which there are already dear English equivalents (Gustafson eta, 1980). Signed English signs are frequently invented to provide differentiation for English synonyms or near synonyms that are covered by single, broader ASL signs. PHONOLOGY ‘The final characteristic enumerated by Fer- guson (1959) varies between languages and is therefore somewhat less definite. In all cases when the phonclogy of H and L differ, most speakers will use the phonology of L. This is true of ASL, butitis important toremember thet AAD. Pebraary 1983Sign Languige Digossia the phonology of signed English was invented with Las a model, which is again the reverse of the defining situations. The concept of diglossia is relevant to the American Sign Language-English situation in spite of these many discrepancies. The concept of diglossia has utility for the study of sign lan- ‘guage. Fishman (1972) noted that the term dig- losia has been extended to coversituations where ‘more than one language was involved. Fishman contended that diglossia proceeded from social or politcal relationships. Using Fishman's def- inition of diglossia, it is possible to view the situation in the deaf community as diglossic with English in its vocal or writen form playing the role of H and ASL acting as L. Within the deaf community, many of the functions normally ascribed to H are preempted. by ASL. Meadow (1975) discussed deaf culture and the pride deaf people take in the aesthet beauty of their language. Erting (1978) empha- sized the importance of ASL in maintaining deat ethnicity. None of this is consistent with a the- ory that most deaf adults themselvesregard ASL. asa debased language inferior to signed English. Even if ASL is perceived as the form of lan- guage used by a socially oppressed group. this, is hardly a reason to avoid it or confine it to informal situations. And even if ASL is per- ceived as a socially inferior language, it does not ‘mean that signed English is the corresponding, H form. The real language of the prestige com- ‘munity is spoken or written English. Deaf peo- ple who wish to share the perceived prestige of the larger language community are more likely to speak English vocally than to attempt to sign it, Written English or fingerspelling are two other vehicles through which deaf people can partic: pate in the larger language community. Few hearing people can distinguish between deaf people who are signing Englishand deaf people signing ASL. Those hearing people who know sign lan- guage confer no special prestige upon them- selves by signingin English order. Hearing peo- ple are expected to know English. As Wood- ward (1973a) has observed, deaf people tend to sign English more with hearing people. This is not necessarily an attempt to gain more prestige; it may be an effort to improve communication by simplifying the hearing person's decoding process. In effect, Pidgin Sign English would be an ASL native's version of “foreigner” talk (Fer- guson & DeBose, 1977). AAD. Febraary 1983 Signed English plays animportant rolein ASL ‘even if it is not the higher register. It is the preferred language in the educational domain. ‘Most hearing people who use sign language depend on signed English at least partially to bridge their transition between languages. The initialized style of making new words is bor- rowed by many deaf people for nonce words, and some of the signed English inventions find their way into the ASL signer’s everyday vocabulary, The number of hearing people learning sign language isincreasing rapidly. As they mix with, deaf people and learn ASL, they can act as a source for learning new wordsand grammatical structures. If hearing people adhere to an ide- ology of morpheme-for-morpheme signed Eng- lish, deaf people are likely to perceive them as speaking a foreign language. Languages that are used by societies that are multibiingual have been known to undergo ‘grammatical convergence over a period of sev- ‘eral hundred years (Gumperz & Wilson, 1971). Although their lexicons remained separate, their ‘grammars became identical. This is not to pro- Pose that an increase in the number of bilinguals would cause this to happen between ASL and written English, but the development of Pidgin ‘Sign English shows a movement in this direction. ‘A mixing of signed English and ASL without an ideological preference would be an ideal solution to the diglossia situation. If hearing people learn not to correct deaf people's sign language, they will learn from the subtleties of a language that can express two separate words at the same time and create a new concept by their interaction. Hearing people would leern that words need not be discrete units but that they can have infinite shades of meaning. By turning to deaf people, hearing people can dis cover a nonlinear language. If deaf people learn not to correct hearing people's ASL, they will have a channel for learning the huge vocabulary of Engiish. Even the grammar of English would be observable in the mistakes of hearing people. As the number of bilinguals increases, the opportunity for languages to influence each other increases. Any stigma attached to ASL or signed English creates an artificial barrier between the languages. Removal of this barrier will allow ASL and the spoken English of hearing people to mix more freely. Each language has much to offer the other; let ushope that these languages will borrow from each other in the future‘Sign Language Diglossia REFERENCES ‘Anderson, TL, What ofthe sign language? American “Aral of the Dea, 1938, #3, 120-190 bragg, 8. Amestat—our American ertage: test ‘mony. Ameren Aanal ofthe De 1973, 18,67 or CChejne, A. G. 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