Editing Sign language (section)

== Communication systems similar to sign language ==
There are a number of communication systems that are similar in some respects to sign languages, while not having all the characteristics of a full sign language, particularly its grammatical structure. Many of these are either precursors to natural sign languages or are derived from them.

=== Manual codes for spoken languages ===
{{Main|Manually coded language}}

When Deaf and Hearing people interact, signing systems may be developed that use signs drawn from a natural sign language but used according to the grammar of the spoken language. In particular, when people devise one-for-one sign-for-word correspondences between spoken words (or even [[morphemes]]) and signs that represent them, the system that results is a manual code for a spoken language, rather than a natural sign language. Such systems may be invented in an attempt to help teach Deaf children the spoken language, and generally are not used outside an educational context.

=== "Baby sign language" with hearing children ===
{{Main|Baby sign language}}

Some hearing parents teach signs to young hearing children.  Since the muscles in babies' hands grow and develop quicker than their mouths, signs are seen as a beneficial option for better communication.<ref>Taylor-DiLeva, Kim. Once Upon A Sign : Using American Sign Language To Engage, Entertain, And Teach All Children, p. 15. Libraries Unlimited, 2011. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 29 Feb. 2012.</ref> Babies can usually produce signs before they can speak.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}<ref>Porpora, T. (2010). ''The complete guide to baby sign language 101 tips and tricks every parent needs to know''. Atlantic Publishing Group. (17-18).</ref> This reduces the confusion between parents when trying to figure out what their child wants. When the child begins to speak, signing is usually abandoned, so the child does not progress to acquiring the grammar of the sign language.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-09-04 |title=Baby sign language: A helpful communication tool |url=https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/baby_sign_language_a_helpful_communication_tool |access-date=2024-06-30 |website=Child & Family Development |language=en-us}}</ref>

This is in contrast to hearing children who grow up with Deaf parents, who generally acquire the full sign language natively, the same as Deaf children of Deaf parents.

=== Home sign ===
{{Main|Home sign}}

Informal, rudimentary sign systems are sometimes developed within a single family. For instance, when hearing parents with no sign language skills have a deaf child, the child may develop a system of signs naturally, unless repressed by the parents. The term for these mini-languages is [[home sign]] (sometimes "kitchen sign").<ref>Susan Goldin-Meadow (Goldin-Meadow 2003, Van Deusen, Goldin-Meadow & Miller 2001) has done extensive work on home sign systems. [[Adam Kendon]] (1988) published a seminal study of the homesign system of a deaf [[Enga Province|Enga]] woman from the [[Papua New Guinea]] highlands, with special emphasis on [[iconicity]].</ref>

Home sign arises due to the absence of any other way to communicate. Within the span of a single lifetime and without the support or feedback of a community, the child naturally invents signs to help meet his or her communication needs, and may even develop a few grammatical rules for combining short sequences of signs. Still, this kind of system is inadequate for the intellectual development of a child and it comes nowhere near meeting the standards linguists use to describe a complete language. No type of home sign is recognized as a full language.<ref>The one possible exception to this is Rennellese Sign Language, which has the [[ISO 639-3]] code [rsi]. It only ever had one deaf user, and thus appears to have been a home sign system that was mistakenly-accepted into the ISO 639-3 standard. It has been proposed for deletion from the standard. ({{cite web|title=Change Request Number: 2016-002|url=http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/cr_files/2016-002.pdf|website=ISO 639-3|publisher=SIL International|access-date=2016-07-05|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160128214659/http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/cr_files/2016-002.pdf|archive-date=2016-01-28}})</ref>

===Primate use===
{{Main|Great ape language#Primate use of sign language|l1=Great ape language § Primate use of sign language}}

There have been several notable examples of scientists teaching signs to non-human [[primate]]s in order to communicate with [[human]]s,<ref name="MoA">{{cite book|last1=Premack and Premack|first1=David and Ann J|title=The Mind of an Ape|date=1984|publisher=W.W. Norton & Co.|location=NY|isbn=978-0393015812|edition=1st}}</ref> such as [[chimpanzee]]s,<ref name=fn1>Plooij, F.X. (1978) "Some basic traits of language in wild chimpanzees?" in A. Lock (ed.) ''Action, Gesture and Symbol'' New York: Academic Press.</ref><ref name=fn2>{{cite journal | last1 = Nishida | first1 = T | year = 1968 | title = The social group of wild chimpanzees in the Mahali Mountains | journal = Primates | volume = 9 | issue = 3| pages = 167–224 | doi=10.1007/bf01730971| hdl = 2433/213162 | s2cid = 28751730 | hdl-access = free }}</ref><ref name=fn3>{{cite journal | last1 = Premack | first1 = D | year = 1985 | title = 'Gavagai!' or the future of the animal language controversy | journal = Cognition | volume = 19 | issue = 3| pages = 207–296 | doi=10.1016/0010-0277(85)90036-8| pmid = 4017517 | s2cid = 39292094 }}</ref><ref name=fn4>{{cite journal | last1 = Gardner | first1 = R.A. | last2 = Gardner | first2 = B.T. | year = 1969 | title = Teaching Sign Language to a Chimpanzee | journal = Science | volume = 165 | issue = 3894| pages = 664–672 | doi=10.1126/science.165.3894.664| pmid = 5793972 | bibcode = 1969Sci...165..664G | citeseerx = 10.1.1.384.4164 }}</ref><ref name=fn5>Gardner, R.A., Gardner, B.T., and Van Cantfort, T.E. (1989), ''Teaching Sign Language to Chimpanzees'', Albany: SUNY Press.</ref><ref name=fn6>Terrace, H.S. (1979). ''Nim: A chimpanzee who learned Sign Language'' New York: Knopf.</ref><ref name=fn10>{{cite journal | last1 = Savage-Rumbaugh | first1 = E.S | last2 = Rumbaugh | first2 = D.M. | last3 = McDonald | first3 = K. | year = 1985 | title = Language learning in two species of apes | journal = Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews | volume = 9 | issue = 4| pages = 653–665 | doi=10.1016/0149-7634(85)90012-0 | pmid = 4080283| s2cid = 579851 }}</ref> [[gorilla]]s<ref name=fn7>Patterson, F.G. and Linden E. (1981), ''The education of Koko'', New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston</ref> and [[orangutan]]s.<ref name=fn8>Miles, H.L. (1990) "The cognitive foundations for reference in a signing orangutan" in S.T. Parker and K.R. Gibson (eds.) ''"Language" and intelligence in monkeys and apes'': Comparative Developmental Perspectives. Cambridge Univ. Press. pp. 511–539. {{doi|10.1017/CBO9780511665486.021}}. {{ISBN|9780511665486}}</ref>  However, linguists generally point out that this does not constitute knowledge of a human ''language'' as a complete system, rather than simply signs/words.<ref>
{{cite book
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{{cite web
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{{cite book
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</ref>  Notable examples of animals who have learned signs include:
* Chimpanzees: [[Washoe (chimpanzee)|Washoe]], [[Nim Chimpsky]] and [[Loulis (chimpanzee)|Loulis]]
* Gorillas: [[Koko (gorilla)|Koko]] and [[Michael (gorilla)|Michael]]

=== Gestural theory of human language origins ===
{{Main|Origin of language#Gestural theory|l1=Origin of language § Gestural theory}}

One theory of the evolution of human language states that it developed first as a gestural system, which later shifted to speech.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1086/201401 | last1 = Hewes | first1 = Gordon W. | year = 1973 | title = Primate communication and the gestural origin of language | journal = Current Anthropology | volume = 14 | pages = 5–32 | s2cid = 146288708 }}</ref><ref>Harnad, S. R., Steklis, H. D., & Lancaster, J. E. (1976). Origins and evolution of language and speech. ''Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences'' 280.</ref><ref>Kimura, Doreen (1993). ''Neuromotor Mechanisms in Human Communication''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref><ref>Wittmann, H. (1980). Intonation in Glottogenesis. ''The Melody of Language'' 315.</ref><ref name="Wittmann, H. 1991"/><ref>
{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1038/nn775 | last1 = Newman | first1 = A. J. | last2 = Bavelier | year = 2002 | first2 = D | last3 = Corina | first3 = D | last4 = Jezzard | first4 = P | last5 = Neville | first5 = HJ | title = A Critical Period for Right Hemisphere Recruitment in American Sign Language Processing | journal = Nature Neuroscience | volume = 5 | issue = 1| pages = 76–80 | pmid = 11753419 | s2cid = 2745545 }}</ref>  An important question for this gestural theory is what caused the shift to vocalization.<ref>Steklis, H. D., & Harnad, S. (1976). From hand to mouth: Some critical stages in the evolution of language. In Origins and evolution of language and speech (pp. 445-455). ''Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences'' 280.</ref><ref>Kolb, Bryan, and Ian Q. Whishaw (2003). ''Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology'', 5th edition, Worth Publishers.</ref><ref>Blondin-Massé, Alexandre; Harnad, Stevan; Picard, Olivier; and St-Louis, Bernard (2013) [https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/271438/1/Harnad-Lefebvre-bookFIN-REV.pdf Symbol Grounding and the Origin of Language: From Show to Tell] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121152032/https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/271438/1/Harnad-Lefebvre-bookFIN-REV.pdf |date=2022-01-21 }}. In, Lefebvre, Claire; Cohen, Henri; and Comrie, Bernard (eds.) ''New Perspectives on the Origins of Language.'' Benjamin</ref>