Editing Languages of the United States (section)

==Sign languages==
[[File:US & Canada sign-language map (excl. ASL and LSQ).png|right|thumb|upright=1.5|Attested historical ranges of sign languages of the US and Canada excluding [[American Sign Language|ASL]] and [[Quebec Sign Language|LSQ]].
{{Legend|#A4486D|[[Plains Indian Sign Language|Plains Sign Talk]]}}
{{Legend|#50C9FF |[[Inuit Sign Language|Inuiuuk (ᐃᓄᐃᐆᒃ)]]}}
{{Legend|#80AA48 |[[Hawaii Sign Language|Hawai'i Sign Language]]}}
{{Legend|#316FDE |[[Maritime Sign Language]]}}
{{Legend|#E4CD01 |''[[Plateau Sign Language]]''}}
{{Legend|#7B209F |''[[Martha's Vineyard Sign Language]]''}}
{{Legend|#553D00 |''[[Henniker Sign Language]]''}}
{{Legend|#E22402 |''[[Sandy River Valley Sign Language]]''}}
]]
{{See also|Languages of the United States#Native American sign languages|l1=Native American sign languages}}

Alongside the numerous and varied oral languages, the United States also boasts several sign languages. Historically, the US was home to some six or more sign languages (that number rising with the probability that Plains Sign Talk is actually a language family with several languages under its umbrella) which has fallen with the death of several of these.

As with all sign languages around the world that developed organically, these are full languages distinct from any oral language. American Sign Language (unlike [[Signed English]]) is not a derivation of English.<ref name="EthnologueASL">{{cite web|last=Lewis|first=M. Paul|title=American Sign Language|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/language/ase|work=Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Seventeenth edition|publisher=SIL International |editor1-first=Gary F.|editor1-last=Simons|editor2-first=Charles D.|editor2-last=Fennig|year=2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130309193816/http://www.ethnologue.com/language/ase|archive-date=March 9, 2013}}</ref> Some languages present here were [[trade]] [[pidgin]]s which were used first as a system of communication across national and linguistic boundaries of the Native Americans, however, they have since developed into mature languages as children learned them as a first language.

=== American Sign Language ===
'''[[American Sign Language]]''' (ASL) is the native language of a number of [[deaf]] and hearing people in America (roughly 100,000 to 500,000). While some sources have stated that ASL is the third most frequently used language in the United States, after English and Spanish,<ref name=preston1995p243>{{Citation|author=Paul Preston|title=Mother father deaf: living between sound and silence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-q_qaxGTJUC|year=1995|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-58748-9|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=l-q_qaxGTJUC&pg=PA243 243]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102091443/https://books.google.com/books?id=l-q_qaxGTJUC|archive-date=January 2, 2016}}</ref> recent scholarship has pointed out that most of these estimates are based on numbers conflating deafness with ASL use, and that the last actual study of this (in 1972) seems to indicate an upper bound of 500,000 ASL speakers at the time.<ref name=gallaudet2006>{{Citation|last1=Mitchell |first1=Ross E. |last2=Young |first2=Travas A. |last3=Bachleda |first3=Bellamie |last4=Karchmer |first4=Michael A. |title=How Many People Use ASL in the United States? Why Estimates Need Updating |journal=Sign Language Studies |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=306–335 |year=2006 |url=http://www.ncdhhs.gov/mhddsas/deafservices/ASL_Users.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604191021/https://www.ncdhhs.gov/mhddsas/deafservices/ASL_Users.pdf |archive-date=June 4, 2011 |doi=10.1353/sls.2006.0019 |s2cid=146557236 }}</ref>

*[[Black American Sign Language]] (BASL) developed in the southeastern US, where separate residential schools were maintained for white and black deaf children. BASL shares much of the same vocabulary and grammatical structure as ASL and is generally considered one of its dialects.<ref name="EthnologueASL" /><ref name=preston1995p243 /><ref>{{Citation|author-link1=Clayton Valli|author-link2=Ceil Lucas|author1=Clayton Valli |author2=Ceil Lucas|title=Linguistics of American Sign Language: an introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mfS3GlTLAUMC |year=2000 |publisher=Gallaudet University Press|isbn=978-1-56368-097-7|pages=416–428|chapter=Sociolinguistic Aspects of the Black deaf Community |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mfS3GlTLAUMC&pg=PA416|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102091443/https://books.google.com/books?id=mfS3GlTLAUMC|archive-date=January 2, 2016}}</ref>

=== Hawai'i Sign Language ===
'''[[Hawaii Sign Language]]''' is moribund with only a handful of speakers on [[O'ahu]], [[Lana'i]], [[Kaua'i]] and possibly [[Ni'ihau]]. Some of these speakers may actually be speaking a creolized version of HSL and ASL, however; research is slow-going. The language was once called Hawai'i Pidgin Sign Language, as many people thought it was a derivative of ASL, but it was discovered to be a separate language altogether.<ref name="LambrechtEarthWoodward">{{citation|last1=Lambrecht|first1=Linda|title=History and Documentation of Hawaiʻi Sign Language: First Report |date=March 3, 2013|url=http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/icldc/2013/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130322023259/https://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ICLDC/2013/ |place=University of Hawaiʻi|publisher=3rd International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation|archive-date=March 22, 2013|last2=Earth|first2=Barbara|last3=Woodward|first3=James|url-status=dead}}<!-- As of 2013-03-13, materials from this presentation have not yet been posted on the ICLDC3 website, but are due to be posted soon, so I've created the reference with a generic link to the conference under the assumption that we'll soon have a specific link to the presentation's PowerPoint. -AlbertBickford --></ref>

=== Plains Sign Talk ===
Once a trade pidgin and the most far-reaching sign language in North America, '''[[Plains Indian Sign Language|Plains Sign Talk]]''' or '''Plains Sign Language''' is now critically endangered with an unknown number of speakers.

*Navajo Sign Language has been found to be in use in one clan of [[Navajo people|Navajo]]; however, whether it is a dialect of Plains Sign Talk or a separate language remains unknown.<ref name=Supalla>Samuel J. Supalla (1992) ''The Book of Name Signs'', p. 22</ref>
*Plateau Sign Language is another trade pidgin that may have become a separate language, '''[[Plateau Sign Language]]''' replaced Plains Sign Talk in the [[Columbia Plateau]] and surrounding regions of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is now extinct.

=== Martha's Vineyard Sign Language ===
'''[[Martha's Vineyard Sign Language]]''' is now extinct. Along with [[French Sign Language]], it was one of several main contributors to American Sign Language.

=== Henniker Sign Language ===
'''[[Henniker Sign Language]]''' is now extinct but was once found around the [[Henniker, New Hampshire|Henniker]] region of New Hampshire and formed a basis for American Sign Language.

=== Sandy River Valley Sign Language ===
'''[[Sandy River Valley Sign Language]]''' is now extinct but once could be found around the Sandy River Valley in Maine. It was one of several main contributors to American Sign Language.