Editing American Sign Language (section)

== Varieties ==
{{main|Varieties of American Sign Language}}
{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = vertical
| header = Variants of ABOUT in Canadian ASL

|image1 = About- General sign.ogv
|caption1 = About – General sign (Canadian ASL)<ref name="about">{{Harvcoltxt|Bailey|Dolby|2002|pp=1–2}}</ref>

|image2 = About- Atlantic Variation.ogv
|caption2 = About – Atlantic Variation (Canadian ASL)<ref name="about" />

|image3 = About- Ontario Variation.ogv
|caption3 = About – Ontario Variation (Canadian ASL)<ref name="about" />}}
Varieties of ASL are found throughout the [[#Geographic distribution|world]]. There is little difficulty in comprehension among the varieties of the United States and Canada.<ref name=e25/>

{{blockquote|text=Just as there are accents in speech, there are regional accents in sign. People from the South sign slower than people in the North—even people from northern and southern Indiana have different styles.|sign={{cite book|last=Walker|first=Lou Ann|year=1987|title=A Loss for Words: The Story of Deafness in a Family|location=New York|publisher=HarperPerennial|page=[https://archive.org/details/lossforwordsstor00walk/page/31 31]|isbn=978-0-06-091425-7|url=https://archive.org/details/lossforwordsstor00walk/page/31}}}}

[[Mutual intelligibility]] among those ASL varieties is high, and the variation is primarily [[Vocabulary|lexical]].<ref name=e25/> For example, there are three different words for English ''about'' in Canadian ASL; the standard way, and two regional variations (Atlantic and Ontario).<ref name="about" /> Variation may also be [[phonological]], meaning that the same sign may be signed in a different way depending on the region. For example, an extremely common type of variation is between the handshapes /1/, /L/, and /5/ in signs with one handshape.<ref name="lbv36">{{Harvcoltxt|Lucas|Bayley|Valli|2003|p=36}}</ref>

There is also a distinct variety of ASL used by the Black Deaf community.<ref name=e25/> [[Black ASL]] evolved as a result of [[racial segregation in the United States#Education|racially segregated schools]] in some states, which included the residential schools for the deaf.<ref name="solomon">{{Harvcoltxt|Solomon|2010}}</ref>{{rp|4}} Black ASL differs from standard ASL in vocabulary, phonology, and some grammatical structure.<ref name=e25/><ref name="solomon" />{{rp|4}} While [[African American English]] (AAE) is generally viewed as more innovating than standard English, Black ASL is more conservative than standard ASL, preserving older forms of many signs.<ref name="solomon" />{{rp|4}} Black sign language speakers use more two-handed signs than in mainstream ASL, are less likely to show assimilatory lowering of signs produced on the forehead (e.g. KNOW) and use a wider signing space.<ref name="solomon" />{{rp|4}} Modern Black ASL borrows a number of idioms from AAE; for instance, the AAE idiom "I feel you" is [[calque]]d into Black ASL.<ref name="solomon" />{{rp|10}}

ASL is used internationally as a [[lingua franca]], and a number of closely related sign languages derived from ASL are used in many different countries.<ref name=e25/> Even so, there have been varying degrees of divergence from standard ASL in those imported ASL varieties. [[Bolivian Sign Language]] is reported to be a dialect of ASL, no more divergent than other acknowledged dialects.<ref>{{e25|bvl|Bolivian Sign Language}}</ref> On the other hand, it is also known that some imported ASL varieties have diverged to the extent of being separate languages. For example, [[Malaysian Sign Language]], which has ASL origins, is no longer mutually comprehensible with ASL and must be considered its own language.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Hurlbut|2003|loc=7. Conclusion}}</ref> For some imported ASL varieties, such as those used in West Africa, it is still an open question how similar they are to American ASL.<ref name="nyst"/>{{rp|411}}

When communicating with hearing English speakers, ASL-speakers often use what is commonly called [[Pidgin Signed English]] (PSE) or 'contact signing', a blend of English structure with ASL vocabulary.<ref name=e25/><ref name="deaflib">{{cite web|title=About ASL|last=Nakamura|first=Karen|publisher=Deaf Resource Library|year=2008|url=http://www.deaflibrary.org/asl.html|access-date=December 3, 2012|archive-date=May 19, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130519230633/http://www.deaflibrary.org/asl.html|url-status=live}}</ref>  Various types of PSE exist, ranging from highly English-influenced PSE (practically [[relexification|relexified]] English) to PSE which is quite close to ASL lexically and grammatically, but may alter some subtle features of ASL grammar.<ref name="deaflib" /> Fingerspelling may be used more often in PSE than it is normally used in ASL.<ref name="cxxv" /> There have been some [[constructed languages|constructed sign languages]], known as [[Manually Coded English]] (MCE), which match English grammar exactly and simply replace spoken words with signs; those systems are not considered to be varieties of ASL.<ref name=e25/><ref name="deaflib" />

[[Tactile ASL]] (TASL) is a variety of ASL used throughout the United States by and with the [[deaf-blind]].<ref name=e25/> It is particularly common among those with [[Usher's syndrome]].<ref name=e25/> It results in deafness from birth followed by loss of vision later in life; consequently, those with Usher's syndrome often grow up in the Deaf community using ASL, and later transition to TASL.<ref name="usher">{{Harvcoltxt|Collins|2004|p=33}}</ref> TASL differs from ASL in that signs are produced by touching the palms, and there are some grammatical differences from standard ASL in order to compensate for the lack of [[nonmanual signing]].<ref name=e25/>

ASL changes over time and from generation to generation. The sign for telephone has changed as the shape of phones and the manner of holding them have changed.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Morris |first=Amanda |date=2022-07-26 |title=How Sign Language Evolves as Our World Does |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/07/26/us/american-sign-language-changes.html |access-date=2022-07-28 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=2022-07-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220727171814/http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/07/26/us/american-sign-language-changes.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The development of telephones with screens has also changed ASL, encouraging the use of signs that can be seen on small screens.<ref name=":0" />