International Sign (IS) and American Sign Language (ASL) have both been used as lingua
francas within international deaf contexts. Perspectives on the uses of IS and ASL as lingua …

Abstract This paper approaches International Sign (IS) as both a translingual practice and a
contact language which is subject to language contact with American Sign Language (ASL) …

This article offers a brief overview of historical linguistics and explores the value of historical
sign linguistics. The specific focus of the article is on the question of the extent to which the …

At any given period, however far back in time we go, a language is always an inheritance
from the past. The initial assignment of names to things, establishing a contract between …

Although spoken language nominal typology has been subject to much scrutiny, research
on signed language nominal word order typology is still a burgeoning field. Yet, the structure …

The descriptive contribution of this paper is a typology of mouthing constructions in 37
signed languages and an analysis of the ideologies and resources that affect their …

The African continent harbors upwards of 2,000 spoken indigenous languages–more than a
fourth of the world's total. Using ISO 639-3 language/dialect divisions and including extinct …

This article looks at cross-linguistic variation in lexical iconicity, addressing the question of to
what extent and how this variation is patterned. More than in spoken languages, iconicity is …

Africa is home to a large number of languages, and consequently, there is a staggeringly
large number of different contact situations that are in evidence today. 2 Uncovering the …

This paper investigates how systematically a young macro-community sign language,
Kenyan Sign Language, uses two different means to communicate about events:(i) word …