An Early Sign Language
- by Hugh Young
French Deaf very much like telling the story of the Abbe de l'Epee "inventing" sign language. It may be true that he added many useful signs to it, but one person did not invent it. Deaf people invented it -- and are still inventing it.
Languages are invented by communities. It is a very gradual process, and they grow and change, rather like a river with streams flowing into it. (It also branches, just as British Sign Language has branched into Australian, New Zealand and South African Sign Language.)
The earliest written record of Deaf SL dates from England in 1644. But an earlier stream that has left any detail is the signs used by (hearing) monks who had taken a vow (a promise) of silence. A book called "Monasteriales Indicia" (Monks' Signs) lists 127 signs used by monks in Benedictine monasteries in about the year 975 AD. The Victoria University of Wellington library has a modern copy. (The Old English is so strange we can not understand it, but there is a translation into Modern English.)
It is quite possible that Saint Benedict, who founded the Benedictine order, got the idea of using signs from Deaf people. Maybe he even borrowed their signs. The silence was not full-time, only at certain times of day, including mealtimes, so most of the signs are for things a monk might ask for, such as different kinds of food, but look at these:
"2. The sign for the dean is that one makes as if one were ringing a small bell, with one's hand hanging down." (Could this have become one sign for "president"?)
"17. If you want a mass vestment (cloak), then stroke with outspread hands down over your chest."
"46. The sign of the Rule is that you move your hand and stroke your index finger along your left hand, as if you were ruling." ("the Rule" means the very strict rules of the monastery: it is interesting that both the monks and NZSL have one sign for both meanings of "rule"; 1. an order that must be obeyed; 2. draw a straight line.)
"55. If you need a knife, then cut with your finger over the other...."
"70. If you want fish, then move your hand in the way that it moves its tail when it swims."
"118. The sign for the king is that you turn your hand downwards and hold the top of your hand with all your fingers in the sign of a crown." (There must have been many other signs, so that monks could say something sensible about the king. What a pity none of them have been written down!)
"121. If you want to indicate anything about any monk whose sign you do not know, then take hold of yourself by the hood." (A-ha! Monks had their own name-signs!)
"122. The sign for nuns is that you put your two index fingers on the front of your head and stoke over along your cheeks in the sign of the veil."
"126. The sign for a layman is that you take hold of your chin with your whole hand, as if you were taking yourself by the beard." (A layman is a man who is not a priest: monks shaved their beards, laymen did not.)
As you see, some signs have changed very little in 1000 years. Maybe Saint Benedict should be the patron saint of Sign Language. ("Bene-dict" means "well-said" in the Latin language.)
(published in Focus, a newsletter for Deaf)
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