In the study of sign language phonology, little attention has been paid to the phonetic detail that distinguishes
one sign language from another. We approach this issue by studying the foreign accent of signers of a young sign language –
Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) – which is in contact with another sign language in the region, Israeli Sign Language
(ISL). By comparing ISL signs and sentences produced by ABSL signers with those of ISL signers, we uncover language particular
features at a level of detail typically overlooked in sign language research. For example, within signs we find reduced occlusion
(lack of contact), and across phrases there is frequent long distance spreading of the nondominant hand. This novel study of an
emerging language in a language contact environment provides a model for comparative sign language phonology, and suggests that a
community’s signature accent is part of the evolution of a phonological system.
Al-Fityani, Kinda & Carol Padden. 2010Sign language geography in the Arab world. In Diane Brentari (Ed.), Sign languages: A Cambridge survey, 433–450. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Archangeli, Diana & Douglas Pulleyblank. 1994. Grounded phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Aronoff, Mark, Irit Meir, Carol Padden & Wendy Sandler. 2004. Morphological universals and the sign language type. In Geert Booj & Jaap van Marle (Eds.), Yearbook of morphology, 19–39. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Baker, Charlotte & Carol Padden. 1978. Focusing on the non-manual components of ASL. In Patricia Siple (Ed.), Understanding language through sign language research, 27–57. New York: Academic Press.
Battison, Robbin. 1978. Lexical borrowing in American Sign Language. Silver Spring, MD: Linstok Press.
Brentari, Diane. 1998. A prosodic model of sign language phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Browman, Catherine & Louis Goldstein. 1992. Articulatory phonology: An overview. Phonetica 491. 155–180.
Bybee, Joan. 2001. Phonology and language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Clements, George N.1985. The geometry of phonological features. Phonology Yearbook 21. 225–252.
Corina, David. 1993. To branch or not to branch: Underspecification in ASL handshape contours. In Geoffrey Coulter (Ed.), Phonetics and phonology, Vol 3: Current issues in ASL Phonology, 63–94. San Diego: Academic Press.
Coulter, Geoffrey. 1982. On the nature of ASL as a monosyllabic language. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, San Diego, CA.
Dachkovsky, Svetlana, Christina Healy & Wendy Sandler. 2013. Visual intonation in two sign languages. Phonology 30(2). 211–252.
Dachkovsky, Svetlana & Wendy Sandler. 2009. Visual intonation in the prosody of a sign language. Language and Speech 52(2–3). 287–314.
Docherty, Gerard J. & Paul Foulkes. 2000. Speaker, speech & knowledge of sounds. In Noel Burton-Roberts, Philip Carr & Gerard J. Docherty (Eds.), Phonological knowledge: Conceptual & empirical issues, 105–129. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hay, Jennifer & Katie Drager. 2007. Sociophonetics. Annual Review of Anthropology 361. 89–103.
Hockett, Charles. 1960. The origin of speech. Scientific American 2031. 88–96.
Israel, Assaf & Wendy Sandler. 2011. Phonological category resolution in a new sign language: A comparative study of handshapes. In Rachel Channon & Harry van der Hulst (Eds.), Formational units in sign languages, 177–202. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Kaisse, Ellen & Patricia S. Shaw. 1985. On the theory of lexical phonology. Phonology Yearbook 21. 1–30.
Kastner, Itamar. 2011. Tracing the phonetics of an emerging sign language in the Negev: No phonology or ‘No, phonology!’ Working paper, University of Haifa.
Kisch, Shifra. 2008. The social construction of deafness in a Bedouin community in the Negev. Medical Anthropology 27(3). 283–313.
Klima, Edward & Ursula Bellugi. 1979. The signs of language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lanesman, Sara & Irit Meir. 2012. The survival of Algerian Jewish Sign Language alongside Israeli Sign Language in Israel. In Ulrike Zeshan & Connie de Vos (Eds.), Sign languages in village communities: Anthropological and linguistic insights, 153–179. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton & Nijmegen: Ishara Press.
Lehiste, Ilse. 1988. Lectures on language contact. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Liddell, Scott K.2003. Grammar, gesture, and meaning in American Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Liddell, Scott K. & Robert E. Johnson. 1986. American Sign Language compound formation processes, lexicalization, and phonological remnants. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 81, 445–513.
Liddell, Scott K. & Robert E. Johnson. 1989. American Sign Language: the phonological base. Sign Language Studies 64(1). 195–277.
Major, Roy C.2001. Foreign accent: The ontogeny and phylogeny of second language phonology. London: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Mandel, Mark. 1977. Iconic devices in American Sign Language. In. Lynn A. Friedman (Ed.), On the other hand, 57–107. London: Academic Press.
Padden, Carol, Irit Meir, Mark Aronoff & Wendy Sandler. 2010. The grammar of space in two new sign languages. In Diane Brentari (Ed.), Sign languages: A Cambridge language survey, 570–592. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Pietraszewski, David & Alex Schwartz. 2014. Evidence that accent is a dimension of social categorization, no a byproduct of coalitional categorization. Evolution and Human Behavior 351. 51–57.
Perlmutter, David M.1992. Sonority and syllable structure in American Sign Language. Linguistic Inquiry 23(3). 407–442.
Quinto-Pozos, David G.2008. Sign language contact and interference: ASL and LSM. Language in Society 37(2). 161–189.
Sandler, Wendy. 1989. Phonological representation of the sign: Linearity and nonlinearity in American Sign Language. Dordrecht: Foris.
Sandler, Wendy. 1990. Temporal aspects and ASL phonology. In Susan Fischer & Patricia Siple (Eds.), Theoretical issues in sign language research, Vol I: Linguistics, 7–36. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sandler, Wendy. 1993. A sonority cycle in American Sign Language. Phonology 10(2). 209–241.
Sandler, Wendy. 2009. Symbiotic symbolization by hand and mouth in sign language. Semiotica 1741. 241–275.
Sandler, Wendy. 2011. The phonology of movement in sign language. In Mark van Oostendorp, Colin Ewen, Karen Rice & Elizabeth Hume (Eds.), The Blackwell companion to phonology, 577–603. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Sandler, Wendy. 2012. The phonological organization of sign languages. Language and Linguistics Compass 6/3. 162–182.
Sandler, Wendy. 2017. The challenge of sign language phonology. Annual Review of Linguistics 31. 43–63.
Sandler, Wendy, Mark Aronoff, Irit Meir & Carol Padden. 2011. The gradual emergence of phonological form in a new language. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29(2). 503–543.
Sandler, Wendy, Irit Meir, Svetlana Dachkovsky, Carol Padden & Mark Aronoff. 2011. The emergence of complexity in prosody and syntax. Lingua 121(13). 2014–2033.
Schembri, Adam & Ceil Lucas (Eds.). 2015. Sociolinguistics and Deaf communities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stokoe, William C.1960. Sign language structure: an outline of the visual communication systems of the American deaf. Studies in Linguistics: Occasional Papers. Buffalo: University of Buffalo.
Wilbur, Ronnie B.1994. Eyeblinks and ASL phrase structure. Sign Language Studies 841. 221–240.
Wilbur, Ronnie B.2000. Phonological and prosodic layering of non-manuals in American Sign Language. In Karen Emmorey & Harlan Lane (Eds.), The signs of language revisited: An anthology to honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima, 215–244. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Wilbur, Ronnie B.2011. Sign syllables. In Mark van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth Hume & Karen Rice (Eds.), The Blackwell companion to phonology, 1309–1334. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Van der Hulst, Harry. 1993. Units in the analysis of signs. Phonology 10(2). 209–241.
Cited by (4)
Cited by four other publications
Watkins, Freya, Diar Abdlkarim, Bodo Winter & Robin L. Thompson
2024. Viewing angle matters in British Sign Language processing. Scientific Reports 14:1
Börstell, Carl
2023. Lexical comprehension within and across sign languages of Belgium, China and the Netherlands. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 8:1
Flaherty, Molly, Asha Sato & Simon Kirby
2023. Documenting a Reduction in Signing Space in Nicaraguan Sign Language Using Depth and Motion Capture. Cognitive Science 47:4
Alhuzail, Nuzha Allassad & Miriam Levinger
2022. Social workers’ challenges in working with deaf bedouin service users. Journal of Social Work 22:5 ► pp. 1296 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.