Chapter 13
Language contact and change
Look up signs, in a dictionary such as, for instance, www.spreadthesign.com and find some examples of what you think could be cases of borrowing between sign languages. What are your arguments?
Example answer:
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germany is signed in the same way as in DGS in several other languages: e.g., LIS, Japanese SL, Swedish SL, but not in all. Where the sign is similar, this is likely to be borrowing from the source DGS (note that borrowing is rather common for toponyms).
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milk is also similar in many (European) sign languages, but it is important to consider the role of iconicity here. The only clear example of borrowing is in IPSL from BSL.
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dog shows a great variety across sign languages, but the signs from Polish SL and Swedish SL are similar. However, given that there is no evidence of historical links between these two sign languages, borrowing seems unlikely.