Idioma de Signos Nicaragüense, or Nicaraguan Sign Language, is a sign language that was spontaneously invented by deaf schoolchildren in Nicaragua in the 1970s and 1980s. However, by the mid-1980s, teachers observed that students were signing to each other, communicating with their hands. Deaf youth with Deaf outreach workers (photo taken in a rural location outside Condega). âKids are good at learning certain things, and since kids are the primary language learners, they are the ones who are selecting for what stays in language, essentially. It is spoken by about 90% of the country’s population. Deaf Costa Ricans born prior to the 1960s, for example, primarily use what is referred to as Old Costa Rican Sign Language. Carol Zall: But now, for the first time, hundreds of deaf children were brought together in a few schools in the capital city, Managua. PRX is a 501(c)(3) organization recognized by the IRS: #263347402. Nicaraguan Sign Language (ISN) Nicaraguan Sign Language (ISN) first emerged in the 1970s when deaf children were brought together in schools in western Nicaragua. And in this way, over time, children drive the way a language develops. Idioma de Signos Nicaragüense, or Nicaraguan Sign Language, is a sign language that was spontaneously invented by deaf schoolchildren in Nicaragua in the 1970s and 1980s. Though American Sign Language and some other widely utilized sign languages, such as Chinese Sign Language and Indo-Pakistani Sign Language, have long histories, they were often inaccessible to deaf families and institutions in rural, mountainous, or politically-charged regions. Judy Shepard-Kegl: Deaf people were hidden in the homes. Shepard-Kegl believes that the younger kids were in the âcritical periodâ for language, meaning their brains were very receptive to learning. Judy Shepard-Kegl: And that made me realize, wait a minute, what am I looking at here? There are theories about how language evolved, but the truth is, nobody really knows. Nicaraguan Sign Language similarly developed in a vacuum. Sign languages are not simply a series of gestures; they utilise the same grammatical machinery that is found in spoken languages. Â. Carol Zall: The younger children were communicating much more fluently than the older kids. James Shepard-Kegl – James and his wife Judy have been involved in Nicaraguan Sign Language for many years now. Whereas American Sign Language could have extended into Nicaragua by the 1980s, as it did in neighboring Costa Rica where it combined with a locally developed sign language in the 1960s, Nicaragua’s geo-political isolation prevented ASL from entering the country, notes Shepard-Kegl. To learn more, review our Cookie Policy. The World is a public radio program that crosses borders and time zones to bring home the stories that matter. Molly Flaherty: So, what we see in Nicaragua is that older signers, they sign larger than do younger signers. Molly Flaherty is a psychology professor at Davidson College. But how did the elementary school children make the jump from rudimentary gestures to a language with a full grammar? For all that linguists have learned from the study of Nicaraguan Sign Language, perhaps most important is the proof it has provided for a controversial theory of language. She uses motion-tracking technology to follow the position of peopleâs wrists in space, to measures the physical size of the signs. The language follows many basic rules common to all tongues, even though the children were not taught them. Nicaraguan Sign Language: the Language of the Truly Stimulus-Impoverished For much of the history of the Nicaraguan state, deaf children had essentially no formal support from the government. Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Molly Flaherty, a psychology professor at Davidson College in North Carolina, uses motion-tracking technology to follow the position of peopleâs wrists in space, to see how the size of the language â the physical size of the signs in space â has been changing over time. Winner will be selected at random on 02/01/2021. I mean, deaf people weren't even going to the churches, there was a real stigma. Courtesy of Nicaraguan Sign Language Projects, Inc. Shepard-Kegl spent whole days watching the students in their classes, and the kids became curious about what she was doing. Judy Shepard-Kegl: So, they learned it. In the 1980s deaf children in Nicaragua invented a completely new sign language of their own. But while the country’s deaf children were being taught Spanish inside the classroom, outside the classroom they were spontaneously developing their own method of signed communication. Because larger signs would be easier to see. Featuring. Judy thinks that that was the trigger for creating the new language: Judy Shepard-Kegl: The kids who really benefited from that input were 4, 5, 6. Host Marco Werman: One upon a time, there were no languages. “Languages, by nature, borrow,” says Shepard-Kegl. As Shepard-Kegl started to understand them better, it seemed to her that they didnât have a full-fledged language â it was more like an elaborate system of gestures.Â, A few weeks later, Shepard-Kegl visited an elementary school. These children, who ranged in age from four to 16, had no experience with sign language beyond the “home signs” they used with family members to communicate broad concepts. They copied the grammar the little kids generated.”. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Moreover, there are many different languages used worldwide. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. And though it … This occurred at a number of schools in western Nicaragua. Though older and younger students attended separate classes during school hours, on buses and playgrounds the children quickly began to select “conventions” for necessary words. Arbitrating when to say ref, ump, or judge. Which is not what you might expect. The kids were the first to enrol in Nicaragua… They now are based in the USA but run Nicaraguan Sign Language Projects.. Tio Antonio – Antonio, a chef originally from Valencia, Spain, lives and works in Granada, Nicaragua running the Cafe de las Sonrisas and other projects providing employment … Carol Zall: Children look for patterns in language, and when they find them, they favor the ones that occur most frequently. In 1986, Judy Shepard-Kegl, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained linguist with expertise in signed languages, was invited by the countryâs Ministry of Education to observe the children at the schools in Managua. This is hardly surprising to linguists who appreciate that like all languages, Nicaragua's sign language emerged among a human population. Nicaraguan Sign Language was not imported from some other country. Molly says that older signers are aware that the language is changing â not just the size of the signs, but also things like vocabulary â and, at least some of them think that the younger signers are getting it all wrong: Molly Flaherty: Within the Nicaraguan sign community, you still, you know, will interact with people who will talk about how the kids are being so messy, and so sloppy, in their signing. It was in the years after the revolution that Judy first got involved with Nicaragua. This is not to say, however, that other independent community-based sign languages never existed. It's got internal consistency,â Shepard-Kegl said. Yuri Shepard-Kegl: My name is Yuri Shepard-Kegl. Stokoe also questions assertions that the language has emerged entirely without outside influence, from (for example), Spanish or ASL. Others believe that when dominant languages arrive, they are appropriated by indigenous communities, often combining with an existing language to create a distinctly local version. Judy was invited by Nicaraguaâs Ministry of Education to come observe them. The Development of Nicaraguan Sign Language via the Language Acquisition Process Ann Senghas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1. When the Sandinista National Liberation Front gained power, they embarked on what has been described as a “literacy crusade,” developing programs to promote fluency in reading Spanish. “To my knowledge,” Senghas writes, “there has not been another case of linguists and psycholinguists documenting the birth of a language on a community-wide scale.”. How Deaf Children in Nicaragua Created a New Language, "Thanks a little, thanks the most, please just share your drinking toasts.". And they pointed to a bunch of kids milling around on a little basketball court in front of us and said, "We want to understand what they're talking about.". It’s something that has occurred many times in history. It wasn't a language, but their brains filled in the holes of what was missing. Her first stop was a vocational school. Then at some point in human development, we began speaking to each other â eventually in ways that followed grammatical patterns. Molly Flaherty: To think about the fact that this integral product that we all use every day, all day, may really be shaped by the youngest minds, and by the youngest people in our world, is, I don't know, I like that idea, that we're all using this, this creation of children all the time, and we don't necessarily realize it. It is a concept that has generated considerable controversy. When children are learning a language, theyâre not just passively absorbing words. In order to communicate manually, these communities had to develop their own signed languages. In 1979, the Sandinista National Liberation Front overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle, a dictator whose family had been in power in Nicaragua since 1936.Â. Carol Zall: Judy concluded that what she was looking at was the emergence of a brand new language. Iâm from Nicaragua. She didnât communicate much at all for the first few years of her life â until she went to a school for the deaf. We couldnât have done it without your support. Your donation directly supported the critical reporting you rely on, the consistent reporting you believe in, and the deep reporting you want to ensure survives.Â, a dictator whose family had been in power in Nicaragua since 1936, Virtual schooling poses extra challenges for English-language learners, Artist Christine Sun Kim on âdeaf rage,â the Super Bowl and the power of sound, Florida teen girls step up to translate Indigenous Mayan languages, 'The death of American exceptionalismâ: Views from abroad on US Capitol attackÂ, From Sudan, Ethiopian refugees tell their stories, Latino communities targeted by disinformation ahead of Georgiaâs Senate runoffs, 'Georgia, all eyes are on you': Activists galvanize Latino voters ahead of runoffsÂ. It has been learned by successive waves of children from the same culture, all of whom began to learn at about the same age. In the decades since Judyâs first trips to Nicaragua, many other scholars have traveled there to study the new language, too. Carol Zall: Another reason linguists are fascinated by Nicaraguan Sign Language is because it allows them to study the way that childrenâs brains influence language. Around the world, deaf sign languages, including the one spoken among African Americans in Raleigh, have disappeared or changed significantly when a more widely used language has entered the region. Carol Zall: Flaherty asks people of different ages to describe the same event to her, to see the differences in how they sign. Went Wild for an 18th-Century Scottish Novelist, This Miniature Quran Bears Witness to an Immense History, The Archaeologist Who Collected 4,500 Beer Cans, Lessons on Enduring a Lonely Winter From Antarctic Voyagers, How a Blacksmith in Jordan Created His Own Sign Language, In Naples, Praying With Skulls Is an Ancient Tradition, Inside a Domed Pyramid With Astounding Acoustics and a History of Miracles, Courtesy Nicaraguan Sign Language Projects, Inc. What Is the Hardest Language in the World to Lipread? Carol Zall: And that, of course, is what Nicaraguan Sign Language is: the creation of children. The language developed when the Sandinist government of Nicaragua created the first (elementary) school for deaf people, in the 1970s. School did not use ASL or any signs at all to dialects usage! Nicaraguan schoolchildren invented a completely new Sign language developed when the children interacted, instead of adapting their signs fit. 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