Manually coded language: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:44, 16 January 2006

Revision as of 07:45, 16 January 2006

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The earliest known attempt to develop a complete signed mode of a language which could be used to teach deaf children was by the [[Abbé de l'Épée]], an educator from [[18th century]] France. While the Deaf community already used a sign language (now known as [[Old French Sign Language]]), Épée thought it must be primitive, and set about designing a complete visual-gestural system to represent the concepts of religion and law that he wanted to impart to his pupils. His system of ''signes méthodiques'' (known in English as "Methodical Signs") was quite idiosyncratic, and although it wasn't a strict representation of French, its success laid the groundwork for the "[[#Signed spoken languages|signed spoken languages]]" of today. The real proliferation of such systems occurred in the latter half of the [[20th century]], and by the [[1980s]], Manually Coded Languages were the dominant form of communication used by teachers and interpreters in classrooms with deaf students in many parts of the world. Any sign language "[[interpreting]]" seen on television in the 1970s and 1980s was actually a [[transliteration]] of a spoken language into a manually coded form.

The emerging [[recognition of sign languages]] in recent times has curbed the growth of Manually Coded Languages, and in many places, interpreting and educational services now favor the use of the natural sign languages of the Deaf community. In some parts of the world, MCLs continue to be developed and supported by state institutions; a contemporary example is [[Arabic Sign Language]]. Some MCL systems (such as the [[Paget Gorman SIgnedSign SpeechSystem]]) have survived by shifting their focus from deaf education to people with other kinds of communication needs.

==Criticisms==