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14-518: The LSF family descends from Old French Sign Language (VLSF), which developed among the deaf community in Paris. The earliest mention of Old French Sign Language is by the abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée in the late 18th century, but it could have existed for centuries prior. Several European sign languages, such as Russian Sign Language , derive from it, as does American Sign Language , established when French educator Laurent Clerc taught his language at

28-426: A complete picture of Old French Sign Language, but ongoing research continues to uncover more pieces of the puzzle. It is not known how the language was acquired or how long the language had been developing before Épée established his school. However, evidence suggests that whenever a large enough population of deaf people exists, a sign language will spontaneously arise (cf. Nicaraguan Sign Language ). As Paris had been

42-481: A contemporary of the Abbe de l'Épée, partially described Old French Sign Language in what was possibly the first book ever to be published by a deaf person (1779). The language certainly used of the possibilities of a spatial grammar. One of the grammatical features noted by Desloges was the use of directional verbs , such as the verb "to want". From the few descriptions that exist, modern linguists are unable to build up

56-458: A sign language (now referred to as Old French Sign Language ). The Abbe de l’Épée has often been credited with the invention of sign language, but this is incorrect. Desloges' book proves that French Sign Language predates the establishment of the famous school for the Deaf in Paris and is truly the invention of deaf people. Desloges also wrote a number of well-received political books around

70-576: The American School for the Deaf . Others, such as Spanish Sign Language , are thought to be related to French Sign Language even if they are not directly descendent from it. Anderson (1979) postulated the following classification of LSF and its relatives, with derivation from Medieval monks' sign systems, though some lineages are apparently traced by their manual alphabets and thus irrelevant for actual classification: Henri Wittmann (1991) has been influential in scholarly attempts at constructing

84-476: The French language . The term "Old French Sign Language" has occasionally been used to describe Épée's "systematised signs", and he has often been (erroneously) cited as the inventor of sign language. Épée, however, influenced the language of the deaf community, and modern French Sign Language can be said to have emerged in the schools that Épée established. As deaf schools inspired by Épée's model sprung up around

98-470: The Touraine region of France , Pierre Desloges moved to Paris as a young man, where he became a bookbinder and upholsterer . He was deafened at age seven from smallpox , but did not learn to sign until he was 27, when he was taught by a deaf Italian. In 1779, he wrote what may be the first book published by a deaf person, in which he advocated for the use of sign language in deaf education . It

112-732: The deaf community in 18th-century Paris at the time of the establishment of the first deaf schools. The earliest records of the language are in the work of the Abbé de l'Épée , who stumbled across two sisters communicating in signs and, through them, became aware of a signing community of 200 deaf Parisians. Records of the language they used are scant. Épée saw their signing as beautiful but primitive, and rather than studying or recording it, he set about developing his own unique sign system ( "langage de signes méthodiques" ), which borrowed signs from Old French Sign Language and combined them with an idiosyncratic morphemic structure which he derived from

126-544: The French Sign Language family tree. He listed most of the following suspected members of the family, with date of establishment or earliest attestation. Subsequent scholarly research has confirmed most of his conclusions, but rejected others and expanded the family tree with new branches, while removing others. Wittnann believed Lyons Sign Language , Spanish Sign Language , Brazilian Sign Language , and Venezuelan Sign Language , which are sometimes counted in

140-602: The French family, had separate origins, though with some contact through stimulus diffusion , and it was Lyons rather than French Sign Language that gave rise to Belgian Sign Language . Chilean Sign Language (1852) has also been included in the French family but is not listed by Wittmann. Hawaiian Pidgin Sign Language (with possible local admixture) turned out to be an isolate, unrelated to French, American, or any other Sign Language. J. Albert Bickford concluded that there

154-555: The largest city in France for hundreds of years (and with 565,000 inhabitants in 1750), French Sign Language is a good candidate for one of the oldest sign languages in Europe. Old French Sign Language is not related to Old French , which was spoken from roughly 1000 to 1300. ^b Denotes the number (if known) of languages within the family. No further information is given on these languages. Pierre Desloges Born in 1747 in

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168-450: The world, the language was to influence the development of many other sign languages, including American Sign Language . From the dictionaries of "systematised signs" that the Abbé de l'Épée and his successor, Abbé Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard , published, one can see that many of the signs described have direct descendants in sign languages today. Pierre Desloges , who was deaf himself and

182-416: Was 'no substantive evidence that the [Lyons Sign Language] ever existed' and retired it from Ethnologue in 2017. ^b Denotes the number (if known) of languages within the family. No further information is given on these languages. Old French Sign Language Old French Sign Language ( French : Vieille langue des signes française , often abbreviated as VLSF ) was the language of

196-399: Was in part a rebuttal of the views of Abbé Claude-François Deschamps de Champloiseau , who had published a book arguing against the use of signs. Desloges explained, "like a Frenchman who sees his language belittled by a German who knows only a few French words, I thought I was obliged to defend my language against the false charges of this author." He describes a community of deaf people using

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