How Using Sign Language Keeps the Pace

Using sign language as a means of nonverbal communication is a common practice around the world. Since using sign language requires the individual to create hand gestures and shapes in order to communicate, you would think that it would be impossible for sign language to keep up with the rapid-fire pace of spoken languages.

It’s true that it takes longer to sign an individual word when using sign language than it does to say it. However, full sentences can, on average, be signed at the same rate as it takes to speak them. The question of how this is possible is one that has baffled linguists for decades — until recently, when a new study finally gave researchers an answer.

Sign Language Development

The history of sign language dates as far back as the 1800s, when the Plains Indians of North America were using a rudimentary form of sign language as a means of communication between different tribes with different languages. Such early systems were most likely limited to a few signs, such as the symbol for a person on horseback, represented by two fingers straddling the index finger of the other hand.

In the late 18th century, the first official system of using sign language was developed in France. French Sign Language (FSL) was later brought to the United States, where it became the basis for American Sign Language (ASL).

Today a large variety of sign language systems exist in the world, including ASL, FSL and British Sign Language — which, interestingly enough, is actually so different form American Sign Language that the two are mutually unintelligible.

Spoken vs. Signed Languages

A recent study has finally shed some light on how individuals using sign language are able to keep up with verbal communicators. Scientists at Princeton University conducted a study of American Sign Language in which they watched clips of deaf people using sign language on websites such as YouTube, DeafRead and DeafVideo.tv.

The study compared the entropy, or information content, of single units of data in signed versus spoken English. When using sign language, the fundamental unit of data is the handshape — ASL, for example, has 45 primary handshapes. Spoken languages, on the other hand, depend on the phenome, the smallest unit of sound used to contrast spoken sounds. An example of a phenome would be the “k” sound in the words “kite” and “skill.”

According to the study, the individual handshapes present when using ASL contain a greater amount of information than the phenomes used in spoken English. While the average information content of a handshape was measured to be 0.5 bits less than the theoretical maximum, the average information content of speech phenomes was measured to be approximately three bits less than the max — a significant difference.

Despite the fact that creating individual handshapes when using sign language may take longer than speaking single words, the greater amount of essential information provided by each handshape allows signers to keep up with speakers.

The Future of Using Sign Language

Understanding the using of sign language systems and how they compare to verbal speech is essential to improving sign language technology.

Developments in automated sign recognition development will allow those using sign language to transmit messages electronically as well as via video.

Studies like the one conducted at Princeton are the first step in developing technology to improve the using of sign language in the future.