Expand the Mind: Content Team

In The Know: Sign languages

Sign languages, like spoken languages, vary from country to country.

According to the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), each country has one or two sign
languages that often share the same linguistic roots in the same way as spoken languages do.

Based in Helsinki, Finland, the WFD is an international, nongovernmental central organization

that counts as “ordinary members” 133 national associations of deaf people.
The WFD estimates that there are about 70 million deaf people who use sign language as their
first language or mother tongue.

Sign language is not an international language. But users of different sign languages understand
each other far more quickly because there are universal features in sign languages. According to
the WFD, this has been called the International Sign.

One of the sign languages in the Philippines is the Filipino Sign Language (FSL). According to the
2005 edition of Ethnologue, it is used by at least 100,000 people and is reported to be very
similar to American Sign Language (ASL).

FSL is used by deaf people in Manila. Another sign system, Signing Exact English (SEE), is also
used in Philippine schools for the deaf, including public schools. SEE follows the grammatical
structure of the spoken English language, and involves translating spoken English directly into
sign language.

“Natural” sign languages like FSL and ASL, on the other hand, do not have spoken or written
equivalents. For their grammatical structures, they also use body positions and facial
expressions. They do not solely use hands, like SEE.

Visual-manual

According to Roberto S. Salva, executive director of the Catholic Ministry to Deaf People Inc.,
FSL and ASL, described as “visual-manual languages,” emerged naturally from deaf
communities. FSL and ASL are distinct from each other and are both distinct from sign
languages of other languages like Japanese, Vietnamese and British.

In his commentary published in the Inquirer on Nov. 3, Salva noted that there were differences
among signs used in different locations.
In his article, Salva relayed the experience of Pamela, one of the scholars who work as a teacher
in a deaf community, who noticed that some signs used in Calbayog, Samar, were different
from those used by the deaf in Manila.

Salva warned that the passage of a bill that would establish FSL as the national language of deaf
Filipinos “without provisions protecting other sign languages” might “edge out” other sign
languages indigenous to deaf communities outside of Manila.

Research in sign language started in the 1960s in the United States and the Netherlands. It has
confirmed that sign languages are complex natural languages and part of the deaf culture at all
levels from local to national. They have been found to have existed as long as spoken
languages.

Inventors
Who are their inventors? According to the WFD, probably every known group of nonspeaking
deaf people observed around the world uses some sign language. Even isolated deaf individuals
have been observed to develop a sign language to communicate with hearing relatives and
friends.

Sign languages have arisen spontaneously through time by people who interacted using sign
languages as their main form to communicate.

But devised or derivative sign languages have been intentionally invented by some particular
individuals like educators of deaf children to represent spoken language. The examples of
these, mostly used in classrooms, are the “Manually Coded English”, “Signing Exact English” and
“Linguistics of Visual English.”

Legislation for sign languages varies in each country. The rights of deaf people to education and
equal participation are legislated in some countries. But in other countries, the use of sign
languages in classrooms is forbidden. Uganda was the first country in the world to pass a law
recognizing sign language.

The WFD advocates the improvement of sign languages. It takes the position that any forcible
purification or unification of sign languages, conducted by governments, professionals working
with deaf people, and organizations for or of the deaf, is a violation of the UN and Unesco
treaties, declarations and other policies, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities.

It says: “Deaf people in every country have the sole right to make changes, if necessary, in their
own local, provincial and national sign languages in response to cultural changes. The control of
the development of any sign language must be left to any social group where the particular sign
language is exercised.”
What are sign languages?
Common misconceptions:

Signing is universal.
Signing is gesture or only pantomimee.
Sign languages are based on spoken languages.

Sign languages have been demonstrated to be true languages at par with spoken
languages. Spoken languages are based on classes of sound, while sign languages are built from
visual units. There are over a hundred sign languages currently recognized around the world.

The fundamental unit of structure is the Handshape, along with the other parameters of
Location, Movement, Palm Orientation and Nonmanual signal. These are further organized into
units which carry meaning, and then, sentences and discourse.

Sign languages have no written systems and are governed by purely visually motivated
grammatical devices found in the Nonmanual signals of the face and body.

How do sign languages differ from sign systems?

Sign languages arise and grow naturally across time, within communities of persons with
hearing loss. A sign language is not intrinsic to children with hearing loss but is among the set of
learned behaviors within the community that is shared, nurtured and passed on.

Sign languages possess their own structure distinct from spoken and written languages.

Sign systems, on the other hand, are considered artificial since they did not arise spontaneously
but were purposively created as educational tools in the development of literacy. Artificial sign
systems follow the structure and grammar of spoken and written languages.

What is Filipino Sign Language (FSL)?

Common misconceptions about Filipino Sign Language:
It is based on Filipino.
It is based on English.
It is the “same” as American Sign Language.

Like other legitimate visual languages, FSL has a hierarchy of linguistic structure based on a
manual signal supplemented by additional linguistic information from Nonmanual signals of the
face and body. It is the ordered and rule-governed visual communication which has arisen
naturally and embodies the cultural identity of the Filipino community of signers.

It shows internal structure distinct from spoken and written languages, and other visual
languages, and possesses productive processes, enabling it to respond to numerous current and
emerging communication needs.
It reflects rich regional diversity in its vocabulary and bears a historical imprint of language
change over time since the early beginnings of manual communication in the 16th century in
Leyte.

From the lexicostatistical analysis of field data by the Philippine Federation of the Deaf (PFD),
possible varieties have so far been proposed: an Eastern Visayas group (Leyte variety) and a
Southern Luzon group (Southern Tagalog, Bicol and Palawan varieties).

FSL bears the historical imprint of heavy language pressure from contact with American Sign
Language since the start of the century, as well as with Manually Coded English since the 1970s.

In 2004, sign linguist Liza Martinez called attention to the massive and abrupt change of the
core vocabulary of FSL, which has resulted from this linguistic pressure. The PFD historical
analysis in 2007 used the lexicostatistical approach and verified vocabulary elements of
indigenous as well as foreign origin.

Distinguished sign linguist James Woodward has been at the forefront of pioneering research to
protect endangered indigenous sign languages (including FSL) and stem the strong tide of
influence from foreign sign languages and sign systems.

Who are the Filipino deaf?

These are Filipinos who have hearing loss, including those who lost their hearing early or late in
life (late-deafened adults, senior citizens), the hard of hearing, those with other impairments
such as the deafblind, those who communicate orally, unschooled deaf, LGBT deaf, deaf
indigenous peoples and so on.

Who are the Filipino Deaf?

They are deaf Filipinos who use, share, nurture and promote common values (including their
visual language and cultural identity) as a claim for human rights and self-determination.

How are FSL and American Sign Language related?

FSL belongs to the branch of visual languages influenced by American Sign Language together
with, for example, Thai Sign Language and Kenyan Sign Language. However, the structure of FSL
has changed significantly enough for it to be considered a distinct language from American Sign
Language.

There is substantial evidence of widespread FSL changes in the following:

Overall form, internal structure (particularly on the inventory of handshapes and accompanying
phonological processes)

Sign formation or morphological processes (such as affixation, compounding, numeral

incorporation, lexicalization of finger spelling, inflections and others)
Classifier predication, grammatical features and transformational rules, enabling it to generate
infinite forms of surface structure from patterns of deep structure

What is the legal basis for House Bill No. 6079?

The bill is known as “An Act Declaring Filipino Sign Language as the National Sign Language of
the Filipino Deaf and the Official Language of Government in All Transactions Involving the
Deaf, and Mandating Its Use in Schools, Broadcast Media and Workplaces.”
The State is duty-bound internationally and domestically to legislate HB 6079 or other laws
written in the same spirit. International commitments include its ratification of UN core
treaties, e.g. the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and the
Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as the signing by the Philippines of
the 1994 Salamanca Statement on Special Needs Education.

Department of Education (DepEd) policies include the 1997 specific guidelines on the use of
FSL as the medium of instruction for students with hearing impairment. Recent or proposed
DepEd policies, such as those for Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education, the K-12 bill
and the Early Years Act, already incorporate principles of full accessibility, inclusion and
participation of children with disabilities.

Is this legal recognition of a national sign language taking place only in the Philippines?
No. Forty-four countries are reported to have various levels of formal recognition for their sign
languages, from constitutional status to specific legislation, polices or guidelines.

Sign language recognition continues to be an area of active lobbying with the government for
Deaf communities worldwide, which invoke their right to language and communication in all
aspects of their lives.

How much research has been done on FSL?

Rosalinda Macaraig Ricasa, the first Filipino hearing sign-language linguist who trained at the
renowned Deaf institution, Gallaudet University (Washington), first presented in the late 1980s
the observation of a possibly unique sign language in the Philippines, distinct from American
Sign Language.

In 1990, Liza Martinez, the second Filipino hearing sign-language linguist who trained at the
same Deaf university, conducted the first linguistic inquiry in the country. Since that time, over
80 studies on the structure and use of FSL have been undertaken and published or presented in
local and international forums.

These span the fields of sign language linguistics, history, Philippine studies, literature and
culture, lexicography and corpus, sign language interpreting, translation studies, language
policy, education, early childhood development, human rights and machine intelligence/sign
language recognition.
The Philippine Federation of the Deaf was the lead for the National Sign Language Committee,
which produced the Status Report on the Use of Sign Language in the Philippines (with principal
support from the Gallaudet University Alumni Association through the Laurent Clerc Cultural
Fund) and the Practical Dictionaries Project, a four-country study with Vietnam, Cambodia and
Hong Kong through the support of Nippon Foundation.
Trainers for the latter project were Dr. James Woodward,
Dr. Yutaka Osugi (a Deaf sign linguist from Japan) and
Dr. Liza Martinez.

How are deaf children taught in public schools?

The National Sign Language Committee collected and evaluated videotape samples of over 150
hearing teachers in nine regions. The data show typically Sign Supported Speech or
Simultaneous Communication (i.e., speaking and signing at the same time). The most frequent
use of the spoken language is English, mixed with either Filipino or Cebuano.

Will HB 6079 hinder the development of literacy?

No. Section 4 (1) of the bill states that the reading and writing of Filipino, other Philippine
languages and English shall still also be taught. For a bilingual-bicultual goal in Deaf education,
the first language (L1) is a fully accessible visual language (i.e., FSL), and the second language
(L2) is a written language.

Shall the legal recognition of FSL as the national sign language conflict with individual
autonomy?
No. A fundamental principle of the UNCRPD is individual autonomy, including the freedom to
make one’s own choices (Article 3.a).

On education, Article 24.3 emphasizes that “States Parties shall enable persons with disabilities
to learn life and social development skills to facilitate their full and equal participation in
education and as members of the community. To this end, States Parties shall take appropriate
measures, including:
(b) Facilitating the learning of sign language and the promotion of the linguistic identity of the
deaf community;
(c) Ensuring that the education of persons, and in particular children, who are blind, deaf or
deafblind, is delivered in the most appropriate languages and modes and means of
communication for the individual, and in environments which maximize academic and social
development.”

Part (b) is a clear directive to facilitate and promote the linguistic identity of the community
(i.e., FSL). Notable is the use of the word “including” in the first paragraph (meaning, it is not
exclusive) for the directive to promote this linguistic identity.

Part (c) instructs the State to make sure that schools, in pursuit of their goals and mandates,
offer education that is appropriate and maximizes academic and social development. This
appears to give schools latitude in the choice and delivery through the use of various
languages, modes and means. However, these must satisfy the requirements for fully inclusive
education and maximum development.

Article 21.b directs the State to guard the freedom of expression and access to information of
persons with disabilities of all forms of communication “of their choice,” while also recognizing
and promoting the use of sign languages (21.e).

The most critical point here is State responsibility. The party to the convention is the Philippine
state and not any stakeholder. The State must, therefore, clearly demonstrate that it is carrying
out its duty to facilitate and promote the linguistic and cultural identity of the community
(Articles 21.b, e; 24.3.b, 30.4) and provide full accessibility through sign language interpretation
(Article 9.2.e). Articles 21.b and 24.3.c in no way diminish State commitment to clearly promote
and protect sign language and deaf culture.

What will happen if HB 6079 does not become a law?

State responsibility remains clear and does not change. It shall still need to demonstrate how it
is implementing Articles 21.b, e, 24.3.b, 30.4 and 9.2.e of the UNCRPD. It shall also be
accountable for the nearly two decades of neglect of its commitment to the 1994 Salamanca
Statement to ensure access through a national sign language.

Existing policies of the DepEd and the judiciary relating to sign language and accessibility must
still be fully implemented according to the principles and obligations of the UNCRPD.

Will the mandatory use of FSL be a barrier to unschooled deaf Filipinos?

No. Because of its fully visual nature, FSL is the next most efficient and effective interface in
communication even with a deaf person who has been isolated and is unable to use the typical
sign communication of the community. Artificial sign systems, which are sound- and alphabet-
/spelling-based, shall be incomprehensible to such deaf persons.

(Dr. Liza Martinez is founder and director of the Philippine Deaf Resource Center, a member of
the Philippine Coalition on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She has
been actively involved in structural and sociolinguistics research on FSL for the past 22 years.)