French Sign Language is frequently, though mistakenly, attributed to the work of Charles Michel de l'Épée (l'abbé de l'Épée). In fact, he is said to have discovered the already existing language by total accident; having ducked into a nearby house to escape the rain, he fell upon a pair of deaf twin sisters and was struck by the richness and complexity of the language that they used to communicate among themselves and the deaf Parisian community.[citation needed] The abbé set himself to learning the language, now known as Old French Sign Language, and eventually he established a free school for the deaf. At this school, he developed a system he called "methodical signs", to teach his students how to read and write. The abbé was eventually able to make public demonstrations (1771–1774) of his system, demonstrations that attracted educators and celebrities from all over the continent and that popularised the idea that the deaf could be educated, especially by gesture.
The methodical signs he created were a mixture of sign language words he had learned with some grammatical terms he invented. The resulting combination, an artificial language, was over-complicated and completely unusable by his students. For example, where his system would elaborately construct the word "unintelligible" with a chain of five signs ("interior-understand-possible-adjective-not"), the deaf natural language would simply say "understand-impossible". LSF was not invented by the abbé, but his major contributions to the deaf community were to recognize that the deaf did not need oral language to be able to think, and to indirectly accelerate the natural growth of the language by virtue of putting so many deaf students under a single roof.
From this time French Sign Language flourished until the late 19th century when a schism developed between the manualist and oralist schools of thought. In 1880 the Milan International Congress of Teachers for the Deaf-Mute convened and decided that the oralist tradition would be preferred. In due time the use of sign language was treated as a barrier to learning to talk and thus forbidden from the classroom.
This situation remained unchanged in France until the late 1970s, when the deaf community began to militate for greater recognition of sign language and for a bilingual education system. In 1991 the National Assembly passed the Fabius law, officially authorising the use of LSF for the education of deaf children. A law was passed in 2005 fully recognising LSF as a language in its own right.[2]
Alphabet
The French manual alphabet is used both to distinguish signs of LSF and to incorporate French words while signing.
^a Sign-language names reflect the region of origin. Natural sign languages are not related to the spoken language used in the same region. For example, French Sign Language originated in France, but is not related to French. Conversely, ASL and BSL both originated in English-speaking countries but are not related to each other; ASL however is related to French Sign Language.
^b Denotes the number (if known) of languages within the family. No further information is given on these languages.
French French of France Varieties of French French people Louisiana French French Canadians French Louisianians Swiss French Black French people French Americans French colonial empire French Indochina Old French French orthography French language French Algeria French Navy French Guiana French Polynesia French Revolution Quebec French French Open French West Indies French hip hop French literature French nobility French cuisine French Bee American French French diaspora French Resistance French Cameroon Emperor of the French French art French Union French nationality law French Armed Forces F…
rench Left French people in India African French Belgian French French wine French Mexicans French First Republic French architecture Canadian French French Argentines French India French Uruguayans William French Missouri French Sino-French War French Congo French phonology List of French possessions and colonies Anti-French sentiment List of French artists History of French French nationalism French opera Laotian French List of French monarchs French Army History of the French in Baltimore Free France French protectorate in Morocco French protectorate of Cambodia French Chad David French French and Indian War French Somaliland French ensigns Shanghai French Concession Ray French French colonization of the Americas Lists of French films Culture of France French protectorate of Tunisia Politics of French Guiana Middle French List of French Americans French labour law French-Canadian Americans French-based creole languages Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution French Directory French language in the United States French Community Holiday 2004 French–Ivorian clashes French Equatorial Africa French fries James French French Parliament French language in Morocco F
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