Sign Language Among North American Indians

Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared with that Among Other Peoples and Deaf-Mutes. 1881

Extracts from Dictionary – No to Nothing – Sign Language

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No, Not. (Compare Nothing.) The hand held up before the face, with the palm outward and vibrated to and fro. (Dunbar.) The right hand waved outward to the right with the thumb upward. (Long; Creel.) Wave the right hand quickly by and in front of the face toward the right. (Wied.) Refusing to accept the idea or statement presented. Move the hand from right to left, as if motioning away. This sign also means “I’ll have nothing to do with you.” (Burton.) A deprecatory wave of the right hand from front to right, fingers extended and joined. (Arapaho I; Cheyenne V.) Right-hand fingers extended together, … Read more

Etymology of Words from Gestures – Sign Language

There can be no attempt in the present limits to trace the etymology of any large number of words in the several Indian languages to a gestural origin, nor, if the space allowed, would it be satisfactory. The signs have scarcely yet been collected, verified, and collated in sufficient numbers for such comparison, even with the few of the Indian languages the radicals of which have been scientifically studied. The signs will, in a future work, be frequently presented in connection with the corresponding words of the gesturers, as is done now in a few instances in another part of … Read more

Distinction Between Identity of Signs and Their Use as an Art – Sign Language

The general report that there is but one sign language in North America, any deviation from which is either blunder, corruption, or a dialect in the nature of provincialism, may be examined in reference to some of the misconceived facts which gave it origin and credence. It may not appear to be necessary that such examination should be directed to any mode of collecting and comparing signs which would amount to their distortion. It is useful, however, to explain that distortion would result from following the views of a recent essayist, who takes the ground that the description of signs … Read more

Conversation between Tendoy and Huerito – Sign Language

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The following conversation took place at Washington in April, 1880, between Tendoy, chief of the Shoshoni and Banak Indians of Idaho, and Huerito, one of the Apache chiefs from New Mexico, in the presence of Dr. W.J. Hoffman. Neither of these Indians spoke any language known to the other, or had ever met or heard of one another before that occasion: Huerito.— – Who are you? Place the flat and extended right hand, palm forward, about twelve inches in front of and as high as the shoulder, then shake the hand from side to side as it is moved forward … Read more

Are Signs Conventional or Instinctive? – Sign Language

There has been much discussion on the question whether gesture signs were originally invented, in the strict sense of that term, or whether they result from a natural connection between them and the ideas represented by them, that is whether they are conventional or instinctive. Cardinal Wiseman (Essays, III, 537) thinks that they are of both characters; but referring particularly to the Italian signs and the proper mode of discovering their meaning, observes that they are used primarily with words and from the usual accompaniment of certain phrases. “For these the gestures become substitutes, and then by association express all … Read more