exploring the ancestral roots of american sign language

273 Pages·2017·4.33 MB·English

by  Keith Martin Cagle

University of New Mexico
UNM Digital Repository
Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs Education ETDs
6-25-2010
EXPLORING THE ANCESTRAL ROOTS OF
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE: LEXICAL
BORROWING FROM CISTERCIAN SIGN
LANGUAGE AND FRENCH SIGN
LANGUAGE
Keith Martin Cagle
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Cagle, Keith Martin. "EXPLORING THE ANCESTRAL ROOTS OF AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE: LEXICAL BORROWING
FROM CISTERCIAN SIGN LANGUAGE AND FRENCH SIGN LANGUAGE." (2010).https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/
educ_llss_etds/7
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EXPLORING THE ANCESTRAL ROOTS OF
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE: LEXICAL BORROWING FROM
CISTERCIAN SIGN LANGUAGE AND
FRENCH SIGN LANGUAGE

BY

KEITH MARTIN CAGLE

B.A., Social Work, Rochester Institute of Technology, 1982
M.A., Educational Administration, California State University
at Northridge, 1991

DISSERTATION

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy
Educational Linguistics

The University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico

May 2010
©2010, Keith Martin Cagle

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I owe my deepest gratitude to my grandmother Olive E. Brown, my mother LaVerne J.
Cagle, and my brother Robert L. Cagle, Jr. for their constant encouragement throughout
my education and in my efforts to attain a doctorate degree. With a loving heart, this
document is dedicated to them.

It is with pleasure that I thank the Supalla Family: Clarence Supalla, Dr. Ted Supalla and
Dr. Samuel Supalla of Oregon for planting in me the seeds of interest in American Sign
Language (ASL), and in activism, which have grown since my childhood.

I am grateful for Dr. Susan Fischer and Dr. Tane Akamatsu for encouraging my interest
in ASL linguistics during my years at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf
(NTID) in Rochester, New York. I would like to thank Dr. Frank Caccamise at NTID for
teaching me about technical signs; the collection, surveying and tallying of data; and the
development of video and book materials that have subsequently been valuable to my
M.A. and Ph.D. studies. I am also thankful to Dr. William Newell, my supervisor at
NTID‘s Sign Communication Department, for his advice and wisdom, and for inspiring
me to work in the field of American Sign Language. He ignited in me a strong interest in
ASL curriculum development, evaluation and assessment, and the professionalization of
our language of ASL.

I want to express my gratitude to the late Sharon Carter at the California State University
of Northridge for her steady support and leadership as she advised me during my work to
obtain my Master‘s degree in Educational Administration. I also am grateful for Dr.
Barbara Boyd, an outstanding professor at the California State University of Northridge,
for guiding me in educational research.

I wish to acknowledge both Emily Haynes, a student at the University of New Mexico,
and Jason Zinza, author of Master ASL! Level One, who assisted me with French-English
translations through their knowledge of and proficiency in French. In addition, Olivier
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Robin of Paris, France, was instrumental in coordinating both the Gardner-Webb (2001)
and the University of New Mexico (2003) field trips abroad that ultimately yielded
substantial data for my research. From Robin, and his deaf French faculty members, I
learned so much about cross-linguistic and cross-cultural analysis.

I wish to acknowledge Natusko Shimatoni, a certified Japanese Sign Language (JSL)
interpreter, and Kazumi Maegawa, a deaf Japanese Sign Language teacher, both of Japan,
for their assistance with the comparison of ASL lexical signs with JSL lexical signs.

Furthermore, I extend my heartfelt thanks to Pamela King, an RID certified interpreter of
Wilson, North Carolina, for her assistance in editing my Ph.D. dissertation. She was
instrumental in assisting with English in the writing of this dissertation.

This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of Dr. Melissa Alexrod
and Dr. Caroline Smith at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and my close
friends Adrian Archuleta, Dr. Brenda Nicodemus, Dr. Karen Naughton, Bonnie Ruby,
James McFarlane and Robert Moore for their encouragement and support.

It is imperative that I recognize my Ph.D. Dissertation Committee Dr. Phyllis Perrin
Wilcox (Dissertation Director), Dr. Sherman Wilcox and Dr. Barbara Shaffer of the
University of the New Mexico in Albuquerque, and Dr. Mary High of Gardner-Webb
University in North Carolina, for their encouragement and support which has enabled me
to achieve my goal of completing this dissertation. They also assisted in the editing of
this document.

In addition, I wish to acknowledge many Deaf and hearing teachers, professionals,
colleagues, peers and friends at the Washington School for the Deaf, Oregon School for
the Deaf, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of
Technology, the University of Rochester, California State University of Northridge,
Western Maryland College, Gallaudet University, Gardner-Webb University in North
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Carolina, Central Piedmont Community College in North Carolina and the University of
Northern Colorado; and in the states of Washington, Oregon, New York, California, New
Mexico, Colorado, and North Carolina; and through many organizations and agencies
including the national American Sign Language Teachers Association (ASLTA), the
Lilac Chapter of ASLTA in Rochester, New York, the North Carolina ASLTA, the North
Carolina State Department of Public Instruction (DPI), New York State Department of
Education, and the North Carolina Division of Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing. I
wish to thank all for their contributions and influence in leading me to become the person
I am today.

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EXPLORING THE ANCESTRAL ROOTS OF
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE: LEXICAL BORROWING
FROM CISTERCIAN SIGN LANGUAGE AND
FRENCH SIGN LANGUAGE

BY

KEITH MARTIN CAGLE

ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy
Educational Linguistics

The University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico

May, 2010
EXPLORING THE ANCESTRAL ROOTS OF
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE: LEXICAL BORROWING FROM CISTERCIAN
SIGN LANGUAGE AND FRENCH SIGN LANGUAGE

by

KEITH MARTIN CAGLE

B.A., Social Work, Rochester Institute of Technology, 1982
M.A., Educational Administration, California State University at Northridge, 1991
Ph.D., Educational Linguistics, The University of New Mexico, 2010

ABSTRACT

American Sign Language (ASL) is the natural and preferred language of the Deaf
community in both the United States and Canada. Woodward (1978) estimated that
approximately 60% of the ASL lexicon is derived from early 19th century French Sign
Language, which is known as langue des signes française (LSF). The lexicon of LSF and
ASL may be derived from several sources such as gestures, home signs created by deaf
individuals living with their hearing families, North American Indian sign languages, Martha
Vineyard sign language, and new signs added to LSF and ASL through the generations.
Before the emergence of LSF in the 18th century and ASL in the 19th century, Cistercian Sign
Language (CSL) had been used extensively by monks for centuries in Europe. This
dissertation explores the plausible roots of ASL prior to LSF. These ancestral roots were
researched: (A) to determine, from a limited corpus of CSL, if similar phonologically and
semantically related lexical items are found in LSF and ASL; (B) to determine if any of the
CSL, LSF and ASL phonologically and semantically related lexical items are related simply
because they are iconic forms; and (C) to determine if any of the CSL, LSF and ASL
phonologically and semantically related lexical items are initialized.
Analysis of the data revealed that there are numerous identical and similar signs
between CSL and Early LSF, and among CSL, LSF, and ASL, indicating that lexical
borrowing from CSL was a factor in the development of LSF and ASL. There is a strong
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likelihood that iconicity accounts for many of the identical and similar lexical signs that are
shared among these three signed languages. There is limited evidence of the employment of
initialization in the lexical borrowing that took place from CSL to LSF, and then to ASL.
This analysis of lexical borrowing provides new information about the historical roots
of LSF and ASL and their origins in CSL. Information about the development of ASL, and
how CSL and LSF have had an impact on the present-day ASL lexicon, is a significant
aspect of ASL literature and is important to include in Deaf Studies and ASL teaching
curricula.

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