Limbă, Literatură, Folclor

Abstract: This paper aims to offer an insight into the history of American Sign Language and its development as a language, as well as to analyze the way in which hearing people perceive the Deaf Community and sign languages as means of communication. In today’s society the topic is considered taboo, or a sensitive subject nevertheless, because the deaf community is seen as a minority whose members suffer from a disability, implicitly excluding the possibility of them having developed cognitive abilities or a way of communicating that could be considered a language ‒ which is completely false. It is therefore important to normalize this topic and be informed about the culture of deaf people and their way of communicating, precisely to use the right terminology and to address the community in a non-discriminatory way.

Keywords: American Sign Language, deafness, Deaf Community, languages, minority, communication, gestures, linguistics, grammar