Two Sign Languages in a Single Village in India

In this paper I explore two sign languages independently employed by two isolated deaf signers in a single village in northern India. Following a suggestion by Washabaugh (1979) that languages can be placed along a continuum of “structuredness,” from “positive” to “negative,” I have compared these two languages. Languages more positively structured are relatively independent of context, complex in syntax, and have a lexicon of discrete, arbitrary, conventionalized signs. Languages more negatively structured are context-dependent, multi-channeled, and their signs have non-discrete, iconic, and ambiguous components. I have argued (Jepson, in press) that positive structuring in a language is related to the existence of a community of speakers who rely on the language as a major mode of communication. While both of the sign languages discussed here are negatively structured, one exhibits the rudiments of positive structuring, and the other does not. The existence of some degree of positive structuring in one of the languages may result from the fact that the signer’s life is strongly embedded in a set of close relationships with family and lifelong friends, who form a tiny speech community, employing his form of sign language as a relatively important mode of communication. The lack of positive structuring in the other form of sign may result from that signer’s marginal position in the village and his lack of family and close friends who can serve as a small speech community.