Many Ways to Be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities

2. British Manual Alphabets in the Education of Deaf People Since the 17th Century

2 British Manual Alphabets in the Education of Deaf People Since the 17th Century Rachel Sutton-Spence The British manual alphabet is a set of 26 hand arrangements that allow the manual representation of English orthography through fingerspelling. This ancient system has changed considerably in form and function throughout history. Originally , hearing people used it, but later, it became a tool to teach spoken and written English to deaf people. This use as a teaching tool led to its becoming a medium of language for deaf people and, ultimately, a part of the natural sign language of the British Deaf community.1 It has been used by educators as a pedagogical tool for the teaching of English to deaf people for more than 400 years. The changes in the manual alphabet and its role in British education are considered here, together with relevant events in Europe and America that have influenced its use in British schools. FINGERSPELLING IN THE BRITISH DEAF COMMUNITY TODAY Today, approximately 8.7 million people in Britain have a noticeable hearing loss (Royal National Institute for Deaf People 2001). Most of these people have lived their lives as hearing people, receiving a standard education and acquiring their hearing loss only in later years. However, approximately 1 in every 1,000 people has grown up profoundly, prevocationally deaf and has received special education . Many of these deaf people are part of Britain’s Deaf community, with its own culture and language, British Sign Language (BSL). BSL is a visual gestural language, completely independent of the English language (Brennan 1992; Sutton-Spence and Woll 1999). The grammar and vocabulary of BSL bear no relation to English. “Signed English,” in which the signs of BSL follow English grammar with additional markers to represent English morphology (McCracken and Sutherland 1992), is not the natural language of the 25 26 Rachel Sutton-Spence Deaf community but has been a tool of educators of the deaf to teach English to deaf children. Although BSL is independent of English and is not a creation of hearing people, the manual alphabet today is used by signers to reproduce English words as part of BSL. Manual alphabets are used in many countries in communication among members of the Deaf community and between deaf and hearing people (Carmel 1981). The two-handed British manual alphabet consists of 26 basic hand arrangements that correspond to the 26 letters of the English alphabet. Each hand arrangement is a manual letter. Another manual alphabet also is used by some members of the British Deaf community, the one-handed Irish manual alphabet, used by some Roman Catholic signers, especially in Glasgow, London, and northwest England. That manual alphabet will not be considered further here. Fingerspelling is produced when the manual alphabet is used to reproduce the spelling of English words. The British manual alphabet is shown in figure 2.1. All British signers are bilingual to some extent. A signer may use English through any combination of speech and lipreading, reading and writing, or the production and reception of fingerspelling. Throughout history, many deaf people have learned English through formal education, especially in schools (see Evans 1978). Fingerspelling has played an important but varying role in the education of Britain’s Deaf community. The use of the manual alphabet in deaf education also has influenced BSL because fingerspelled words have become a part of FIGURE 2.1. The modern British manual alphabet 27 BRITISH MANUAL ALPHABETS IN THE EDUCATION OF DEAF PEOPLE BSL vocabulary in addition to being used for representing English (Sutton-Spence 1994). Today, fingerspelling is used in BSL for a wide variety of reasons and frequently is altered to better fit the phonological and morphological requirements of BSL. Fingerspelling occurs in BSL to represent English proper nouns (the English names of people and place names) and words for concepts that are new to the Deaf community and that have no widespread BSL sign synonym. Fingerspelling is also used for many core vocabulary items, including the signs for many family members as well as units of measurement and time. It is possible for the full English word to be fingerspelled, but more established loans become altered and are frequently abbreviated to the initial letter or a selection of two or three letters (maximally, four). Sometimes, the initial letter will be altered in some way so it receives some additional meaning. For example, the sign...