The Language of the Deaf - ASL

Hello again to everyone, I am complete with a persuasive paper that I have worked on for one of my classes. The topic was ASL, of course, and I acknowledged that ASL is indeed a language. ASL is one of the many beautiful languages out there. In my persusasive piece I labled ASL as a language in it's own right. For many centuries when ASL was evolved from the basis of French Sign Language by Laurent Clerc and Thomas Gallaudet who formed one of the first Deaf Schools in America. After the evolution from FSL to ASL as we know it today, alot of people didn't comprehend that ASL was a language -- they thought it was just gestures that Deaf people used to communicate with one another. Since William Stokoe, from Gallaudet who is a Linguists and he came up with ways to document the grammar, syntax and certain characteristics that indeed recognizes ASL as a language.



So in this case, I wrote my paper on persuading the readers of my paper to accept that ASL is indeed a language. With cultural perspectives of a community of Deaf people who go to the same schools, share the same stories, and share a common trend in the language they convey a respect among each other. This respect is knowing ASL as a language. In short, ASL lets Deaf people come together (and hearing people who know the language as well). With ASL being the thread that holds all Deaf people together, wether they know each other from schools, communities, and other places. The idea that ASL makes the human race that are Deaf (or Hearing) can be one of the most beautiful thing about the Deaf-World. ASL transcends over time to pass on knowledge, cultural beliefs and ideas to one another. It's a generational idea of passing on things from the past to the present and onward to the future. With ASL being labeled as a language, this gives the power of Deaf Culture a continuous message that Deaf people can continue to be able to connect to one another through their language.



Recall ASL is a visual language and to be able to see and understand the language of the Deaf, is to be able to understand the culture of the Deaf-World. Now that is why ASL is a language and it will always be one of the many forms of communication that connects us all as a human race that can not only hear, but understand the whole world around them. If one doesn't understand what ASL is, then they do not really understand that there is a world known as the Deaf-World. That's the only thing an outsider will be able to understand that it's not a physical world that exist, but a world that is visible by the language of the Deaf -- ASL.