Adamorobe Sign Language
Encyclopedia
Adamorobe Sign Language is an indigenous sign language
used in Adamorobe, an Akan village in eastern Ghana
. It is used by about 30 deaf and 1370 hearing people.”. Ethnologue
reports a total of 3,400 signers, including hearing users, but a recent census mentions a total of 1400 inhabitants.
The Adamorobe community is notable for its unusually high incidence of hereditary deafness (genetic recessive autosome), estimated at 2% of the total population, or 15% according to Ethnologue. In the past, this percentage is thought to have been as high as 60%. Deaf people are fully incorporated into the community.
Under these circumstances, AdaSL has developed an indigenous sign language, fully independent from the country's standard Ghanaian Sign Language (which is related to American Sign Language
). AdaSL shares signs and prosodic features
with some other sign languages in the region, such as Bura Sign Language
, but it has been suggested these similarities are due to culturally shared
gestures rather than a genetic relationship. AdaSL has features that set it apart from the sign languages of large Deaf communities studied so far, including the absence of classifier constructions for the expression of motion and location. Instead, AdaSL uses several types of serial verb constructions also found in the surrounding spoken language, Akan. Frishberg suggests that AdaSL may be related to the "gestural trade jargon used in the markets throughout West Africa". Thus AdaSL provides an interesting domain for research on cross-linguistic sign languages.
For over a decade, the deaf children of the village have attended a boarding school in Mampong-Akuapem, where the ASL based Ghanaian Sign Language is used. As a consequence, this language has become the first language of these children and their command of AdaSL is decreasing. This is likely to lead to a complete shift of the deaf community in Adamorobe to Ghanaian Sign Language. As such, AdaSL is an endangered sign language.
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
used in Adamorobe, an Akan village in eastern Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
. It is used by about 30 deaf and 1370 hearing people.”. Ethnologue
Ethnologue
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
reports a total of 3,400 signers, including hearing users, but a recent census mentions a total of 1400 inhabitants.
The Adamorobe community is notable for its unusually high incidence of hereditary deafness (genetic recessive autosome), estimated at 2% of the total population, or 15% according to Ethnologue. In the past, this percentage is thought to have been as high as 60%. Deaf people are fully incorporated into the community.
Under these circumstances, AdaSL has developed an indigenous sign language, fully independent from the country's standard Ghanaian Sign Language (which is related to American Sign Language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
). AdaSL shares signs and prosodic features
Prosody (linguistics)
In linguistics, prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of the speaker; the form of the utterance ; the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus; or other elements of...
with some other sign languages in the region, such as Bura Sign Language
Bura Sign Language
Bura Sign Language is an indigenous sign language used by the Bura people around the village of Kukurpu in Nigeria, an area with a high degree of congenital deafness. None of the signers have been to school, and there appears to be no influence of Western sign....
, but it has been suggested these similarities are due to culturally shared
Sprachbund
A Sprachbund – also known as a linguistic area, convergence area, diffusion area or language crossroads – is a group of languages that have become similar in some way because of geographical proximity and language contact. They may be genetically unrelated, or only distantly related...
gestures rather than a genetic relationship. AdaSL has features that set it apart from the sign languages of large Deaf communities studied so far, including the absence of classifier constructions for the expression of motion and location. Instead, AdaSL uses several types of serial verb constructions also found in the surrounding spoken language, Akan. Frishberg suggests that AdaSL may be related to the "gestural trade jargon used in the markets throughout West Africa". Thus AdaSL provides an interesting domain for research on cross-linguistic sign languages.
For over a decade, the deaf children of the village have attended a boarding school in Mampong-Akuapem, where the ASL based Ghanaian Sign Language is used. As a consequence, this language has become the first language of these children and their command of AdaSL is decreasing. This is likely to lead to a complete shift of the deaf community in Adamorobe to Ghanaian Sign Language. As such, AdaSL is an endangered sign language.
Further reading
- Nyst, Victoria (2007) 'A descriptive analysis of Adamorobe Sign Language' Utrecht: LOT, PhD thesis University of Amsterdam
External links
- Adamorobe – annotated picture gallery, several pages by Elena Rue.
- Adamarobe Sign Language on Ethnologue.com.
- Summary of linguistic thesis Adamorobe Sign Language (AdaSL) on Youtube, by Victoria Nyst