Fri, 08 May 2009 5:31p.m.
The camera pans across the Town Hall auditorium and the audience raise their hands and wave them above their heads.
This is a Deaf clap – a strange experience for a hearing person who is accustomed to loud noises being associated with celebration or achievement.
The audience of about two hundred are celebrating the opening of the third annual New Zealand Sign Language Week.
Three years ago New Zealand Sign Language was made an official language of New Zealand alongside Maori and English – with 29,000 people using the language every day it is our 12th most commonly spoken language.
Patron of the Auckland Deaf Society Susan Hamilton said New Zealand Sign Language has “moved along like a caterpillar” or rather she signs this – her finger creeping up her arm mimicking the creature.
“When you see that progression over the years you can see our language is no longer a caterpillar but has grown into a butterfly.”
Suddenly the butterfly imagery employed in this year’s marketing makes sense.
Chief Executive of the Deaf Association of New Zealand Rachel Noble was enthusiastic that New Zealand Sign Language had made such progress over the years.
“I hope that in the future that everyone can sign so that everyone can mix and mingle together,” she said to a mixture of applause and waving hands.
Next to me a 3-year-old girl signs to her parents; her hand movements are very precise – more so than the average toddler.
I find myself wondering at the complexity of sign language; until researching this story I thought that sign language was a simple cross-translation of English. I couldn’t have been more wrong; sign language is an innate language – “a beautiful language within itself” as interpreter Shona McGee, winner of the Long Standing Service Award, said.
Steven Pinker, cognitive psychologist and author of one of the seminal works on language development, The Language Instinct, uses case-studies of Deaf children to help prove his theory that language is an innate instinct rather than something entirely learnt.
To understand Pinker’s theories you need to grasp two concepts – firstly that a “pidgin” language evolves when groups of people with different languages are forced to live together and communicate.
Consequently, there are numerous English “pidgins” throughout the world, which are a hangover from colonialism.
“Pidgins” are usually quite basic languages, but do conform to the underlying rules of language grammar.
A “creole” is the next step in the development of a “pidgin”. It is usually spoken by the children of “pidgin” speakers, who seem to spontaneously create a more sophisticated language as their own speech develops.
Studies in Nicaragua, which had no official sign language at the time, showed that when Deaf people eventually formed communities they would at first speak in sign “pidgins” (pantomime gestures with little grammar) but their children would form more complex “creole” sign languages.
The children’s sign language was more complex in its grammar and was able to convey abstract thought as well as direct thought.
With the “creole” sign language one child would be able to describe a surreal cartoon to another child who had not seen it in its entirety – something the “pidgin” sign language could not do.
The point is that these languages seemed to spring spontaneously from these children – they had not learned these more complex signs from their parents, who were still using “pidgin” sign language.
An instinct for the structure of language had seemed to take over as the children developed – and sign language has developed this way as a language in its own right, with a distinctive grammar and structure that does not simply mimic spoken language, as many might think.
Deaf comedian John Maucere, who signs his entire show, teaches me something about the visual nature of the Deaf community. A person who has put on a lot of weight may be treated with kid gloves by those in the hearing community, but in the Deaf community this obvious visual difference could be extravagantly commented upon.
I am told that my own sign, if given to me by a member of the Deaf community, may have something to do with the gap in my teeth – James ‘Gappy’ Murray. Someone with a hook nose may have a hooked finger near the nose as the sign that represents them.
But what does all this have to do with new media?
One of the unquestionable joys of new media is that it can give people with communication difficulties the ability to communicate.
Until now, Deaf people who wanted to make phone calls have had to rely on a system known as TTY (Telephone Typewriter). The Deaf person would type in what they wanted to say and an intermediary would relay this in speech to the hearing person at the other end of the line.
It was an invaluable service but a frustrating one for people whose natural method of communication is completely visual.
How could someone express their anger or enthusiasm effectively in this way? We all know how text messages can be taken ambiguously.
But now Deaf people may be able to communicate visually over the phone. New Zealand Sign Language Week marks the start of a five month trial of the Video Relay Service.
With this service Deaf people sign to an interpreter via a webcam, who then relays their message in speech to the hearing person. The hearing person talks back and the interpreter signs what they say back to the Deaf person.
The system allows Deaf people to access phone calls in their own language.
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia was on hand to receive the first New Zealand phone call made in this way.
She noted that: “The conversation is a lot more like speaking directly to someone” than communicating via TTY.
“[Video Relay Service] may be just the thing a Deaf person needs to enter the job market,” said Ms Turia.
I leave the opening of New Zealand Sign Language Week a more knowledgeable person and intrigued at a language that is rich in imagery, information and good humour that is distinct from my own.
As I exit the Town Hall, I am preceded by two Deaf people signing to each other. One of them waggles her hand in the motion of a glass near her mouth; her friend nods.
“Let’s go for a drink,” I surmise – see, I am already picking it up.
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