ABSTRACT
Linguists, that is people engaged in the study of Language, have traditionally been confused with polyglots, who study languages. Sign language linguists are engaged in the study of Language which is produced and perceived in the manual-visual modality. While the distinction between a manual-visual language and gestures — non-verbal, non-vocal cues accompanying speech — might be recognized and acknowledged, the impression persists that sign language is "the same everywhere," a universally understood and uniformly articulated code. Characteristics of the various sign languages can be found that are shared despite the differences in origin or evolution. In some cases, the shared meaning can be attribed to borrowing but, in other cases, the shared meaning is evoked by a cultural image which is not revealed in the spoken language through overt morphology.
