ABSTRACT
I have a long-standing interest in the history of sign languages and the historical relations
of sign languages. Part of this interest stems from my own training in sociolinguistic
variation and change, and part stems from contact with Ursula Bellugi and other
researchers working with her. Specifically, Ursula Bellugi’s early comparative sign
language research work (see Klima & Bellugi, 1979), as well as Nancy Frishberg’s (1975,
1976) seminal work on historical change in American Sign Language (ASL), played
extremely important roles in some of my early efforts to apply general historical-
comparative linguistic techniques to sign language research. One such work, “Historical
Bases of American Sign Language” (Woodward, 1978), focused on the historical
relations of French Sign Language and ASL. Since that time, I have applied historical-
comparative linguistic techniques to a number of other sets of sign language varieties:
sign language varieties in India (Vasishta, Woodward, & Wilson, 1978); in Costa Rica
(Woodward, 1991, 1992); in India, Pakistan, and Nepal (Woodward, 1993b); in Hong
Kong and Shanghai (Woodward, 1993a); in Thailand (Woodward, 1996, 1997a); and in
Viet Nam (Woodward, 1997b).
