ABSTRACT
Many people assume that there is one universal sign language, and they are quite surprised to learn that different Deaf communities have distinct sign languages, distinguished from one another by their vocabularies, their linguistic building blocks (such as their handshapes) and their grammatical constructions. As a matter of fact, the assumption that sign language is universal was once quite common among researchers and professionals who worked with the Deaf as well as among Deaf people themselves. Battison and Jordan (1976) cite a number of people who have referred to sign language as a universal language. The following quote from Berthier, a nineteenth-century Deaf writer, is a typical example:
For centuries scholars from every country have sought after a universal language and failed. Well, it exists all around, it is sign language (ibid., Battison and Jordan 1976, p. 54).
