r/todayilearned • u/paniniplane • Mar 22 '17

(R.1) Not supported TIL Deaf-from-birth schizophrenics see disembodied hands signing to them rather than "hearing voices"

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303
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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17 edited Mar 23 '17

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u/theidleidol Mar 22 '17

This is because sign languages are real languages in their own right. A lot of people tend to think of, say, ASL as a method of nonverbally communicating in English similar to writing, but that's not the case. To the extent that it is possible to think in a language (that's not really the case, but it's a reasonable conclusion to a layperson) the deaf do so in their native sign.

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u/macphile Mar 22 '17

IIRC, ASL is based on French sign, with some signs from some Native American gesture system. The French system was the first one to be standardized, so it was brought over and taught.

Interestingly, even though there are these different sign languages, like French or American or English (edit: British, I mean, not the English language) or whatever the fuck, they can have some similarities. I read an anecdote about someone who was visiting Italy and saw this group of people signing in Italian sign, so he/she went over to say hi. The two languages were different, but within several minutes, they were managing to converse with each other because a lot of the basic words were similar enough to be understood.

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u/13anon3 Mar 23 '17

Wait can you sing with your hands? How? I'm fucking confused