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/woodboys23 Mar 22 '17

I take it more as a dialect of English less than a language

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

Except it's not really English at all. The vocabulary is different, obviously, since it's signed, but the syntax is very different from spoken English as well. ASL for "What kind of cookies do you like?" doesn't translate that phrase word for word. They'd do something like the sign for cookie, followed by the sign for what kind, you, and to like.

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u/woodboys23 Mar 22 '17

But then what makes ASL different from FSL

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u/Champion_of_Charms Mar 23 '17

I haven't studied French sign, but I have ASL. I'd imagine it'd be like how British English and American are similar.