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Article published In:
Special Issue in Memory of Irit Meir
Edited by Diane Lillo-Martin, Wendy Sandler, Marie Coppola and Rose Stamp
[Sign Language & Linguistics 23:1/2] 2020
► pp. 233–257

Visual foreign accent in an emerging sign language

| University of Haifa
| University of Haifa
| University of Haifa

In the study of sign language phonology, little attention has been paid to the phonetic detail that distinguishes one sign language from another. We approach this issue by studying the foreign accent of signers of a young sign language – Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) – which is in contact with another sign language in the region, Israeli Sign Language (ISL). By comparing ISL signs and sentences produced by ABSL signers with those of ISL signers, we uncover language particular features at a level of detail typically overlooked in sign language research. For example, within signs we find reduced occlusion (lack of contact), and across phrases there is frequent long distance spreading of the nondominant hand. This novel study of an emerging language in a language contact environment provides a model for comparative sign language phonology, and suggests that a community’s signature accent is part of the evolution of a phonological system.

Keywords: foreign accent, sign language, sociophonetics, phonology and phonetics, language emergence, language contact
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Relevant phonological generalizations
    • 2.1The syllable
    • 2.2Constraints and phonological processes
  • 3.Language context and the birth of Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language
  • 4.Accent in speech and sign
    • 4.1Phonological and phonetic basics of foreign accent
    • 4.2Accent in sign languages
  • 5.The ABSL signature accent
    • 5.1Contact with ISL
    • 5.2The ABSL accent data
    • 5.3The ABSL foreign accent within signs
    • 5.4The ABSL foreign accent in connected signing
  • 6.Summary and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.00050.san
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