CHAPTER 7:

                         Is ASL a written language?

ASL is purely visual/ gestural language that has no written form. There are no news papers, magazines, books, etc. written in ASL. Generally, we use English (glosses) to write about ASL.

A number of ASL translation compter programs have been developed and much experimental work has been done in this field.

Important names:

Sam SuPalla created a modified ASL- writing system and uses it to successfully help young deaf children learn English.
Dr. William C. Stokoe published the first ASL dictionaty in 1965 for which he devised a set of useful linguistic symbols that showed the five parameters of each sign.
Cokely and Bakers in 1980 developed an ASL textbook to utillize a code of symbols and abbreviations to emphasive the English wors used to translate the meaning of the ASL sentences.

* ASL owes nothing to English

" ASL is never written. It can be coded, glossed, or translated into English"