"Accent" in Sign Language?
- Xis Sign
- Oct 9, 2021
- 1 min read
In vocal languages, "accent" means the differences between someone's voice tone or pronunciation.
We are able to recognize a person's hometown or their community by LISTENING to their accents.
Similar to vocal languages, sign languages also have accents!
...but IS THERE AN INTERNATIONAL SIGN LANGUAGE?
A common misunderstanding is that the Deaf community has an International Sign Language, meaning Deaf people from all across the world could easily communicate with each other using solely ONE LANGUAGE.
However, this isn't the case. There is no International Sign Language.
Each country or region has its own Sign Language, which is created and developed based on that country's culture, geography, lifestyles.
In fact, sign language in a country could have various of regional accents, bringing subtle variations to people's use and understanding of signs.
For example, a Deaf person in Hanoi would sign differently with a Deaf person in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).
This difference in sign language is very similar to vocal languages (there're words that have the same meaning but they're written/ pronounced differently)
Examples:
Hanoi | HCMC | Meaning |
này | nè | Hey |
bố | ba | Father |
bát | chén | Bowl |
The same mechanism could apply to sign language!
These three major sign languages in Vietnam only share 50% of the core vocabulary in common.
We are able to recognize a Deaf person's hometown or their community by LOOKING how and what Sign Language they are using.
A foreigner coming to Vietnam to learn VSL would sign differently than Vietnamese Deaf people.
Watch this video for more references!
References:
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