Hand Talk: The Native American Sign Language that Predated ASL

 

Native American Sign Language, or Hand Talk, was created centuries just before American Sign Language came to exist. It features four essential parameters: hand location, hand movement, hand shape, and hand orientation:

1. Hand Location: The pertains to proper placement of a sign in space. The sign’s significance can be modified if positioned elsewhere, for instance in front of one’s face as opposed to in front of the chest.

2. Hand Movement: This one relates to how one's hands move when forming a sign. For instance, in Hand Talk, the signs “afternoon” and “mid-day” are created in a similar manner. The only difference is the fact mid-day is stationary, and afternoon shifts from over the head to the side of one's head in an arching motion.

3. Handshape: Each sign forms a unique shape in the hand, also known as a handshape. The handshapes of signs are necessary factors. For example, the signs for “yes” and “I know” are similar in all aspects apart from the handshape; in “yes” the hand forms the characteristic J shape, while in “I-know” the hand makes the L shape.

4. Orientation: This refers to palm position and is apparent within the Hand Talk words “above” and “add.” Both of those signs require using the left-hand to form a base, from which the right-hand rises, and both have similar handshapes, movements, and locations. Nevertheless, when signing “above,” the non-dominant hand is positioned palm down, while in “add” the non-dominant hand is palm up.

Hand Talk’s Influence on American Sign Language

No one individual can take credit for creating American Sign Language. It's heritage goes back to early 19th century, when varieties of signs formulated in New England’s Deaf local communities. And during the latter part of that century, Hand Talk influenced the development of ASL, but historians largely disregard this fact.

Hand Talk comes with regional variations which exist all over North America. Some examples are a northeastern variant that ranges across the current-day New England, upper Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic states. Researchers believe this variant of Hand Talk considerably influenced the creation of American Sign Language. This influence came to exist in the 19th century through the signing of Native American children that went to the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. An online video titled “The Hidden History of “Hand Talk” shows powerful evidence for Hand Talk’s impact on ASL and US culture.

However, despite its once-huge number of users and powerful influence on American Sign Language, Hand Talk is in decline. This effect is caused by the widespread depopulation and Americanization of Indigenous North Americans during the last Two hundred years. For instance, in 1885, around 110,000 Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Sioux, Kiowa, Arapaho, along with other tribal peoples used Native American Sign Language or Hand Talk. Although by the 1960s, merely a portion of this number remained. And in the Twenty-first century, a small amount of active Hand Talk users remained. 

Much like the other indigenous languages of North America, Native American Sign Language is endangered. But while the amount of proficient signers may be minimal, the language is still being used to varying degrees by a few individuals of Siouan and Algonquian tribes. 

In addition, activists like Deaf Cherokee researcher Dr. Melanie McKay-Cody of Arizona are working considerately to keep North American Hand Talk in existence. Dr. McKay-Cody works with tribal groups to assist them to safeguard their signed languages. She also advocates for Hand Talk to be utilized in the mainstream education of Deaf and Hard of hearing students. It’s hoped that this kind of initiatives will help Hand Talk to survive. In this manner, forthcoming generations can easily still utilize and relish the language and understand the rich ethnic tradition from where it originated.