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Glossary

If you would like to add some terminology or abbreviations (both English and foreign versions), feel free to email me.

Ameslan = American Sign Language

It is an acronym for American Sign Language.

"The notion that one is superior based on one's ability to hear or behave in the manner of one who hears." -- coined by Tom Humphries, 1975.

Interpreting faciliates communication between two parties in different languages (and cultures).

It is equivalent to Esperanto. Although it is the old term, the contemporary term is International Sign (or International Sign Language, which is presently in controversy).

Linguicism is defined by Wikipedia as "a form of prejudice, an "-ism" along the lines of racism, ageism or sexism. Broadly defined, it involves an individual making judgments about one's wealth, education, social status, character, and/or other traits based on choice and use of language."

Also fingerspelling. Manual alphabet is a set of manual-visual handshapes corresponding to alphabetical letters.

A pidgin language is a mix of two languages (eg. ASL and English) in signs.

Sign language is a visual-manual language, that is independent from auditory-vocal language. It has its own phonology, morphology, grammatical structure, syntax, and such. Sign language is not universal.

Also signoclast; both coined by Jolanta Lapiak, 2006. This term is loosely defined as destruction of sign language and prohibition against using sign language. This oppression is tied with phonocentrism. It is similar to iconoclasm and iconoclast.

Transliteration is a direct translation between two languages (eg. spoken English and English-based sign language).

Visual language is a generic term for visual-related languages such as sign language, written language.