Question

Explain the importance of Nicaraguan sign language to understanding the creative and generative process of language development. How is NSL similar to or different from pidgins? How is it similar to or different from creoles? What are fluent speakers of NSL able to do that deaf children or adults who do not have a formalized system of spoken or signed language are not able to do? How is NSL different from a simple gesture system?

Answer 1

The Nicarguan Sign Language (NSL) System a sign language that was spontaneously developed by deaf children in a number of schools in western Nicaragua in the 1970s and 1980s. It is particularly interesting to the study of linguistics as it shows the birth of a new language. The NSL was first discovered in the school going population of deaf children by Judy Kiegl who was hired to make recommendations about the learning difficulty noticed in the deaf children’s acquisition of the mainstream Spanish language. Kiegl found that instead of picking up the instructed Spanish language from their pedagogical structure, the deaf students had formulated their own medium of informal communication as a result of their interaction with each other in informal settings such as during recess, in the playground, school bus,etc.

in the beginning, these children had no shared language, only home sign which are a Gestural communication systems that deaf children typically invent to communicate in case of no exposure to a formal sign language.

A study of the structures of NSL revealed that those children who learned the language at an early age between 7 to 10 years of age, the language signs developed to a greater complexity as compared to the Older learners (11 years and above) who were unable to learn the complexities of the evolved form.

Thus, what the NSL demonstrates is that language can develop in unique circumstances without the active involvement of adults as it was the deaf children who are able to continue creating the language. Moreover, the Nicarguan sign language shows a unique and creative use of the principles and codes of acquired languages such as Creole and Pidgin. The students used a combination of gestures and elements of their home-sign systems leading to development of a pidgin-like form and a creole-like language. Thus, they were found to have created their own language.  once ISN came into being, like other languages, it actively engaged in contact with languages in its environment. The Nicarguan sign language is similar to Pidgins in that they both get developed  when speakers of two different languages encounter one another and have a need for limited communications. Both the ISN and pidgin incorporate words from both source languages that are combined with a simplified grammatical structure, in order to allow some rudimentary communication.

The ISN is substantially similar to Creole as well. Creole is a fully-functional language of its own which includes its own grammar and elements of its parent languages. like the Nicarguan Sign language, acquisition of Creole too shows that no scholars are needed to create its grammar; the young communicators seem to have an innate built-in capacity to invent grammatical. The ISN could be said to develop into a Creole if it Is passed on to the subsequent generation as a mode of communication.