History of sign language

The recorded history of sign language in Western society extends from the 16th century, as a visual language or method of communication. Sign language is a system of conventional gestures, mimic, hand signs and finger spelling, the use of hand positions to represent the letters of the alphabet. Signs usually represent complete ideas, not only words. Sign language is mainly used by deaf and mute people in order to communicate.

Development of Sign Language
Standardized sign languages have been used in Italy since the 17th century and in France since the 18th century for the instruction of the deaf. Old French Sign Language was developed and used in Paris by the l’Abbé Charles Michel de l’Epée in his school for the deaf. These languages were always modeled after the natural sign languages already in use by the deaf cultures in their area of origin, often with additions to show aspects of the grammar of the local spoken languages.

In 1755, Abbé de l'Épée founded the first public school for deaf children in Paris. His lessons were based upon his observations of deaf people signing with hands in the streets of Paris. Synthesized with French grammar, it evolved into the French Sign Language. Laurent Clerc, a graduate and former teacher of the French School, went to the United States with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to found an American School for the deaf.

The 18th permanent school for the deaf was established in Hartford, Connecticut; others followed. In 1817, Clerc and Gallaudet founded the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb (now the American School for the Deaf). In 1864, a college for deaf people was founded in Washington D.C. Its charter was signed by Abraham Lincoln and was named “Gallaudet College”.