Village of the Deaf: in a Bedouin Town, a Language Is Born

1210 Words5 Pages
Applied Anthropology Unit Title of Article: Village of the Deaf: In a Bedouin Town, a Language is born Author: Margalit Fox Main Thesis: An indigenous signed language has sprung up, evolving among the deaf villagers as a means of communication. Supporting Data: This language sprung up because one in four people in this village are deaf making up about four percent of the population as a result many hearing villagers also speak the sign language. The sign language uses word order a lot even though when signing you don’t have do to that. The language started seventy years ago with the first generation of ten. Now there are 150 deaf people in this community the second generation now in their thirties and forties. What does the text have to do with you personally (past, present or future)? When my sister was little and just learning how to talk she would make up her own words for things or say some words not quite right. So me and my family learned what she was saying and understood her most of the time but people who didn’t spend time with her couldn’t understand what she said a lot of the time and we would have to translate for her. I think how the brain works is very interesting and this research could show what happens to the brain when it has to make a language out of nothing. What did you learn, and how much were your views and opinions challenged or changed by this text, if at all? Did the text communicate with you? Why or why not? I learned that sign language wasn’t invented by someone who but just came about spontaneously in communities of deaf people. I thought it was interesting that a deaf person would have an easier time speaking with someone from France than with someone from Great Britain because you would think that since people from America and great Britain both speak English the deaf people who live in those communities would at least

More about Village of the Deaf: in a Bedouin Town, a Language Is Born

Open Document