Many Australian Aboriginal cultures have or traditionally had a sign language counterpart to their spoken language. This appears to be connected with various taboos on speech between certain people within the community or at particular times such as during a mouning period - unlike indigenous sign languages elsewhere which are used as a lingua franca (such as the Plains Indians sign language), or due to a high incidence of heriditary deafness in the community (such as Yucatec Maya Sign Language, Adamorobe Sign Language and Kala Kotok). Australian Aborigines are the indigenous peoples of Australia. ... A sign language (also signed language) is a language which uses manual communication instead of sound to convey meaning - simultaneously combining handshapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speakers thoughts. ... A taboo is a strong social prohibition (or ban) relating to any area of human activity or social custom declared as sacred and forbidden; breaking of the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society. ... The word indigenous is derived from the latin word indigena, meaning nativ, indigenous, aboriginal, and has several, related meanings: The native people of a place; see the article indigenous people. ... Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ... The Plains Indians were a group of tribes who lived in a region of North America called The Great Plains. ... Yucatec Maya Sign Language is used in the Yucatán region in Mexico by both hearing and deaf members of a traditional Mayan community, where there there is an unusually high number of deaf inhabitants. ... Adamorobe Sign Language is an indigenous sign language used in Adamorobe, an Akan village in eastern Ghana. ...

Reports on the status of deaf members of such Aboriginal communities differ, with some writers lauding the inclusion on deaf people in mainstream cultural life, while others indicate that deaf people don't learn the sign language and, like other deaf people isolated in hearing cultures, develop a simple system of home sign to communicate with their immediate family. The word deaf, can have very different meanings based on the background of the person speaking or the context in which the word is used. ... Home sign (homesign or kitchen sign) is a term used to describe the gestural communication system developed by a deaf individual (together with those they grow up around) who hasnt learned either a spoken language or a signed language such as those used by deaf communities around the world. ...

Early research was done by the American linguist La Mont West, and later most prominently by English linguist Adam Kendon. Adam Kendon - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Sign languages occur in the southern, central, and western desert regions, coastal Arnhem Land, some islands of north coast, the western side of Cape York Peninsula, and on some Torres Strait Islands. Sign languages may have occurred all over Australia - they have been noted as far south as the south coast (Jaralde Sign Language), but these sign languages (as with many of the spoken languages of south eastern Australia), are probably now extinct. Arnhem Land is an area of 97,000 sq. ... Cape York Peninsula, far north Queensland, Australia. ... The Torres Strait Islands are a group of islands, numbering more than 100, which lie in Torres Strait, the waterway separating Cape York, Queensland, Australia from Papua New Guinea. ...

Linguistics of Aboriginal sign languages

List of Aboriginal sign languages

Note that most Aboringal langauages have multiple possible spellings, eg. Warlpiri is also known as Walpiri, Walbiri, Elpira, Ilpara, Wailbri

• Aranda Sign Language
• Dieri Sign Language
• Djingili Sign Language
• Jaralde Sign Language
• Kaititj: Akitiri Sign Language
• Manjiljarra Sign Language
• Mudbura Sign Language
• Murngin Sign Language
• Ngada Sign Language
• Torres Strait Islander Sign Language
• Warlpiri Sign Language
• Warumungu [or Warramunga] Sign Language
• Western Desert Sign Language (Yurira Watjalku)
• Worora Kinship Sign Language

(see this factsheet) Arrente is both a language, a group of people, and an area of land in Central Australia. ... The word Dreamtime has several meanings: Dreamtime is the mythology of Australian Aborigines. ... Torres Strait Islanders are the indigenous people of the Torres Strait Islands, part of Queensland, Australia. ...

See also

• Auxiliary Sign Languages

References

General

• Kendon, A. (1988) Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. xviii+ 542. (Presents the results of the research on Australian Aboriginal sign languages that the author began in 1978. The book was awarded the 1990 Stanner Prize, a biennial award given by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander Studies, Canberra, Australia. Reviews include: Times Literary Supplement, August 25-31 1989; American Anthropologist 1990, 92: 250-251; Language in Society, 1991, 20: 652-659; Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 1990, 35(1): 85-86)

Warlpiri sign language:

• Meggitt M.J. (1954). Sign language among the Warlpiri of Central Australia. Oceania, 25(1), p. 2-16.
• Wright, C.D. (1980). Walpiri Hand Talk: An Illustrated Dictionary of Hand Signs used by the Walpiri People of Central Australia. Darwin: N.T. Department of Education.
• Kendon, A. (1980). The sign language of the women of Yuendumu: A preliminary report on the structure of Warlpiri sign language. Sign Language Studies, 1980 27, 101-112.
• Kendon, A. (1984). Knowledge of sign language in an Australian Aboriginal community. Journal of Anthropological Research. 1984 40, 556-576.
• Kendon A. (1985). Iconicity in Warlpiri Sign language. In Bouissac P., Herzfeld M. & Posner R. (eds), Inconicity: Essay on the Nature of Culture. TÅbingen: Stauffenburger Verlag. In press, p. .
• Kendon, A. (1985). Variation in Central Australian Aboriginal Sign language: A preliminary report. Language in Central Australia, 1(4): 1-11.
• Kendon, A. (1987) Simultaneous Speaking and Signing in Warlpiri Sign language Users. Multilingua 1987, 6: 25-68.
• Kendon A. (1988). Parallels and divergences between Warlpiri sign language and spoken Warlpiri: analyses of signed and spoken discourses. Oceania, 58, p. 239-54.

Original researchers' notes archived at the IATSIS library:

• Hale, Ken (c1960s), Original handwritten lexical list, 3pp.; notes on ‘Kaititj: akitiri sign language’, 3pp. in IATSIS library, MS 4114 Miscellaneous Australian notes of Kenneth L. Hale, Series 2 Barkly Tablelands language material, item 1-2 Wampaya [Wambaya (C19)].
• West, La Mont (Monty), (1963-66), original field report and papers ‘Sign language’ and ‘Spoken language’, and vocab cards, Items 1-2 in IATSIS library, MS 4114 Miscellaneous Australian notes of Kenneth L. Hale, Series 7: Miscellaneous material, Items 1-3 Correspondence 1963-1966

From "Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. New York: Plenum Press:"

• Strehlow, Carl (1978).The sign language of the Aranda, in Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. New York: Plenum Press, v.2, p.349-370.
• Roth, Walter E. (1978). The expression of ideas by manual signs: a sign-language, in Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. New York: Plenum Press, v.2, p.273-301.
• Berndt, R.M. (1940). Notes on the sign-language of the Jaralde tribe of the Lower River Murray, South Australia, in Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. New York: Plenum Press, v.2, p.397-402.
• Warner, W. Lloyd (1978). "Murngin Sign Language," in Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. New York: Plenum Press, v.2, p.389-392.
• Mountford, C.P. (1978). Gesture language of the Ngada tribe of the Warburton Ranges, Western Australia, in Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. New York: Plenum Press, v.2, p.393-396.
• Kakamasu, Jim (1978). Urubú Sign Language, in Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. New York: Plenum Press, v.2, p.247-253.
• Meggit, Mervyn (1978). Sign language among the Walbiri of Central Australia, in Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. New York: Plenum Press, v.2, p.409-423.
• Miller, Wick R. (1978). A report on the sign language of the Western Desert (Australia), in Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. New York: Plenum Press, v.2, p.435-440.
• Love, J.R.B. (1941). Worora kinship gestures, in Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. New York: Plenum Press, v.2, p.403-405.