American Sign Language
3
3.9
- noun
- /əˈmɛrɪkən saɪn ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ/
- US
:
lengua de señas americana
- Fluency in American Sign Language is highly desirable, but not required.
- use American Sign Language
- children use American Sign Language
It wasn't like modern American Sign Language, where a gesture means the same thing as a word.
- It wasn't like modern American Sign Language, where a gesture means the same thing as a word.
- ASL, the acronym for American Sign Language.
Examples
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Uh, American Sign Language is not English.
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Yet one officer called dispatch and asked for someone who knew American Sign Language.
Blog text (6) -
And I use my hands in American Sign Language to express that with my face, to explain what sound is to us with our eyes.
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The college I transferred to had a Communication Disorders program that offered American Sign Language courses.
Blog text (9) -
I will be working towards a Certificate in American Sign Language Interpreting.
Blog text (34) -
While I can't speak any other languages besides English, I am fluent in American Sign Language.
Blog text (12) -
You may be familiar with American Sign Language (ASL), which is used by some people who have hearing impairments.
Academic text (2014) -
Dunn told dispatch that Wolfe, deaf since birth, needed an American Sign Language interpreter.
Blog text (6) -
When Officer Heidi Brockmann arrived, she apologized to Wolfe in American Sign Language for her beginner-level sign skills.
Blog text (6) -
My sibling is deaf, and my parents are both fluent in American Sign Language.
Synonyms
5
4.4
A language that uses hand signs for deaf people in the United States and Canada
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward composition: 'American' (from the United States) + 'sign' (gestural communication) + 'language' (a system of communication), so its meaning as the variety of sign language used in the U.S. is directly derivable from the parts. This is a common, cross-linguistic naming pattern for language varieties, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily understand it.
Etymology
American Sign Language comes from how it began: deaf people and teachers in the United States mixed different hand signs to make a full language. The words sign and language show it is a system 'using hands and body' and a real language used 'in the United States', so the name matches its meaning.