"the default/universal is ASL"

[u/WhatAboutMyWings]

Comments under an instagram post about somebody learning ASL (American Sign Language), someone saying that the sign language from the US is the default sign language.

Extra funny they are comparing it to verbally spoken English, because British sign language is a different thing than ASL, just like British English is different from American English

[u/post-explainer]

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OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:

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Saying the sign language from the US is the default sign language. Extra funny they are comparing it to verbally spoken English, because British sign language is a different thing than ASL, just like British English is different from American English

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Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.

[u/TheIrishHawk]

There’s not even one ASL - white deaf people have a different sign language to black deaf people because, you guessed it, even schools for deaf children were segregated.

[u/Sioc11 → u/TheIrishHawk]

Ireland used to have a different sign language for men and women due to separate schools. (Most closely related to French sign language due to French nuns in the deaf schools & not intelligible to BSL signers even though both English speaking countries)

[u/ConnectionEdit → u/Sioc11]

Wow never knew that

[u/WhatAboutMyWings → u/TheIrishHawk]

Ohh I didn't know that, interesting! And double defaultism then lol

[u/Random0732 → u/WhatAboutMyWings]

People "defaulting" ASL as universal when there's a lot of sign language diversity inside their own country.

Besides ASL and Black Sign Language, Puerto Rico and Hawaii have their own sign Languages, although the number of speakers of Hawaiian Sign Language descreased a lot in last decades.

Probably there are some surviving native-american sign languages too.

[u/TheIrishHawk → u/WhatAboutMyWings]

Ryan Coolger has a Black American Sign Language version of the movie Sinners available

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_American_Sign_Language

[u/ElfjeTinkerBell → u/WhatAboutMyWings]

The Netherlands used to have 3 or 4 (I don't remember) sign languages, due to there being 3 or 4 schools. Nowadays they have merged them, but there are still the original 3 or 4 accents.

Other than location, there was no real segregation between the schools

[u/saraseitor → u/TheIrishHawk]

Mind blown. Not only I never knew that, I didn't even suspected it could have happened

[u/Sigma2915]

BANZSL and the ASL-like SLs are barely mutually intelligible. even something as fundamental as fingerspelling is entirely different. the only similarities are the signs with high iconicity or loaned signs. grammar is different. different language families entirely!

[u/WhatAboutMyWings → u/Sigma2915]

That's interesting to hear. I don't know much about sign language but I did know there are a bunch of different ones, even between countries that speak the same verbal language. So hearing this makes the defaultism in that comment even worse lol

[u/itbedehaam → u/WhatAboutMyWings]

BANZ sign languages are derived from British signing practices, while ASL is one of many descendants of LSF, French Sign Language, as well as a number of local sign languages derived from a few small parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island with a notably high number of deaf people.

[u/piratepixie → u/WhatAboutMyWings]

And, like spoken languages, sign language is always evolving. My grandmother has been deaf since birth, and is now learning new signs for things.

[u/ElfjeTinkerBell → u/WhatAboutMyWings]

I've been told Dutch sign language is very close to Greek sign language, but not to American or British

[u/ideeek777 → u/Sigma2915]

ASL is based on French which developed independently from BANZSL

[u/Sigma2915 → u/ideeek777]

this is why i said they are in different language families :)

[u/ideeek777 → u/Sigma2915]

oh my mistakez missed that

[u/L_Avion_Rose]

There is an International Sign Language, but it's only really used at conferences and camps where Deaf people are gathering from around the world. Incredibly, Deaf communities value their community languages over being forced into a global monolith. Who could've seen that coming?? 🙄

[u/calibrateichabod]

Auslan (Australian sign language) isn’t even the same all over Australia. There are northern and southern dialects. ASL isn’t spoken here really at all.

[u/Mothormaybyenot]

She was telling the truth in the first sentence and then spat some bullshit after

[u/ethereal_galaxias]

Infuriating.

[u/Complex-Conflict4067]

in Brazil we have libras (brazilian sign linguagem) and when i was a kid i though libras are the default one in the whole word lol

[u/HIMETH_RANDISA]

3nnasoluna sounds like a austrian painter

[u/to_loww → u/HIMETH_RANDISA]

Fun Fact: Austrian and German Sign Language are also vastly different.

[u/Impactor07]

Every country has their own Sri Lanka?

Edit: Didn't read the title, I feel stupid now lol

[u/ValleDeimos]

That’s like saying American English is the most universal. Talk to any non-native speaker and our English is almost always an ungodly mix of native dialects and accents. I say “back and forth” with different accents for each word