View source for American Sign Language

{{Infobox language
|name = American Sign Language
|nativename = ''Langue des Signes Américaine'' (in the Canadian province of Québec)
|image = American Sign Language ASL.svg
|region = English-speaking [[North America]]
|states = [[United States]], [[Canada]]
|speakers = 250,000–500,000 in the United States
|date = 1972
|ref= <ref name="mitchell">{{Harvcoltxt|Mitchell|Young|Bachleda|Karchmer|2006}}</ref>{{rp|26}}
|speakers2=[[second language|L2]] users: Used as L2 by many hearing people and by [[Hawaii Sign Language]] speakers.
|familycolor = sign
|fam1 = [[French Sign Language family|French Sign]]-based (possibly a [[creole language|creole]] with [[Martha's Vineyard Sign Language]])
|dia1 = [[Black American Sign Language|African-American Sign]]
|dia2 = [[Bolivian Sign Language|Bolivian Sign]]
|dia3 = [[Costa Rican Sign Language|Costa Rican Sign]]
|dia4 = [[Ghanaian Sign Language|Ghanaian Sign]]
|dia5 = [[Nigerian Sign Language|Nigerian Sign]]
|dia6 = [[Francophone African Sign Language|Francophone African Sign]]
|dia7 = [[Quebec Sign Language|Québec Sign]]
|script = None are widely accepted <br /> [[si5s]] (ASLwrite), [[ASL-phabet]], [[Stokoe notation]], [[SignWriting]]
|nation=none
|minority=[[Ontario]] only in domains of: legislation, education and judiciary proceedings.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/bills/bills_detail.do?locale=en&BillID=1619&isCurrent=false&BillStagePrintId=|title=Bill 213: An Act to recognize sign language as an official language in Ontario|author=Province of Ontario|date=2007|access-date=2018-08-15|archive-date=2018-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181224224411/https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-38/session-2/bill-213|url-status=dead}}</ref><br />40 US states recognize ASL to varying degrees, from a foreign language for school credits to the official language of that state's deaf population.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ncssfl.org/links/ASL.pdf|title=States that Recognize American Sign Language as a Foreign Language|author=Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center|accessdate=23 July 2015|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150412063352/http://www.ncssfl.org/links/ASL.pdf|archivedate=12 April 2015}}</ref>
|iso3 = ase
|glotto=asli1244
|glottoname=ASL family
|glottorefname=ASLic
|glotto2=amer1248
|glottoname2=ASL proper
|glottorefname2=American Sign Language
|map = ASL map (world).png
|mapcaption = {{legend|#FF7D81|Areas where ASL or a dialect/derivative thereof is the national sign language}}{{legend|#FFB4B6|Areas where ASL is in significant use alongside another sign language}}
}}
'''American Sign Language''' (old names: Amslan, Ameslan) is the most popular [[sign language]] for deaf people in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in parts of Mexico. Although the United Kingdom and the United States share English as a spoken and written language, [[British Sign Language]] (BSL) is different from American Sign Language.  ASL actually comes from French Sign Language, as [[Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet]] went to England for help learning sign language to teach to his deaf neighbors.  He could not find anyone willing to teach him the British Sign Language, but did find some French people who were willing to help, he convinced one of them to travel back to the United States with him to set up the first deaf school in the U.S.<ref>{{cite web|title=ASL history|url=http://lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/history1.htm|publisher=ASL University|accessdate=21 March 2013}}</ref>

ASL is also used (sometimes with other sign languages) in the [[Philippines]], [[Singapore]], [[Dominican Republic]], [[Haiti]], [[Puerto Rico]], [[Côte d'Ivoire]], [[Burkina Faso]], [[Ghana]], [[Togo]], [[Benin]], [[Nigeria]], [[Chad]], [[Gabon]], [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]], [[Central African Republic]], [[Mauritania]], [[Kenya]], [[Madagascar]], and [[Zimbabwe]]. Like other sign languages, its [[grammar]] is different from any spoken language.

ASL includes fingerspelling.  [[Fingerspelling]] is a way to show the written letter.  ASL uses one hand to show the English [[alphabet]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.howdoyousign.com/american-sign-language-alphabet|title=Examples of the American Sign Language alphabet|access-date=2024-04-22|archive-date=2024-04-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240420212651/https://www.howdoyousign.com/american-sign-language-alphabet|url-status=dead}}</ref> although there are ways to show alphabets from other languages.  Names of people and places can be fingerspelled. Fingerspelling is also used for words that have no sign, or for when people are confused about what a used sign means.
== Statistics ==
Counting the number of ASL speakers is difficult because ASL users have never been counted by the American census.<ref name="pop">Mitchell, Ross ''et al'' 2006. How many people use ASL in the United States?: Why estimates need updating. ''Sign Language Studies'' '''6''' (3). [http://research.gallaudet.edu/Publications/ASL_Users.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915132637/http://research.gallaudet.edu/Publications/ASL_Users.pdf |date=2012-09-15 }}</ref> ASL use in the general American population has not been directly measured. The ultimate source for current estimates of the number of ASL users in the United States is a report for the National Census of the Deaf Population (NCDP) by Schein and Delk (1974).<ref name=pop/> Based on a 1972 survey of the NCDP, Schein and Delk provided estimates consistent with a signing population between 250,000 and 500,000. The survey did not distinguish between ASL and other forms of signing.

Incorrect figures are sometimes cited for the population of ASL speakers in the United States based on misunderstandings of statistics.<ref name=pop/> Demographics of the deaf population have been confused with those of ASL use. This accounts for cited estimations which are greater than 500,000. Such mistaken estimations can reach as high as 15,000,000.<ref name=pop/>

ASL is sometimes incorrectly cited as the third- or fourth-most-spoken language in the United States.<ref name=pop/> These figures misquote Schein and Delk (1974), who said ASL speakers constituted the third-largest population ''requiring an interpreter in court''.<ref name=pop/>

== American Sign Language Media ==
<gallery widths='160px' heights='100%' mode='traditional' caption=''>
File:American Sign Language demo - Travis Dougherty.webm|Travis Dougherty explains and demonstrates the ASL alphabet. Voice-over interpretation by Gilbert G. Lensbower.

File:Sign language interpreter.jpg|A sign language interpreter at a presentation

File:ASL convention.jpg|American Sign Language Convention of March 2008 in Austin, Texas

File:ASL in Stokoe notation.png|The ASL phrase "American Sign Language", written in [[Stokoe notation]]

File:Ase-AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE.png|The ASL phrase "American Sign Language", written in [[SignWriting]]

File:Brief Comparison of ASL Writing Systems.jpg|Comparison of ASL writing systems: Sutton SignWriting, Si5s, Stokoe notation, SignFont, and ASLphabet

File:ASL family.jpg|Two men and a woman signing

File:Asl alphabet gallaudet.svg|The American manual alphabet and numbers
</gallery>
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== Bibliography ==
* {{cite journal|last1=Mitchell|first1=Ross|last2=Young|first2=Travas|last3=Bachleda|first3=Bellamie|last4=Karchmer|first4=Michael|title=How Many People Use ASL in the United States?: Why Estimates Need Updating|journal=Sign Language Studies|volume=6|issue=3|year=2006|publisher=Gallaudet University Press.|issn=0302-1475|url=http://research.gallaudet.edu/Publications/ASL_Users.pdf|accessdate=November 27, 2012|archive-date=September 15, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915132637/http://research.gallaudet.edu/Publications/ASL_Users.pdf|url-status=dead}}
== Other websites ==
* [https://www.howdoyousign.com The ASL Dictionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240420212153/https://www.howdoyousign.com/ |date=2024-04-20 }} (over 2,600 signs in their database)


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[[Category:Sign languages]]