Communication Methods on Pitara Kids Network

How did Sign Language Originate?

Sat, 10 Nov 2001 03:10:02 +0000

Have you ever seen people deep in conversation with each other without a single sound coming from their lips? Their hands and fingers move animatedly as they silently ‘speak’ sentences that sometimes you can also guess at. These people are actually conversing using sign language because they are hearing or speech impaired.

Across the world, people have developed sign language to communicate with each other and with the rest of the world. Signs and gestures have always been in use. Medieval monks who have taken vows of silence, Native Americans, African bushmen and others are fluent in the art of gestures and sign language communication. These could be signs such as asking for food or water. In England, the medieval monk Venerable Bede devised a number code based on manual signs.

Signals of the Past

Sat, 17 Mar 2001 12:11:07 +0000

You want to send a message to someone. Immediately. No problem. You just pick up a land phone or a mobile phone, or send an email. The telegram is still there but many of us have forgotten about it.

Now travel back in time to France, 206 years ago, when there was none of your latest technology. Not even the telegraph. But people still felt the need to send long distance messages.

Signals of the Past []

It was then that a Frenchman called Chappe invented a code for the alphabet. It was called the semaphore. It was a code in which different positions of the human arm stood for a particular alphabet. Thus, there were 26 positions. People sent messages in this way by holding a flag in each hand to make sure that the positions were seen clearly, and a correct message was sent.