Sign language

The signs are phonologically decomposed into four parameters, which are further analyzed phonemically: in hand configuration, hand orientation, movement execution and place of movement. Many signs are highly inflected. Information can be incorporated pronominal (through different visible forms) in a single gesture, e.g. in DGS the verb gesture, glossed as I-BOOK-GIVE-YOU-SHELL includes the direction of movement from "I" to "you", and quickly, and the hand configuration indicates holding an imaginary book. When modified in the movement from "you" to "me", results in YOU-BOOK-GIVING-ME-FAST. The gesture can be modified with other hand shapes to indicate what is being given, such as a thick or thin book, a bottle, a football or golf ball, a piece of paper, a stack of books, etc. Added to this is the different orientation of the hand or hands, whether the object is handed horizontally or vertically. A total of seven parts of meaning can be recognized in this single gesture: Subject, receiver (singular or plural), its locality (left, right, near or far), object, size or quantity of the object, verbal adverb, once or repeatedly. In addition, additional meanings are simultaneously added by parts of the face and head movements, e.g. "gladly" or "reluctantly" can be shown with it. Besides inflection, this is also called "incorporation" in linguistics.

Because of the decomposability of signs and structuring within the sentence, sign languages must be considered as full-fledged languages in their own right. They cannot, as is often mistakenly believed, be regarded as derived from the spoken language of their environment. The name of sign language in Germany, Deutsche Gebärdensprache (DGS), does not mean German in sign form, but sign language as used by deaf speakers in Germany.

The gestures formed by the hands form the content of a sentence. In addition, movements of the upper body and the face play a prominent role. Above all, facial expressions serve to encode grammar. Many grammatical function words, such as whether or if find expression exclusively in the face. Since the grammar is mainly expressed with facial expressions, sign language speakers also tend to look into their eyes rather than at their hands.

Sign languages differ from country to country and even within a country. In German-speaking countries, the German Sign Language (DGS) used in Germany and in Luxembourg, the Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS) and the Swiss-German Sign Language (DSGS) are used. The sign language used in Liechtenstein is closely related to DSGS and can therefore be considered a DSGS dialect. Within Switzerland, DSGS knows five different dialects (Zurich, Bernese, Basel, Lucerne and St. Gallen dialect), Switzerland in turn also knows the Langue des signes Suisse romande (LSF-SR) with five dialects and the Lingua dei segni della Svizzera italiana (LIS-SI) with two varieties.

The most common is American Sign Language (ASL), used in North America, Caribbean islands other than Cuba, parts of Central America, and some African and Asian nations.

Many signs of the different sign languages are similar to each other because of their iconic or motivated origin. Many inflections in the signs are also similar in almost all sign languages. Nevertheless, a mutual understanding is not always given. The historical relationship between sign languages is decisive for communication, so that users of sign languages of the same sign language family can communicate to some extent. Since most sign languages in continental Europe belong to the French sign language family, mutual understanding is reasonably possible there. On international occasions, International Sign, Gestuno or International Sign-Talk are used, which are considered by some to be pidgin languages.

Sign languages are - as numerous studies with imaging methods indicate - processed in the same brain regions in which spoken languages are processed. From this it is concluded that human language can no longer be defined merely as a spoken language system.

To be distinguished from sign language are the so-called manual-visual coding systems of the German language:

• Finger alphabet
• Sign-assisted communication (GuK)
• Signs accompanying spoken language (LBG)
• Signs that support spoken language (LUG)
• Cued Speech (German: Phonembestimmtes Manualsystem; mouth-hand system)