# Is there a reason that different forms of sign-language were developed?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-reason-that-different-forms-of-sign-language-were-developed/943931>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 9, 2021, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-reason-that-different-forms-of-sign-language-were-developed/943931 "2021-06-09T21:45:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-reason-that-different-forms-of-sign-language-were-developed/943931/21 "2021-06-10T15:11:50Z")

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> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> Wherever you have a community of Deaf people you get a Sign language - no matter how isolated that community is from others. Isolated Deaf communities “make up” their own language for the same reason anyone else uses a language - a need to communicate with others.

This. I once read a book about a sign language developed in an isolated village in the Palestine territories that had a large proportion of deaf people owing to a mutation. They had developed their own sign language and everyone in the village, hearing or deaf was fluent in it. Of course it wasn’t like ASL or any other sign language.

So the proliferation of sign languages is really just the same phenomenon as that of spoken languages.

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-reason-that-different-forms-of-sign-language-were-developed/943931/22 "2021-06-10T23:00:30Z")

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Esperanto tried this for written/spoken language. Didn’t work.

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**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-reason-that-different-forms-of-sign-language-were-developed/943931/23 "2021-06-10T23:04:56Z")

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> [@Musicat](#):
>
> Esperanto tried this for written/spoken language. Didn’t work.

_Ne en unu tago elkreskis Kartago._

Stranger

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**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-reason-that-different-forms-of-sign-language-were-developed/943931/24 "2021-06-10T23:11:29Z")

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The proliferation of sign languages (and new creoles in one generation) is very well covered in The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker, if anyone is interested. He makes a really strong argument that humans evolved to speak languages, and uses some of these examples as part of his argument.

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2021, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-reason-that-different-forms-of-sign-language-were-developed/943931/25 "2021-06-11T00:59:15Z")

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Sed kiam kreskos kartago?

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