Sign Language

The origin of sign language

In the 11th century, monks developed basic gestures to help with communication during silence.

 

A spanish Benedictine monk, Pedro Ponce de Leon, used these signs to help him educate deaf students in Spain. He is the first known teacher of the deaf and because of him there became something called the formal sign language. A spanish pries and linguist called Juan Pablo Bonet was inspired bu Pedro Ponce de Leon and wanted to expand his ideas. He worked on it and in 1620 he published the first manual alphabet system which he made so that it could be taught to deaf people in Spain.  

The first formal sighn language was actually developed in France. Charles Michel de l'Eppe, a French priest, was an early and ardent advocate for deaf rights. In 1755 he established the origianal public school for deaf children called the Institution Nationale des Sourds Muets à Paris. This was the first approach to the education of the deaf and it led to l'Epee being referred to as the 'Father of the Deaf. From all over the country students came to go the that school. l'Eppe adapted the sighns along with a manual apphabet and created a sign language dictionary which quickly spreak across Europe and the United States.