Title Highlight: Sign Language Dictionaries

Gallaudet Dictionary of sign language, Random House American Sign Language Dictionary, and the American Sign Language: A comprehensive dictionary.


These three dictionaries, all found in the library’s reference section, differ from Webster’s and other dictionaries in that the words defined are indicated by drawings of the gesture used to describe the word. American Sign Language (ASL) is a non-spoken language developed over 200 years ago and its first dictionary was written only a little over 50 years ago.

Sign language is a true language with rules of use like any other. It does not consist of pantomiming signs that represent the objects described, although some signs are iconic and do represent the object talked about (such as the sign for tree), but others bear no relation to the object or concept described. These three dictionaries show the signs used in ASL, and each offers something a little different to the user. The Gallaudet Dictionary relies on drawings to illustrate the words and concepts conveyed by a sign. The other two dictionaries use a combination of written words and pictures to illustrate and explain a sign as most signs involve some movement that accompanies the hand gesture. The Gallaudet dictionary contains a CD that demonstrates how many signs are made.

It is instructive to learn that ASL is not a uniform language; some of the words are defined in more than one way in the various books or differ from book to book. For instance the sign for the word “cheat” is different in the American Sign Language: A comprehensive dictionary from the sign shown in the other two books. Each of the books opens with a detailed discussion of the language and its use and is helpful to any reader unfamiliar with the linguistics of sign.

The acceptance of sign as a method of communication outside of schools for the deaf is a recent development and the introductions to all of the books explain some of the controversies surrounding its use. Also of interest is that although sign is not a spoken language, it is not understood cross-culturally. A person communicating in ASL would not understand a person from Britain using British Sign Language (BSL) as the signs for the same words are often not the same or even similar in ASL and BSL. However the sign language used in France served as the basis for ASL, thus deaf French and American signers can communicate more easily than an American and an Englishman.