The Survival of Maritime Sign Language

Abstract

There is controversy on the existence of Maritime Sign Language (MSL) which seems to be struggling to remain the language of the Deaf¹ Communities in the Maritime Provinces and Newfoundland. Some older or isolated Deaf people in certain Maritime communities use MSL, which has never been linguistically researched or studied. The younger generations learnt different sign languages, such as American Sign Language (ASL), or were taught manually coded English systems. The schools² for the Deaf no longer exist in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, which slows the continuity of the Deaf culture and the natural acquisition of sign language. It is believed that MSL is dying due to the influx of ASL brought in by American Sign Language interpreters and Deaf people from other parts of Canada as well as Maritimers trained in a college for the Deaf in Washington, D.C. It seems that ASL is becoming the dominant language of the Deaf Maritimers. However, Deaf Maritimers are becoming conscious of Maritime Deaf Heritage and MSL, and strongly assert that MSL still exists. It is believed that MSL originated from British Sign Language (BSL)³. This paper explores the history and the structure of MSL as compared to ASL, and the early documentation of the heritage and the natural sign language of the Deaf Maritimers.