American Sign Language (ASL)

KS120P172WGDPFDFJ5C3

American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canada. In the United States, ASL is claimed to be the third most used language. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is expressed by facial expression as well as movements and motions with the hands. Besides North America, dialects of ASL and ASL-based creoles are used in many countries around the world, including much of West Africa and parts of Southeast Asia. ASL is also widely learned as a second language, serving as a lingua franca. ASL is most closely related to French Sign Language (LSF). It has been proposed that ASL is a creole language of LSF, although ASL shows features atypical of creole languages, such as agglutinative morphology.

Have feedback on this skill? Let us know.