Re: IMLD, 2/21/05: Braille & sign languages

--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Don Osborn" <dzo@...> wrote:

>
> The annual International Mother Language Day celebration this year
> has as a theme braille and sign languages used by blind and deaf
> people. I am aware that there are diverse traditional/indigenous

sign

> language systems around the world (e.g., Hausa, Inuit), but are

there

> different forms of braille writing or "symbols" used traditionally
> among diverse cultures for communication with/among the blind?

Sign language is a form of language - basic communication - so would
have to arise in cultures around the world.

I would suppose that a system of reading for the blind would only
come about in a civilization in which expectations for mass literacy
already existed, so post-reformation Europe. I would be very
interested in hearing if any came about elsewhere.

Suzanne McCarthy