This January, the American Dialect Society held its annual vote for the “word of the year,” a tradition in which linguists celebrate new additions to the English lexicon. This year’s pick was a nonsexual interpretation of the term “rawdog.” However, discussions around the event have also raised the topic of whether American Sign Language (ASL) could feature its own “sign of the year.”
Currently, ASL is gaining recognition and increasing visibility, yet it has yet to adopt a formal equivalent to this annual celebration of language. According to Kaj Kraus, a postdoctoral researcher at Boston University’s Deaf Center, the translation between spoken words and ASL signs often fails to capture the intended meanings of contemporary phrases. Kraus pointed out that while the ASL interpreters at the event attempted to convey the meaning of “rawdog” by spelling out “raw” and signing “dog,” this approach does not convey the phrase’s entirety. “The meaning was lost,” Kraus noted.
During the event, other phrases also posed translation challenges. For example, when an ASL interpreter signed the playful English expression “The scream I scrumpt,” the humor was lost in translation, resulting in a literal interpretation: “The scream I already screamed.” Kraus explained the difficulty arises because ASL verbs do not inflect for tense in the same manner as English, altering the intended tone of the phrase.
Despite the playful overlap between languages, there is a significant distinction between signs that are transliterated from English and those that are rooted in the Deaf community. Dr. Tory Sampson, another Deaf linguist who attended the event, remarked that for an ASL sign to be considered for a sign of the year, it would need to encapsulate expressions that resonate more deeply with the Deaf culture. She emphasized that ASL is a relatively young language, at about 200 years old, and that its development is ongoing. “A sign of the year would likely benefit from older, expressive signs that reflect current affairs,” she said.
Another challenge is the lack of a comprehensive tracking system for ASL sign usage compared to major dictionaries available for spoken languages. Currently, an estimated fewer than one million people use ASL as their primary language, and there are no significant governing bodies to monitor the evolution or frequency of signs. “Honestly, there is no way to accurately measure usage of signs in ASL,” Sampson stated, acknowledging the limitations that this absence creates.
The conversation surrounding a dedicated “sign of the year” for ASL continues, reflecting the broader evolution of language and the unique attributes of the Deaf community.
