the jyoti vadhira school for the deaf in bithur has 176 students, with
differing degrees of hearing impairment (from moderate to profound).  the
students are extremely proficient in signing among themselves, but no form of
SL is used in instruction.  also, they have not learned it from their
parents, since none of them come from hearing impaired families.

thus, the genesis of the language they use so fluently remains unclear.  when
young kids arrive, they learn the signs from their predecessors in the
school; thus the language is passed down and evolves. is it possible that a
form of creolization is ongoing in 
this group, as has been documented in Nicaraguan Sign Language (Kegl & Iwata,
1989; Kegl, Senghas, & Coppola, 1999; Senghas, 1995; Senghas & Coppola, 2001;
Senghas, Coppola, Newport, & Supalla, 1997), where grammatical structures
were found to emerge after some years of evolution.

however, a few years back, there were 2/3 students whose parents were
hearing-impaired; and it is possible that this may have given the language
some contact with a larger community. 

also, they occasionally interact with other hearing-impaired groups, though
this is not very common. 

given this relative isolation, the language signed at the bithur school is
possibly a creole, to some degree similar to the well known Nicaraguan Sign
Language (e.g. senghas-kita-04).  

in this project, we would like to study and document (in video)
the gross characteristics of the language spoken by these kids, both at the
lexical, morphological, and syntactic levels.

@article{senghas-kita-04_children-create-core-properties-in-emerging-SL-in-nicaragua,
  title={Children creating core properties of language: Evidence from an emerging sign language in Nicaragua},
  author={Senghas, A. and Kita, S. and {\\"O}zy{\\"u}rek, A.},
  journal={Science},
  volume={305},
  number={5691},
  pages={1779},
  year={2004},
  abstract = {

Focuses on the emergence of two very fundamental aspects of any linguistic
system - the discreteness of items in its inventory, and the mechanisms of
combination.  

--

A new sign language has been created by deaf Nicaraguans over the past 25
years, providing an opportunity to observe the inception of universal
hallmarks of language. We found that in their initial creation of the
language, children analyzed complex events into basic elements and sequenced
these elements into hierarchically structured expressions according to
principles not observed in gestures accompanying speech in the surrounding
language. Successive cohorts of learners extended this procedure,
transforming Nicaraguan signing from its early gestural form into a
linguistic system. We propose that this early segmentation and recombination
reflect mechanisms with which children learn, and thereby perpetuate,
language. Thus, children naturally possess learning abilities capable of
giving language its fundamental structure.


Certain properties of language are so central to the way languages operate,
and so widely observed, that Hockett termed them “design features” of
language (1). This study asks whether these properties can arise naturally as
a product of language-learning mechanisms, even when they are not available
in the surrounding language environment.

We focus here on two particular properties of language: discreteness and
combinatorial patterning. Every language consists of a finite set of
recombinable parts. These basic elements are perceived categorically, not
continuously, and are organized in a principled, hierarchical fashion. For
example, we have discrete sounds that are combined to form words, that are
combined to form phrases, and then sentences, and so on. Even those aspects
of the world that are experienced as continuous and holistic are represented
with language that is discrete and combinatorial. Together, these properties
make it possible to generate an infinite number of expressions with a finite
system. It is generally agreed that they are universal hallmarks of language,
although their origin is the subject of continued controversy (2–7).

}}

@
oliver sacks : seeing voices

@article{supalla2008sign,
  title={Sign language archeology: Integrating historical linguistics with fieldwork on young sign languages},
  author={Supalla, T.},
  journal={Sign Languages: spinning and unraveling the past, present and future, Editora Arara Azul. Petr{\'o}polis, Brazil},
  pages={574--583},
  year={2008}
  annote = {

During [the 40-year history of modern sign language research], sign language
genesis and evolution has remained a domain largely outside of our focus of
interest.  Its neglect can be traced to the belief that evolving sign
languages were often “contaminated” by oppressive pedagogical practices which
attempted to shape sign language to match the spoken majority language.  In
addition, lexical items from foreign sign languages were often imported as
new schools were established in developing countries.  This notion of
resulting “impure” sign languages meant that historical linguistic
researchers were confronted with the fact that “natural” historical processes
were likely obscured or destroyed by linguistic imperialism.  However, such a
view incorrectly denies the natural nature of language contact in human
history worldwide.

In the course of at least seven cohort generations of ASL transmission, 
archaic forms originating at this school have disappeared, with only the
oratory texts recorded on film remaining to tell the tale.  

}}

@article{senghas-coppola-01_creating-nicaraguan-SL-spatial-grammar,
  title={Children creating language: How Nicaraguan Sign Language acquired a spatial grammar},
  author={Senghas, A. and Coppola, M.},
  journal={Psychological Science},
  volume={12},
  number={4},
  pages={323--328},
  year={2001},
  annote = {


}}


@article{pyers-senghas-10_emerging-sign-language-spatial,
  title={Evidence from an emerging sign language reveals that language supports spatial cognition},
  author={Pyers, J.E. and Shusterman, A. and Senghas, A. and Spelke, E.S. and Emmorey, K.},
  journal={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences},
  volume={107},
  number={27},
  pages={12116},
  year={2010},

}}