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Language in Hand: Why Sign Came Before Speech

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In some ways, Language in Hand is an interesting mix of things, including a brief history of the development of sign language, some sociological discussion of the role of deaf people and deaf culture and how it has changed over time, a gloss of linguistic theories about language acquisition and development, a (small) descriptive grammar of ASL and comparison of ASL with other sign languages.

The overarching theory, however, is that as protohominoids evolved into early hominoids into modern humans, our ability to speak also gradually evolved. BUT, the ability to communicate developed before the physiological ability to speak developed, which means that some form of sign language preceded oral language. It's an interesting theory, and Stokoe makes his case well.

The book is quite readable and full of interesting anecdotes about his experiences and the history of sign language. He also does a good job of highlighting the many reasons that defining language in terms of something that is spoken is a misguided concept. Instead the grammar, action, actors, meaning, etc., that make up language can be expressed verbally in a language like English or German or they can be expressed equally well in language like American Sign Language or French Sign Language.