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Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind
by
Margalit Fox (Goodreads Author)
Imagine a village where everyone "speaks" sign language. Just such a village -- an isolated Bedouin community in Israel with an unusually high rate of deafness -- is at the heart of Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind. There, an indigenous sign language has sprung up, used by deaf and hearing villagers alike. It is a language no outsider has been able...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
August 5th 2008
by Simon & Schuster
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Behind the bleak, brown cover of Talking Hands is a book brimming with color and information. Similarly, a relatively new language -- a signed language that is unlike any other -- has been blossoming for the last seventy years amidst the sand in al-Sayyid, a Bedouin village in the Negev desert of southern Israel. In this village of approximately 3,500 a genetic form of deafness has been thriving as a result of frequent intermarriage. Today, about 150 villagers are deaf, but these people do not l...more
In this book a team of linguists discovers an isolated Arab village in which both hearing and deaf members are adept at the local sign language. The language is relatively young and, so far minimally affected by established sign languages. The team hopes that this village will closely simulate "the forbidden experiment," i.e. the idea of bringing up a child in isolation, to see what, if anything, he or she acquired in the way of language.
The book alternates between visits to Al-Sayyid and essays...more
The book alternates between visits to Al-Sayyid and essays...more
Very interesting but something about the author's style really bored me.
The book is about a remote village in Israel that-- due to marriage practices, a small genetic pool, and the existence of a recessive gene that causes congenital deafness-- has a large deaf population. About 3 generations ago, this situation created an environment where a sign language has sprouted up in one generation out of nowhere, i.e. somewhat of a naturally occurring experiment for linguists that would be unethical to...more
The book is about a remote village in Israel that-- due to marriage practices, a small genetic pool, and the existence of a recessive gene that causes congenital deafness-- has a large deaf population. About 3 generations ago, this situation created an environment where a sign language has sprouted up in one generation out of nowhere, i.e. somewhat of a naturally occurring experiment for linguists that would be unethical to...more
When I mentioned this book to some friends who know more about linguistics than I do, they told me that the idea of a "bioprogram" for language learning isn't totally accepted in the field, which wasn't the impression I got from the book. So it might be that the author is overemphasizing the theory of the researchers she was embedded with. Or it might be - always a possibility - that I was taken with the idea of the bioprogram and overemphasized it myself in my reading. (It's a library book whic...more
Sep 29, 2010
Nathan
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sociology,
franklin-library
A fascinating concept: a closed community of deaf signers interacting with hearing signers seems tailor-made for an insightful study of the nature and neurology of language. And so it is, mostly. "Talking Hands" has to deal with the awkward position of being both introductory and revelatory: the community studies done are changing and broadening the field of linguistics, but in order to convey their impact, Fox is forced to spend a fair amount of the book on the more introductory and less intere...more
I picked this book up at a secondhand book sale at my university. So far, I find it really fascinating. The journalist was invited to go along with a linguistic study of a town where 1 out of 4 people are deaf. This is a very isolated town in the Middle East and the inhabitants of the town created their own form of sign language that everyone (deaf or hearing) use. The linguistics are studying the townspeople in order to learn how language develops.
It is written with a bit more of an academic v...more
It is written with a bit more of an academic v...more
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What drew my attention to this book was the idea of finding out how languages develop and for that reason I found this book very interesting. The structure of the book alternates between chapters describing the research experiences of the linguists and the inhabitants of the village studied and the history of sign language. Although I found the history of sign language fascinating I would have liked to read more personal stories about people in the village that was studied. The book is informati...more
This was a fascinating book about sign language, taking as its central focus the "Signing Village" of Al-Sayyid in Israel, where a recessive gene for deafness, large families, and intermarriage have created a higher rate of deafness than the general population. As a result, the first ten deaf children three generations ago created a language de novo, providing glimpses about the beginnings of language, aspects that appear to be "hard-wired" into the human brain, etc. I gained a new appreciation...more
Talking Hands is a very informative book about American Sign Language, particularly for someone who does not know much about the language. The book alternates between scenes in Al-Sayyid and the researchers who studied the Bedouin Sign Language, and informative chapters about sign language in general. The writing style is simple, straight forward, and a little dry--easy to understand but tends to be redundant and repetitive. A lot of the ideas, situations, and concepts are repeated constantly, o...more
Excellent book. Even with my minimal ASL and layman's interest in linguistics I just could not put this book down. I enjoyed every page. It is both history and ethnographic studies and linguists! A fascinating look at how we communicate and what it means to have the ability to communicate, whether that is with our voice, our hands or some other medium. As humans we need to, we have to, we want to and we like to communicate with one and other. A wonderful book. Margalit Fox does a wonderful job i...more
Mar 06, 2012
Michael Connolly
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
reviewed,
linguistics
Human beings have a natural ability to invent languages. This has been shown in the case of manual signing by deaf people. An isolated community of deaf people will develop a manual language in two or three generations. This has best been demonstrated in an Arab bedoin village in Israel that has a large number of heredity deaf people. Their story is told by a reporter who has a degree in linguistics. Along the way she shares many interesting facts about both manual and spoken languages. For exam...more
This book has interesting data and a lovely human story, so much to recommend, but if I wasn't a current student of ASL, it would never have been finished. The author has a slow way of making her point with not quite enough examples and a pace that crawls. Every once in a while, she entertains brilliantly, as in this early quote. Speaking about linguists in the early part of the development of their science, she describes them:
"Looking back, one can almost imagine them stalking through the wild...more
"Looking back, one can almost imagine them stalking through the wild...more
What grabbed me from the cover: "In a remote village where everyone speaks sign language..."
I was actually more fascinated by the sociological implications, but they're pretty straightforward -- there's no stigma against deafness, which is inherited by a decent number of the villagers; all hearing folk are bilingual, they intermingle, intermarry... Margatlit Fox explores instead how the linguistics of Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language have implications on cognitive science.
She presents ABSL as the...more
I was actually more fascinated by the sociological implications, but they're pretty straightforward -- there's no stigma against deafness, which is inherited by a decent number of the villagers; all hearing folk are bilingual, they intermingle, intermarry... Margatlit Fox explores instead how the linguistics of Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language have implications on cognitive science.
She presents ABSL as the...more
Fascinating. Journalist/linguist travels with a linguistic team to a bedouin town somewhere in the Middle East (identity intentionally obscured) to study the sign language that developed there approx. 2 generations ago. Opportunity to study a language in its infancy, and one that has little to no influence from "outside" languages is a holy grail for linguists. Learned a lot about sign language in general as well as how linguists study a language.
Feb 08, 2010
Sharon
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
non-fiction,
words-language
A fascinating look at how sign language develops. Researchers visit a Bedouin village in which deafness is so common that everyone uses sign language. They are isolated so the sign language of Israel has only recently started to influence the home-grown language. The results of the research are interesting, but so is the process. Conversation and interpretation both turn out to be rather difficult.
This was a fascinating book about a community that has its own indigenous sign language that spontaneously developed due to the high rate of deafness in the community. The language is spoken by both deaf and hearing members of the community. The book alternates chapter-by-chapter between a really good introduction to the linguistics, history, and culture of sign languages and a retelling of a visit to this village with a research team. I learned more from the didactic chapters of the book, and t...more
Fascinating account of a Bedouin village that has developed its own sign language over the last three generations. Chapters recounting a visit to the village by linguists who are studying the language are interspersed with chapters on the development of our understanding of sign language as a language. This provides an interesting lens for looking at language in general.
I learned a lot about language, both sign and spoken, by reading this book. I especially found the chapter on the brain very interesting as linguists learn how signers perceive signs as language and not just movements through space.
Nov 30, 2009
Mark
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone interested in linguistics
Along with the compelling story of a linguist documenting a unique language, this book presents one of the best primers for the study of linguistics. I could not put this book down.
Feb 28, 2009
Kori
is currently reading it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone
Recommended to Kori by:
no one
That is important to remember that all people are different. And that it is very important to treat all people with respect no matter what method of speech they use.
Wonderful book that explains the (real) linguistics of sign language.
Overall I found this book interesting, informative, and captivating. The structure of the books was one that flipped between chapters on the signing village and chapters on linguistics. This structure kept my attention and kept me reading. I certainly learned a lot of interesting new things about sign language and sign language linguistics. The one criticism I have with the book is that the writing overall could have been clearer. Some of the writing was awkward and/or hard to understand. Overal...more
Also fascinating.
Some fascinating topics and I really wanted to like this book, but was a struggle to read. Part was that there was a whole lot going on - it was about a Bedouin indigenous sign language, but it was also about quantifying sign language as an actual language, as well as languages in general and how our brains are wired to create languages. Children of parents speaking pidgin languages start creating a grammar to form Creole, for instance.
But it was very hard to get all the way through.
But it was very hard to get all the way through.
There are some wonderful bits of information about language and history in this book, as well as compelling stories about the recent history of sign language and a Bedouin village with a relatively large population of both deaf and hearing signers. I was especially interested to find out how various language deal with color words and how regular the patterns of color distinctions are across many cultures. If you're interested in language (poets?) this book is for you!
Nov 06, 2008
Monique
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
laypeople, beginning sign language learners
An interesting layman's introduction to the world of sign language linguistics, comparable to Pinker's The Language Instinct. Do not read this if you already know anything about linguistics, though, because it will bore you to tears. I only stuck it out to the end in the hopes that there would be some hard data from the linguists' observations, but there was woefully little, probably because they published this information themselves in a journal.
A better subtitle would have been What Sign Language Reveals About Language. I've read several books related to sign language - books of common signs, books about deaf culture. This was the first book I've read the dealt with the linguistics of sign language, particularly sign language universals, common ways that all sign languages use space and motion to convey verb agreement, tense, part of speech, etc.
A lingistics book that is deeply tied with anthropology and even some neurology. Best understood by those with some interest in sign language or in anthropological research into isolated language cultures.
I personally found it fascinating, and marked half a dozen pages for reference. But when I tried to share my excitement with others, I found that their interest was minimal.
I personally found it fascinating, and marked half a dozen pages for reference. But when I tried to share my excitement with others, I found that their interest was minimal.
It was a good book but by the end I was bored. I felt in some cases she went into too much detail, I got lost and gave up trying to figure out what she was talking about. That being said it was very interesting and I learned quite a big about sign language which I've always wanted to learn.
Jan 11, 2009
Julie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Marr Anne; Liv; Meg, Maureen
Shelves:
non-fic
Although I knew that sign languages differ from country/culture to country/culture, I didn't fully appreciate how sign languages develop and how important the study of linguistics is until I read this fascinating book. Wonky for sure, but worth it for the added insight.
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I am a senior writer at The New York Times originally trained as a linguist, and I've been lucky enough to be able to combine my vocation with my avocation by writing narrative nonfiction books about language.
My new book, "The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code," the story of the race to decipher the mysterious Bronze Age script known as Linear B, will be published on May...more
More about Margalit Fox...
My new book, "The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code," the story of the race to decipher the mysterious Bronze Age script known as Linear B, will be published on May...more
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“Looking back, one can almost imagine them stalking through the wild with specimen bottles and outsize nets, in determined pursuit of the Ojibwa adverb or the Cherokee pronoun.”
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