Monastic sign languages

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Monastic sign languages have been used in Europe from at least the 10th century by Christian monks, and some, such as Cistercian and Trappist sign, are still in use today--not only in Europe but also in Japan, China and the USA. Unlike deaf sign languages, they are better understood as forms of symbolic gestural communication rather than languages, and some writers have preferred to describe them as sign lexicons.

Video Monastic sign languages

Uses

The purposes for which these sign lexicons were used were varied. Travelling Franciscan friars used finger alphabets, possibly as memory aids for preaching, and in Benedictine monasteries, signs representing words were used for limited communication when silence was required. Rather than the popularly imagined total "Vows of Silence," the Rule of St. Benedict actually dictates that conversation is only not allowed in certain areas of the monastery and during certain hours of the day. It was only much later, in the 17th century, that certain Cistercian and Trappist orders came to see absolute silence as a penance to endure along with the other deprivations of their austere lives.

Maps Monastic sign languages

Signs

Signs are well documented in medieval Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe, from Portugal to England. Antique texts present lists of words with accompanying signs, including instructions for sign production, and occasionally also the rationale for the choice of sign. Signs are mostly nouns relating to monastic life, such as foods, articles of clothing, particular rooms and buildings, ritual objects, and the many different ranks of clerical office. The few signs that act as verbs include "sit," "stand up," "kneel," and "confess." They almost always bear an iconic or visually motivated connection to the thing represented by the sign. No grammar is described for these signs, and they were probably used in the word order of an oral language--either Latin or the local vernacular--and possibly with accompanying gesture such as pointing. Modern Cistercian monks in England or the United States use a syntax derived "heavily, but not exclusively," from English, while Cistercian monks in France loosely follow the syntax of the French language; at least as much as it is possible to do so, given the limited lexicon. Vocabulary lists in the medieval texts ranged from 52 signs to 472, with "the average at 178 and a mean at 145."

The earliest Benedictine sign books date from around 1075 (and again at about 1083) at the Abbey of Cluny (in what is now France), and Hirsau Abbey (in what is now Germany) at around the same time. Bonaventure in the 13th century used a finger alphabet, and the medieval Monasteriales Indicia describes 127 signs used by Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monks. A Portuguese list from the 16th century.

List

• Benedictine sign language
  • (Cluny dialect)
• Anglo-Saxon monastic sign language (defunct)
• Augustinian Sign Language = Canons Sign Language (defunct)
  • Dublin Cathedral (defunct)
  • Ely Cathedral (defunct)
  • Paris (defunct)
• Trappist Sign Language
• Cistercian Sign Language

References

Further reading

• Ambrose, Kirk Thomas (1999). Romanesque Vezelay: The art of monastic contemplation. Ann Arbor, Mich. : U.M.I. 1999, 421 p.: Univ. of Michigan Dissertation
• Bruce, Scott Gordon (2000). Uttering no human sound: Silence and sign language in western medieval monasticism. Ann Arbor, Mich. : U.M.I. 2000, xv, 309 p.: Princeton Univ. Dissertation
• Barakat, Robert (1975). On ambiguity in the Cistercian Sign Language. In: Sign Language Studies 4: 8 (1975), pp. 275-289
• Barakat, Robert (1975). The Cistercian sign language : a study in non-verbal communication. (Cistercian Study Series; 7) Kalamazoo, Mich. : Cistercian Publications 1975. Reviewed by Stokoe, W. (1978) in Semiotica, 24, 181-194
• Barley, Nigel F. (1974). Two Anglo-Saxon sign systems compared. In: Semiotica : journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies 12 (1974), pp. 227-237
• Bentley, Samuel. Excerpta Historica: A table of signs used during hours of silence by the sisters in the monastery of Sion. (pp. 487-494)
• Conde-Silvestre, Juan C. (2001). The code and context of monasteriales indicia: a semiotic analysis of late Anglo-Saxon monastic sign language. In: Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 36 (2001), pp. 145-169

Available online at The Free Library, accessed September 1, 2008

• Daniels, Marilyn (1997). Benedictine Roots in the Development of Deaf Education. Bergin & Garvey. ISBN 0-89789-500-2
• Kendon, Adam (1990). Signs in the cloister and elsewhere. In: Semiotica 79: 3/4 (1990), pp. 307-329
• Nitschke, August (1997). Sign language and gesture in medieval Europe: Monasteries, courts of justice, and society. In: Segerstråle, Ullica / Molnár, Peter (eds): Nonverbal communication : where nature meets culture. Hillsdale, NJ : Erlbaum (1997), pp. 263-274
• Parvaz, Dan (1999). Monastic and Natural Sign Languages: A new look. Paper presented at the HDLS-2 March 26-28, 1999. Manuscript
• Romeo, Luigi (1979). Medieval food signs in the monastery of Cluny. In: Ars Semeiotica 2: 3 (1979), pp. 375-379
• ?? ??? (Saito Kurumi) ????????? : ????????????? (A Comparative Study on Grammar of Alternate Sign Language : Monastic Sign Language and Sawmill Sign Language) [0000259374] (JPN)
• Sherlock, David (1992) Signs for silence: The sign language of the monks of Ely in the Middle Ages. Ely Cathedral Publications (Education Group), Cambridgeshire, UK. ISBN 1-873027-05-2. Reviewed in: Signpost 5: 4 (1992) pp. 28-30 by Kristiaan Dekesel.
• Umiker-Sebeok, Jean, Sebeok, Thomas A., editors (1987). Monastic sign language. (Approaches to Semiotics #76). Berlin, New York, Amsterdam : Mouton de Gruyter.

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