Plains Indian Sign Language

Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL), also known as Hand Talk, Plains Sign Talk, Plains Sign Language, or First Nation Sign Language, is an <a href="/facts/Endangered_language/qcw97ryL">endangered</a> <a href="/facts/Sign_language/Wjfl9Db6">sign language</a> common to the majority of <a href="/facts/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas/LG2r6wXm">Indigenous nations</a> of North America, notably those of the <a href="/facts/Plains_Indians/DNshYGTV">Great Plains</a>, <a href="/facts/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Northeastern_Woodlands/T5uyzvCB">Northeast Woodlands</a>, and the <a href="/facts/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Great_Basin/9yar1HDl">Great Basin</a>. It was, and continues to be, spoken across what is now central Canada, the central and western United States and northern Mexico. This language was used historically as a <a href="/facts/Lingua_franca/dlGrD7ra">lingua franca</a>, notably for international relations, trade, and diplomacy; it is still used for story-telling, oratory, various ceremonies, and by deaf people for ordinary daily use.
In 1885, it was estimated that there were over 110,000 "sign-talking Indians", including <a href="/facts/Blackfoot_Confederacy/9K9I47AH">Blackfoot</a>, <a href="/facts/Cheyenne/rPt5AyA3">Cheyenne</a>, <a href="/facts/Sioux/NoM3bc62">Sioux</a>, <a href="/facts/Kiowa/pzQ9FIyk">Kiowa</a>, and <a href="/facts/Arapaho/wek6HfC2">Arapaho</a>. As a result of the <a href="/facts/European_colonization_of_the_Americas/1HImQual">European colonization of the Americas</a>, most notably including <a href="/facts/American_Indian_boarding_schools/N1lpXU0o">American boarding</a> and <a href="/facts/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system/StHawnyU">Canadian residential schools</a>, the number of sign talkers has declined sharply. However, growing interest and preservation work on the language has increased its use and visibility in the 21st century. Historically, some have likened its more formal <a href="/facts/Register_(sociolinguistics)/q1eujwX8">register</a>, used by men, to <a href="/facts/Ecclesiastical_Latin/KnhRpyeB">Church Latin</a> in function. It is primarily used today by <a href="/facts/North_American_Indigenous_elder/DyuPjKLh">Elders</a> and D/deaf <a href="/facts/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas/LG2r6wXm">citizens of Indigenous nations</a>.
Some <a href="/facts/Deaf_culture/JHK4m5E9">D/deaf</a> Indigenous children attend <a href="/facts/Schools_for_the_deaf/Mtj0Topo">schools for the deaf</a> and learn <a href="/facts/American_Sign_Language/MGTCXaGb">American Sign Language</a> (ASL) having already acquired Plains Sign Language. A group studied in 1998 were able to understand each other, though this was likely through the use of <a href="/facts/International_Sign/jMMmmIYH">International Sign</a>. Jeffrey E. Davis, a leading linguist in documentation efforts, hypothesizes that this contact, combined with potential contact with <a href="/facts/Martha%27s_Vineyard_Sign_Language/a2w5EIKI">Martha's Vineyard Sign Language</a> (another potential antecedent to ASL) may suggest that ASL descends in part from Plains Sign Language.: 24–27

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Plains Indian Sign Language