Transcripts For CSPAN3 Vineyard 20240704 : vimarsana.com

Of the Marthas Vineyard museum. We begin this program as begin all of our programs by acknowledging the wampanoag people on whose ancestral land here known as knob naked the museum now stands. We recognize that their millennia of stewardship and their continued presence in contributions to our island and community. From 1694 to 1950 to Marthas Vineyard, and specifically the towns of chilmark and west had, an unusually Large Population of people with hereditary deafness. As a result, vineyard has learned a local dialect of sign language used by hearing and deaf people alike. The exhibition. They were heard the unique voice of Marthas Vineyard Deaf Community day explores this chapter of our island history. The the unique voice of the Marthas Vineyard Deaf Community explores this extraordinary chapter of our island history. We invite all of you to come, the museum, to see this exhibition, which runs through february 18th, 2024. Today we welcome Richard Meier and justin power as they place the deaf and community of Marthas Vineyard into broader historical context. Although prior work has often portrayed the Marthas Vineyard signing community as a remote outlier in community maia and power explore. Explore how that history of the vineyard signing community is interwoven with. American history more broadly. Richard p meyer is a professor of linguistics at the university of texas at austin. He has on the linguistics of sign languages and on acquisition as first language is by deaf children. Justin power is a postdoctoral fellow in linguistics, the university of texas at austin. His research on signing communities and their signed languages has taken him far from flung places like afghanistan. Tajikistan and now Marthas Vineyard, together with Richard Meier he has conducted extensive Archival Research on the 19th century new england signing community. American sign language would be provide by audrey dewar and. Patty lessard, welcome to Marthas Vineyard. Richard. Justin. Audrey and patty. Thank bonnie. Its a pleasure for and me to be here. Its only our second visit to marthas, but its the place we now feel very close to for our research. So as as the title suggests, were going to be looking at the village signing community, the vineyard signing community here on, Marthas Vineyard and its place in American History. And before i say anything about Marthas Vineyard, i want to just briefly share a few words about sign language. Thats general. So sign language are the naturally of languages of the deaf and or deaf and hearing communities. So they are not a translation of the english sign. Languages have, their own grammars that are not based on or derived from the spoken language or written language of the local hearing communities. And so america, in sign language in particular, and so its not a form of english. So its important realize that at the outset. So why why should we be studying . Why to linguists from, the university of texas. Thats a long ways away. Still beastly hot there. Why study the Marthas Vineyard sign signing community and its language . Besides the opportunity to visit the vineyard and to enjoy cooler weather . Wed like to understand how deaf and hearing interact successfully. This is one big reason why the Marthas Vineyard community has been of such interest within linguistics, within work on deaf history, with an work on the anthropology, deaf communities, the 19th century deaf and community on this island was often characterized has often been characterized as a Model Society in which deaf and hearing individuals interact and freely. Wed also like to understand the history of sign language within the United States. So it so happens that Marthas Vineyard, sign language emerged earlier than the American Sign Language just how much earlier has been a question of some debate and well have an answer our own answer for that question. Well also like to understand how new languages emerge. Marthas sign language is one of the first identified art and historically best dr. Monnet of a class of so village sign languages. So let me tell you briefly what a village sign language just and as you notice on this map, there are lots of little colored dots indicating, different village sign languages that have been identified around the world. Some 76 to date. These are small, reproductively isolated. Are in general genetic deafness is present in communities and its recessive deafness. Recessive deafness means that to be deaf, a child must inherit a copy of a gene. The relevant gene from each parent. Its not enough to inherit the copy from one parent. So what happens in this community is, is that because its reproductively isolate the gene for deafness spreads broadly within the population ultimately numerous deaf individuals may be born into community and then a sign language may emerge here in communities and this is important may also know and use the sign language in fact the last users village sign language is at least a last users in. The village are often hearing individuals. So why should we be interested in village sign languages . Well, they are very instances in which we can actually observe. They emergence of a new language. Its almost impossible to find new amongst the spoken languages, but it is possible to identify new sign languages. New languages to new sign languages that have no prior that are not derived from any previously existing sign language. And in fact some modern village sign languages only a few generations. So this is a rare instance is village sign languages in which we can observe how language developed over time across generations. Let me briefly describe what well call the standard account of the origins of Marthas Vineyard. Sign language during the great migration previously, because these two people. During the great migration, the 16 2230s, thousands of english puritans, including many from the county of kent in england, migrated to new to new england to massachusetts in particular, a eventually a number of kentish origin families settled on Marthas Vineyard. Some of these families, according to this standard account, may have known the sign language that emerged in kent and its that this kent just fine may have existed in the 17th century maybe earlier. Like Marthas Vineyard it was relatively isolated area isolated in southey, eastern england. The standard of a village sign language is what im showing you here. Okay, so in its origins, the standard account suggests that. And this account is due in significant to a wonderful by nora alan gross a very important book published in 1985 by Harvard University press. The first deaf individuals on the island are the lambert family, the lamberts and early other early settlers. It couldnt have just been that family. They needed to intermarry with other who would also carry the recessive gene. And there seemed to have been several families who arrived who were probably carriers of recessive gene for vineyard deafness. Many hearing islanders, likely signers of Marthas Vineyard, sign language and it is suggested that even the first deaf individuals born who arrived on the island, jonathan lambert, actually moved to the island from on cape cod. But jonathan and his offspring lived a barrier free life, serving in a variety of roles as a town official. Ah, in whats now tisbury by the 1840s there were 40 or more deaf and the patrols, and there were numerous hearing individuals on the vineyard and perhaps indeed everyone at least everyone in chilmark anticipate or near marthas sign language later deaf individual also would attend the American School for. The deaf in hartford, connecticut. This was the first enduring, First Permanent school for the deaf in the United States, due the numbers and their established language. Its been argued that that the vineyard ers may have had an important influence on the Early Development of so then in the late 1800s an influx of mainland mainlanders to the island reduced the proportion of carriers of deafness in the Marthas Vineyard population. Few deaf individuals were born after the in the 1880s or thereafter or fewer deaf children were born either deaf or hearing parents. And the last deaf signer of marthas sign language died in 52. So. 1694 to 1952 on this account, Marthas Vineyard sign language endured on this island and. Now there is a problem for the stand or the count of the vineyard language. In the late 1830s or early 1840s, a gentleman by the name of william turner, who would later become third principal of the American School for the deaf and heart for he was traveling around visiting alumni of the Hartford School and he traveled from hartford to chilmark for that purpose he interviewed the members of four families that met the smiths, the tilton and the lucius, all of which were then very common names on the and still are, but believe often more of these families had sent children to the American School for the deaf and heard. And let me let you briefly read especially the quotation on the left. Okay, so mother of the first child was to be born one of the first child. The mother a child who was born in 1785 and chilmark was the name emily here. She was a native, a native of chilmark and she was would become the mother to five deaf children and in 1784 she went to a Funeral Service likely at the chilmark burial ground. And while at the Funeral Service while at grave, she noticed a young woman and she says, someone standing near me told me that she was deaf and dumb. Deaf and dumb was the term used even in the Deaf Community at that time for a deaf person . And then she continued, was as i had never seen a person in her condition before. I watched her movements great interest as coffin was lowered into the grave, she clasped her hands, her eyes, and with a peculiar expression of grief and uttered such a cry as i never heard in my life before. Her image was before me by day and by night, for weeks and her unnatural voice was constantly constantly ringing in my ears in due time. My child benjamin may hear was born, and as feared, proved to be deaf and dumb. Okay, so here have an example of a folk theory of why should she would have a deaf child . It was because of maternal and that was not an uncommon theory at the time. So she was frightened by the presence of a deaf woman. The important point for us is that she asserts that she had never seen a deaf woman before in her life. Yet she on this island that we are told have history of sign language from 1694 that there were many individuals on the island. But yet here chilmark, livia hear and then the mothers of and three other families the smith, the tilton and the luces. They had never they met a deaf woman deaf individual all before the birth of Benjamin Mayhew lydia son in 1785. So can it be that if we have a continuous history. From 1694 to 1952, how could be that lydia met here and the smith mother, the tilton mother and the lewis mother. How it be that i have no knowledge deaf people . Its quite surprising surprising. So it happens. This report has largely been in the past. People were aware of it but discounted the report because the focus on maternal front but the key point for us is here in chilmark is for families had deaf children within a relatively small area and within a relatively short span of time and yet none of those families have had any experience with deafness or with people prior to 1785. How this be. Well were going to propose a new account and ill you look at this line for a second. Okay. Oops. All right. So along with the standard account, we assume english emigrants to Marthas Vineyard likely brought a recessive gene for deafness to the island island, but we see very little evidence. Really no evidence linking that vineyard deafness to the county of kent in particular. And there is no evidence that they brought a sign language with them. It might have been true, but we have no evidence whatsoever that it was true. Instead of suggesting that Marthas Vineyard language was important to island, that it came from kent, we are going to suggest that it arose here on vineyard, that it was to martha spender. So it was indigenous to the english on this island. Were not to the wampanoag community, not to the later portuguese community, but it was indigenous to the English Community who immigrated this island. Were going to further suggest that Marthas Vineyard sign language likely arose between 1785 and 1825. And we will lastly suggest that there were likely numerous hearing individuals on the island, especially in chilmark and west tisbury who knew some of the sign language but we very much doubt that everyone even in chilmark we doubt that everyone knew Marthas Vineyard sign language. But many people may have now what is whats our for these claims. Well weve amassed quite a bit of documentary evidence and these data we will report today so this includes 19th Century Research notably the research of Alexander Graham Bell Alexander bell, that bell that you all know the bell of a Bell Telephone are dead substantial Genealogical Research on the history of new england deaf families. He was interested in the genetics of deafness in, understood that deafness could be inherited, but hed written the mechanism and he wanted try to find out more about the inheritance of now Alexander Graham bell is not a favored its not somebody the Deaf Community now admires why . Because he later became involved in the Eugenics Movement and he had a strong view that deaf people should not marry nervous so hes not an an honored figure in the Deaf Community but yeah he made an important contribution to our understanding of the history of deaf people in new england. We will also report jamie a watch all our evidence also comes from genealogical records and census records are. Weve also consulted the records of the american for the deaf in hartford or putting all this information together or along with information from nora grosss book and with other oral history interviews as those conducted by lindsey lee are, weve put together a database of deaf and deaf individuals, lived on the island and our family members and we will all know as talk more we will discuss for in the history of the Deaf Community here let me just look at let you look at this graph. So here we are on the bottom. You see the decade on the y axis, you see the number of deaf individuals who lived on Marthas Vineyard. And were going to divide this graph into four periods between, 1692 and 1785. There was a disparity deaf population during. That period we that the recessive gene for spread. Throughout the community but largely in chilmark and tisbury so it spread widely but largely in chilmark and westchester. From 1788, 1785 to 1825, there was period in which Marthas Vineyard sign language and the chilmark Swimming Community in particular, a period in which that Deaf Community developed independently, then in the 1850s, the population peaked in chilmark and west tisbury are the peak was 26 individuals on our count and then after 18 after the 1890, the size of a deaf population began a long period of decline. Until 1952 and the last deaf individual who we know of who was a member of these deaf families, member of a vineyard. Who apparently was not a strong signer. So he may not been deeply enmeshed in the signing communities, died in 1998. So let me now turn it over to justin. Darling im sorry that the question did not repeat the question were not asking. Okay lets begin now with the the early period and the time during which as richard mentioned, from about 1692 or 1694 until 1785, until the birth of Benjamin Mayhew in chilmark, during which the deaf population was relatively small and dispersed on the island now who were the earliest deaf islanders . And ill give you a second to look at the slide. Now for those you whove been upstairs and have seen the exposition exhibition excuse me about the Deaf Community, you will have seen a page from the diary of Samuel Sewell. How judge Samuel Sewell is known for his part in the salem trials, which began in 1692. So some two decades later, judge sewell was traveling around. He was a circuit writing judge, traveling around and to Marthas Vineyard<\/a> museum. We begin this program as begin all of our programs by acknowledging the wampanoag people on whose ancestral land here known as knob naked the museum now stands. We recognize that their millennia of stewardship and their continued presence in contributions to our island and community. From 1694 to 1950 to Marthas Vineyard<\/a>, and specifically the towns of chilmark and west had, an unusually Large Population<\/a> of people with hereditary deafness. As a result, vineyard has learned a local dialect of sign language used by hearing and deaf people alike. The exhibition. They were heard the unique voice of Marthas Vineyard<\/a> Deaf Community<\/a> day explores this chapter of our island history. The the unique voice of the Marthas Vineyard<\/a> Deaf Community<\/a> explores this extraordinary chapter of our island history. We invite all of you to come, the museum, to see this exhibition, which runs through february 18th, 2024. Today we welcome Richard Meier<\/a> and justin power as they place the deaf and community of Marthas Vineyard<\/a> into broader historical context. Although prior work has often portrayed the Marthas Vineyard<\/a> signing community as a remote outlier in community maia and power explore. Explore how that history of the vineyard signing community is interwoven with. American history more broadly. Richard p meyer is a professor of linguistics at the university of texas at austin. He has on the linguistics of sign languages and on acquisition as first language is by deaf children. Justin power is a postdoctoral fellow in linguistics, the university of texas at austin. His research on signing communities and their signed languages has taken him far from flung places like afghanistan. Tajikistan and now Marthas Vineyard<\/a>, together with Richard Meier<\/a> he has conducted extensive Archival Research<\/a> on the 19th century new england signing community. American sign language would be provide by audrey dewar and. Patty lessard, welcome to Marthas Vineyard<\/a>. Richard. Justin. Audrey and patty. Thank bonnie. Its a pleasure for and me to be here. Its only our second visit to marthas, but its the place we now feel very close to for our research. So as as the title suggests, were going to be looking at the village signing community, the vineyard signing community here on, Marthas Vineyard<\/a> and its place in American History<\/a>. And before i say anything about Marthas Vineyard<\/a>, i want to just briefly share a few words about sign language. Thats general. So sign language are the naturally of languages of the deaf and or deaf and hearing communities. So they are not a translation of the english sign. Languages have, their own grammars that are not based on or derived from the spoken language or written language of the local hearing communities. And so america, in sign language in particular, and so its not a form of english. So its important realize that at the outset. So why why should we be studying . Why to linguists from, the university of texas. Thats a long ways away. Still beastly hot there. Why study the Marthas Vineyard<\/a> sign signing community and its language . Besides the opportunity to visit the vineyard and to enjoy cooler weather . Wed like to understand how deaf and hearing interact successfully. This is one big reason why the Marthas Vineyard<\/a> community has been of such interest within linguistics, within work on deaf history, with an work on the anthropology, deaf communities, the 19th century deaf and community on this island was often characterized has often been characterized as a Model Society<\/a> in which deaf and hearing individuals interact and freely. Wed also like to understand the history of sign language within the United States<\/a>. So it so happens that Marthas Vineyard<\/a>, sign language emerged earlier than the American Sign Language<\/a> just how much earlier has been a question of some debate and well have an answer our own answer for that question. Well also like to understand how new languages emerge. Marthas sign language is one of the first identified art and historically best dr. Monnet of a class of so village sign languages. So let me tell you briefly what a village sign language just and as you notice on this map, there are lots of little colored dots indicating, different village sign languages that have been identified around the world. Some 76 to date. These are small, reproductively isolated. Are in general genetic deafness is present in communities and its recessive deafness. Recessive deafness means that to be deaf, a child must inherit a copy of a gene. The relevant gene from each parent. Its not enough to inherit the copy from one parent. So what happens in this community is, is that because its reproductively isolate the gene for deafness spreads broadly within the population ultimately numerous deaf individuals may be born into community and then a sign language may emerge here in communities and this is important may also know and use the sign language in fact the last users village sign language is at least a last users in. The village are often hearing individuals. So why should we be interested in village sign languages . Well, they are very instances in which we can actually observe. They emergence of a new language. Its almost impossible to find new amongst the spoken languages, but it is possible to identify new sign languages. New languages to new sign languages that have no prior that are not derived from any previously existing sign language. And in fact some modern village sign languages only a few generations. So this is a rare instance is village sign languages in which we can observe how language developed over time across generations. Let me briefly describe what well call the standard account of the origins of Marthas Vineyard<\/a>. Sign language during the great migration previously, because these two people. During the great migration, the 16 2230s, thousands of english puritans, including many from the county of kent in england, migrated to new to new england to massachusetts in particular, a eventually a number of kentish origin families settled on Marthas Vineyard<\/a>. Some of these families, according to this standard account, may have known the sign language that emerged in kent and its that this kent just fine may have existed in the 17th century maybe earlier. Like Marthas Vineyard<\/a> it was relatively isolated area isolated in southey, eastern england. The standard of a village sign language is what im showing you here. Okay, so in its origins, the standard account suggests that. And this account is due in significant to a wonderful by nora alan gross a very important book published in 1985 by Harvard University<\/a> press. The first deaf individuals on the island are the lambert family, the lamberts and early other early settlers. It couldnt have just been that family. They needed to intermarry with other who would also carry the recessive gene. And there seemed to have been several families who arrived who were probably carriers of recessive gene for vineyard deafness. Many hearing islanders, likely signers of Marthas Vineyard<\/a>, sign language and it is suggested that even the first deaf individuals born who arrived on the island, jonathan lambert, actually moved to the island from on cape cod. But jonathan and his offspring lived a barrier free life, serving in a variety of roles as a town official. Ah, in whats now tisbury by the 1840s there were 40 or more deaf and the patrols, and there were numerous hearing individuals on the vineyard and perhaps indeed everyone at least everyone in chilmark anticipate or near marthas sign language later deaf individual also would attend the American School<\/a> for. The deaf in hartford, connecticut. This was the first enduring, First Permanent<\/a> school for the deaf in the United States<\/a>, due the numbers and their established language. Its been argued that that the vineyard ers may have had an important influence on the Early Development<\/a> of so then in the late 1800s an influx of mainland mainlanders to the island reduced the proportion of carriers of deafness in the Marthas Vineyard<\/a> population. Few deaf individuals were born after the in the 1880s or thereafter or fewer deaf children were born either deaf or hearing parents. And the last deaf signer of marthas sign language died in 52. So. 1694 to 1952 on this account, Marthas Vineyard<\/a> sign language endured on this island and. Now there is a problem for the stand or the count of the vineyard language. In the late 1830s or early 1840s, a gentleman by the name of william turner, who would later become third principal of the American School<\/a> for the deaf and heart for he was traveling around visiting alumni of the Hartford School<\/a> and he traveled from hartford to chilmark for that purpose he interviewed the members of four families that met the smiths, the tilton and the lucius, all of which were then very common names on the and still are, but believe often more of these families had sent children to the American School<\/a> for the deaf and heard. And let me let you briefly read especially the quotation on the left. Okay, so mother of the first child was to be born one of the first child. The mother a child who was born in 1785 and chilmark was the name emily here. She was a native, a native of chilmark and she was would become the mother to five deaf children and in 1784 she went to a Funeral Service<\/a> likely at the chilmark burial ground. And while at the Funeral Service<\/a> while at grave, she noticed a young woman and she says, someone standing near me told me that she was deaf and dumb. Deaf and dumb was the term used even in the Deaf Community<\/a> at that time for a deaf person . And then she continued, was as i had never seen a person in her condition before. I watched her movements great interest as coffin was lowered into the grave, she clasped her hands, her eyes, and with a peculiar expression of grief and uttered such a cry as i never heard in my life before. Her image was before me by day and by night, for weeks and her unnatural voice was constantly constantly ringing in my ears in due time. My child benjamin may hear was born, and as feared, proved to be deaf and dumb. Okay, so here have an example of a folk theory of why should she would have a deaf child . It was because of maternal and that was not an uncommon theory at the time. So she was frightened by the presence of a deaf woman. The important point for us is that she asserts that she had never seen a deaf woman before in her life. Yet she on this island that we are told have history of sign language from 1694 that there were many individuals on the island. But yet here chilmark, livia hear and then the mothers of and three other families the smith, the tilton and the luces. They had never they met a deaf woman deaf individual all before the birth of Benjamin Mayhew<\/a> lydia son in 1785. So can it be that if we have a continuous history. From 1694 to 1952, how could be that lydia met here and the smith mother, the tilton mother and the lewis mother. How it be that i have no knowledge deaf people . Its quite surprising surprising. So it happens. This report has largely been in the past. People were aware of it but discounted the report because the focus on maternal front but the key point for us is here in chilmark is for families had deaf children within a relatively small area and within a relatively short span of time and yet none of those families have had any experience with deafness or with people prior to 1785. How this be. Well were going to propose a new account and ill you look at this line for a second. Okay. Oops. All right. So along with the standard account, we assume english emigrants to Marthas Vineyard<\/a> likely brought a recessive gene for deafness to the island island, but we see very little evidence. Really no evidence linking that vineyard deafness to the county of kent in particular. And there is no evidence that they brought a sign language with them. It might have been true, but we have no evidence whatsoever that it was true. Instead of suggesting that Marthas Vineyard<\/a> language was important to island, that it came from kent, we are going to suggest that it arose here on vineyard, that it was to martha spender. So it was indigenous to the english on this island. Were not to the wampanoag community, not to the later portuguese community, but it was indigenous to the English Community<\/a> who immigrated this island. Were going to further suggest that Marthas Vineyard<\/a> sign language likely arose between 1785 and 1825. And we will lastly suggest that there were likely numerous hearing individuals on the island, especially in chilmark and west tisbury who knew some of the sign language but we very much doubt that everyone even in chilmark we doubt that everyone knew Marthas Vineyard<\/a> sign language. But many people may have now what is whats our for these claims. Well weve amassed quite a bit of documentary evidence and these data we will report today so this includes 19th Century Research<\/a> notably the research of Alexander Graham<\/a> Bell Alexander<\/a> bell, that bell that you all know the bell of a Bell Telephone<\/a> are dead substantial Genealogical Research<\/a> on the history of new england deaf families. He was interested in the genetics of deafness in, understood that deafness could be inherited, but hed written the mechanism and he wanted try to find out more about the inheritance of now Alexander Graham<\/a> bell is not a favored its not somebody the Deaf Community<\/a> now admires why . Because he later became involved in the Eugenics Movement<\/a> and he had a strong view that deaf people should not marry nervous so hes not an an honored figure in the Deaf Community<\/a> but yeah he made an important contribution to our understanding of the history of deaf people in new england. We will also report jamie a watch all our evidence also comes from genealogical records and census records are. Weve also consulted the records of the american for the deaf in hartford or putting all this information together or along with information from nora grosss book and with other oral history interviews as those conducted by lindsey lee are, weve put together a database of deaf and deaf individuals, lived on the island and our family members and we will all know as talk more we will discuss for in the history of the Deaf Community<\/a> here let me just look at let you look at this graph. So here we are on the bottom. You see the decade on the y axis, you see the number of deaf individuals who lived on Marthas Vineyard<\/a>. And were going to divide this graph into four periods between, 1692 and 1785. There was a disparity deaf population during. That period we that the recessive gene for spread. Throughout the community but largely in chilmark and tisbury so it spread widely but largely in chilmark and westchester. From 1788, 1785 to 1825, there was period in which Marthas Vineyard<\/a> sign language and the chilmark Swimming Community<\/a> in particular, a period in which that Deaf Community<\/a> developed independently, then in the 1850s, the population peaked in chilmark and west tisbury are the peak was 26 individuals on our count and then after 18 after the 1890, the size of a deaf population began a long period of decline. Until 1952 and the last deaf individual who we know of who was a member of these deaf families, member of a vineyard. Who apparently was not a strong signer. So he may not been deeply enmeshed in the signing communities, died in 1998. So let me now turn it over to justin. Darling im sorry that the question did not repeat the question were not asking. Okay lets begin now with the the early period and the time during which as richard mentioned, from about 1692 or 1694 until 1785, until the birth of Benjamin Mayhew<\/a> in chilmark, during which the deaf population was relatively small and dispersed on the island now who were the earliest deaf islanders . And ill give you a second to look at the slide. Now for those you whove been upstairs and have seen the exposition exhibition excuse me about the Deaf Community<\/a>, you will have seen a page from the diary of Samuel Sewell<\/a>. How judge Samuel Sewell<\/a> is known for his part in the salem trials, which began in 1692. So some two decades later, judge sewell was traveling around. He was a circuit writing judge, traveling around and to Marthas Vineyard<\/a>, and he had this encounter. And we have here a snippet from his diary. You can see the bolded text and ill read it we were ready to be offended that an englishman, jonathan lambert, the Company Speak<\/a> not a word to and it seems he is deaf and dumb. Okay, now just a brief word on the very flexible spelling of lamberts last name here. Its spelled lumbered off, often see it in other records as lambert, most frequently as lambert does with a you in the historical records. And thats how well refer to him here as lambert with the you. So this is the earliest record that we have of a deaf individual. The island of. Now jonathan wasnt the only individual who lived on the island during this early period. Weve identified. Another eight in various types of historical records. So we have, for example, jonathan lamberts own last will and testament here here. There are notes from Alexander Graham<\/a> bells notes of Alexander Graham<\/a> bells that also identified deaf individuals. We have, for example, rebecca skiff here may siblings here, and there are also genealogy School Records<\/a> that pick out deaf people and interestingly, in the legal papers of john adams, he also mentions witnessing a trial in which a deaf person took part. He wasnt the focus of the trial, but he took part. And you can see that here. So nine deaf individuals in total during this early period. So now the is when and where did these early deaf islanders live. Well here weve tried to make the times of residents and also they approximate locations visible to you you can what should take away from this figure is that there were three small relatively small clusters of deaf individuals on the island. If we from the bottom we see the lambert family in green who lived near what is today Lamberts Cove<\/a> cove. And we have three deaf individuals who lived for some time in edgartown, but who didnt overlap temporally very much. And then we have three individuals who lived in chilmark and again, just to reiterate, there very limited temporal or geographic overlap amongst these nine individuals. But then also with the post 1785 Chilmark Community<\/a> that were going to say began with the birth of benjamin and his birth, weve marked here with the star. Now, if we focus in on that period just surrounding Benjamin Mayhew<\/a>s birth, and youll see that there were only a few People Living<\/a> on the island at that time and going to on the next slide, just focus in that period. So as i said, there were just a few deaf islanders in right around 1785 and this really matches with, uh, the story that understood from, from the story that richard read earlier. William turners account, the reports of these four deaf mothers. Its becomes a little bit easier. Understand how that report might have been true given that there were only a few deaf individuals living on the island at the time. So, for example, we had beulah lambert, who lived in Lamberts Cove<\/a>, was quite elderly at the time. And Andrew Butler<\/a> and holmes whole george and edgartown and possibly rebecca skiff chilmark. Although its difficult to say exactly because we dont have death record for rebecca, we dont know an exact lease. She left the area. We assume that she left before 1785 because of lydia mae hughes report and the reports of the other families in chilmark. So again, the overall takeaway here is that that looking at the deaf who were alive at the time, it starts to make the story of lydia mayhew make much more sense. Okay, so well move on now to, the the period from Benjamin Mayhew<\/a>s in 1785 until 1825, when the first three deaf islanders attended the American School<\/a> for the deaf in hartford and this is the period, as richard mentioned, during which we think Marthas Vineyard<\/a> sign language arose and during which the signing community, especially in chilmark, developed independently of mainland deaf populations. This map shows approximate residences, four families that deaf individuals between 1785 and 1825 can see. The first seven deaf individuals were born in western chilmark into the mayhew and smith families. Between 1785 and 1811. Later between 18, 18 and 1824 for additional deaf children were born into the tilton and luce families. And as show later, the deaf population then rose rapidly from here but up until the point where the deaf population in chilmark was developing relatively independent only of any mainland deaf population, these are the individuals who were born in this period. Now ive put together a brief animation that shows the locations deaf islanders and deaf residents chilmark over the period from 1785 and then stretching a little bit into the nine further into the 19th century, 1850, youll see, a lot of things pop up here on this video. So were starting here with Benjamin Mayhew<\/a> and his birth in 1785. Youll see individuals born into this family. Then youll see another house, uh, deaf individuals born into a house nearby in 1817. Youll see the American School<\/a> for the deaf represented up here. And then youll start to see arrows showing that some individuals went to the American School<\/a>, the deaf, some of them came home, some of moved to different places in chilmark and so on. Theres a lot happening. Im just giving you a little bit of a warning that you wont be able to follow everything, but thats its kind of just thats not exactly the point to get all of the details. And thats 1850. And as you can see, in 1850, there were quite a lot of deaf individuals living in chilmark in tisbury. So up to now weve been focusing on the when and, how many and where of these of the deaf population, where were they when when were they there . But what were their what were the lives of deaf chil markers like during this period before 25, before they began attending the American School<\/a> for the deaf . Well unfortunately, we dont know a lot about what their lives were like before that period. We have a few indications of we have a few bits of evidence that give us idea of what their lives were like. So example we can look at marriage patterns, but we dont have a lot of information there. So before 1825, only six of the individuals that we saw on the map were age 18 or over. None of them had married, but three eventually would. So it doesnt help us a lot to understand what was going on on. There are a couple of very interesting of evidence. The American School<\/a> for the deaf produced annually or produced reports about the school for their and so on and. Included in these reports were, compositions or essays were written by their students. And two of those essays were written by. Levi mayhew, a deaf resident of chilmark. So heres one small bit a couple of sentences from an essay that she wrote in eight, and that was published the 1828 annual report where love just describes. Youll remember that she lived in the very western part of chilmark, very close to aquinnah. And here she says, my parents live in chilmark near the indians. We often talked with each. We did not fear the indians who lived near chilmark. So its kind of an interesting insight into her life. There. A couple of years later, love, she wrote essay that was published and this again is very interesting ill read this but she says before i came to the asylum. I knew that the deaf and dumb pupils came to it. I often asked my father if he would permit me to go there and he that he would let me go there. But had not enough money. He had not money enough. My father told me that he was truly sorry because i could not go there. He, the governor, if he would allow his daughter to go to the asylum for the purpose of learning. When i heard that the governor would let me go there, i was much delighted. So the interesting point here, one interesting point is that the mayhew said evidently learned about the existence of the American School<\/a> for the deaf even before the first deaf islanders went there in 1825. So word was getting around. There was a school for the deaf and and the other interesting point here is that lovett desired to go. She often asked her father to, allow her to go. So it is kind of striking that love who as weve seen had many deaf individuals living other deaf individuals living in chilmark, nevertheless had a sense that she wanted to go to this school for the deaf far in hartford. Okay, so lovely. And. Lovely. Sally smith and mary smith go off in october 1825 to the American School<\/a> for the deaf, and from 1825 until the 1890s, we see that there was a theres a real a rapid in the population of deaf islanders. But also there was a kind of a period of intensive contact with the wider Deaf Community<\/a> in new england. And thats what were going to look at now. First, this graph shows the period of attendance of all 25 deaf islanders at the American School<\/a> for the deaf. As weve already said, the first three islanders arrived in 1825, which was about eight and a half years after the school was founded. The highest number of islanders to attend. At the same time occurred in the 1850s. There were six, as we said. There were, 25 in total. And five deaf women were born on the mainland. So werent deaf islanders, but they married a deaf islander, a deaf man in this case, and moved to the island after marriage. And were going to look at those individuals now. So here we in green, the. Five women who were born in the mainland. They attended sd, married a deaf man from the island and moved to the island. At the same time. And the the map on the left kind of their approximate location from where they moved. At the same time. Not exactly the same thing. Five women who were born the island, five deaf women attended the met probably good looking deaf men and married them and moved off island. So you had a situation where you had deaf women from the mainland effect replaced five of them in effect replace five island born deaf women. And one interesting insight here is the born deaf women. They would have known asl because. They attended the American School<\/a> for the deaf and learned language there, but they wouldnt least initially have known Martha Vineyard<\/a> language, of course, because they were from the mainland. So when they moved to the island it could well have been that deaf islanders began to adjust to the of these new deaf individuals on the island. Perhaps they started to use asl because they were asl on the island and just that, as weve seen during the 19th century, 25 deaf islanders attended, sd and also themselves learned asl. Okay, so these marriages represent a kind of evidence of an integration of deaf islanders into the wider new england signing community. We have also other types evidence. For example lydia macomber sorry. Lydia macomber she was not the island, but she attended the American School<\/a> for the deaf and her correspondence shows us that many former students, the American School<\/a> for the deaf, traveled around a lot in new england. So she mentions here two individuals, mary hillman says here mary hillman visited the diadem here. Tilton, who was a deaf. She went to chilmark and visited damia. And then we also have louis perkins, who also went later to cdi damia and unfortunately, louis did not behave himself as a gentleman we dont know exactly what that but so deaf individuals are traveling around at this time and the island was not isolated from that. People were coming to visit. We also see that deaf islanders were traveling from the island, the mainland. So this is a attendance registry of a large gathering of deaf individuals in 1854 in hartford, several deaf islanders attended this gathering, including here with highlighted ruby, who was herself. She was one of the first five mayhew deaf mae used to be born in chilmark. She did not attend American School<\/a> for the deaf, so she had not been in hartford for years and years at the school. Nevertheless, she traveled to hartford and this gives us some indication that she still felt a sort of part of the wider new england Deaf Community<\/a> community. And then finally the new England Gallaudet Association<\/a> for deaf mute. So this was the of the first regional deaf Led Association<\/a> in the u. S. And here on the rolls in 1856, we find ten island born deaf individuals. So they were members of. This regional Deaf Community<\/a> in which they had to pay a dollar in annual dues. So these deaf islanders were willing to pay their dollar annually to be part the association. Now backing out just a bit, weve talked a lot about the deaf population, but we also think about other individuals on the island who are likely to have been fluent signers. So we can think about hearing individuals who had deaf in the dark blue here on the graph we can about the younger hearing siblings of deaf individuals in the aqua part of the graph and we can also think about the hearing spouses dark green. Now if we add up all these individuals, the deaf individuals plus these others who are likely to have been fluent signers, we get a pretty large of people. We have for more than half a century, for 51 years, from 1846 to 1897, more than 50 individuals live on the island. So more than 50, roughly mainly in chilmark and west tisbury for more than half a century. Thats quite a lot. You can see in the 20th century that the deaf parents had Hearing Group<\/a> starts to become the largest. And well focus just briefly on that group. So total in total there were 38 such individuals, people who had deaf parents hearing, individuals with deaf parents. You can see that from about 1840 to 1880, that population rose quite rapidly from 0 to 20, it peaked at population, peaked 24 in around 1920. And importantly here after 1900, you can see that there were always more of these deaf parents and persons than there were deaf persons on the island. Okay. So throughout of the 20th century, the people, the majority of people who were sorry, the Largest Group<\/a> of, fluent signers, would have been hearing individuals individuals. Okay. And then well try get through this part quickly. The decline in the deaf population. Now we just have to hearken back very briefly to a bit of information that richard gave us earlier on the about the inheritance of recessive deafness. So again, just very briefly, if you have to carrier those to deaf carriers of recessive deafness, they children, 100 of those children will be deaf. If you have one deaf carrier of, this recessive gene and one hearing carrier, then we would expect that roughly 50 would be deaf. And if we have one deaf carrier and any non carrier, then we would not expect any of their children to be deaf okay. So what were which were focusing here is the question of why the deaf popular nation declined so rapidly. Was the deaf population not able to sustain itself . And part of that and part the answer to that question is that there few deaf children born to deaf parents. And so if we look at the. Ten marriages of island born deaf individual to a mainland, born deaf individual, those marriages produced one children. But as you can see, only five of those children were deaf. Now, if both of the deaf individuals had carriers, we would have expected 100 of the children to be deaf. But that wasnt the case there was one such marriage, two island born deaf individuals and as expected, they had one child and that child was deaf. And then again, of the. Marriages in which one person was deaf, one person was hearing, both were island born. If you remember, we would expect 50 if if both these individuals were carriers, 50 of their children, we would expect to be. From these marriages. We have 46 children only. Seven of those individuals are deaf. So in total, theres a typo here that should read 23 marriages is 23 unions included at least one deaf islander. They had 68 children in total. But only 11 deaf offspring lived on the island and two on the mainland. So there were quite, quite a lot fewer deaf individuals than there might have been if both partners had been carriers. Then again, very briefly, looking at the hearing side, if you have two hearing carriers, you would expect that 25 of the offspring would be deaf. And again, if one is a non carrier, 0 . So interestingly, from the birth of Benjamin Mayhew<\/a> in 1785, all the way up until 43, all of the deaf individuals born on the island were born to hearing couples. Okay, as you can see that dropped off quite quickly afterwards and the reason that richard hinted at before, its quite a complex answer. Why did hearing couples stop having deaf children, well, in part this was part Martha Vineyard<\/a> was part of a much larger trend called the historical fertility, in which fertility rates in the u. S. But also in europe were declining. Which meant that if you have fewer overall, you also have fewer deaf births. We know that in the 19th century, some islanders were migrating off island, for example, california and, as richard mentioned, there was also an influx of mainlanders to island and we would expect we would not expect those mainlanders to be carriers of vineyard deafness. So that lowered the proportion carriers in the population and lowered the likelihood that children would be born deaf. And ill just wrapping up weve argued weve tried to show that there is no good evidence. Linguistic continuity from kent to chilmark. Weve shown that there were fewer deaf islanders than Previous Research<\/a> has suggested and argued that Marthas Vineyard<\/a> sign was indigenous to the island and that it first arose in chilmark. Weve also seen evidence that deaf islanders were forming a deaf identity, even even before 1825. For example, lovi often asked her father attend the American School<\/a> for the deaf. Weve seen that 11 deaf islanders marry deaf individuals, ten of them joined the new england gallaudet. And just in general, many deaf islanders chose to join the wider Deaf Community<\/a> that was forming across new england. Weve seen that that that just 1 of students who attended the American School<\/a> for the deaf were from Marthas Vineyard<\/a> between 1817, 1867. So in the first 50 years, weve shown that the highest number in attendance at one time was six. And weve also seen that 25 deaf islanders attended the school and likely learned asl while they were there. So we can conclude from all of those bits of information that isso likely had a very Strong Influence<\/a> on Marthas Vineyard<\/a>. Sign language, a growing influence as well over time. And then finally here weve seen that the signing community when we not just deaf individuals but also hearing individuals was quite large as weve seen than 50 such individuals for half a century century. And again weve seen that deaf islanders chose to integrate themselves into wider new england Deaf Community<\/a> and that in part because of decision. Martha, the Marthas Vineyard<\/a> signing community eventually declined. And with this last slide, well return to. The question suggests that in our title slide, what was the place of the vineyard signing community in American History<\/a> . Well, seen that a village sign language. It was one of the few is one of just few communities of its type in u. S. History. This island, Marthas Vineyard<\/a>, was the birthplace of a language Marthas Vineyard<\/a> sign language. Because so many attended the American School<\/a> for the the early American Education<\/a> had a strong impact on this community, as did asl. And finally, the vineyard signing community to resonate down to the present day in our discipline and linguistics beyond the shores, this island within the american deaf world and even farther beyond the Marthas Vineyard<\/a>, signing community is well known throughout. The wider deaf world. And with that will conclude and thank you. Anyone has questions. Yes, im very interested about the cause of deafness, genetic deafness and those links as well as deafness that came from illness. Do you know of what percentage deaf people from Marthas Vineyard<\/a> had from either category. I dont have the specific percentage. I can certainly send that to you because we weve calculate at that percentage and we have it in our but its quite high most of the deaf individuals are thought to have had this recessive gene for deafness. But. What about those who lost their hearing time do you have any idea about the numbers of those deaf individuals. Well, we really dont know of such individuals. So there are presumably elderly people, just as in any elderly community, many of those people lost their hearing over time, but they would not been considered deaf and dumb. Remember that the Deaf Community<\/a> at this time use a label, deaf and dumb, to refer to itself. Was proud of that label and the individuals who weve talked about here are almost deaf and dumb. There were a few individuals identified by Alexander Graham<\/a> bell as being deaf and. Those include some of the individuals amongst the nine before. 1785 are those may incur parlance have been heard of hearing a its possible that they were not themselves signers. We cant know but are few individuals who are identified as only deaf and and so were not certain that they were signers but they may well have been. Then there were some other individuals including one of the nine intermarriage was who we counted before 1780 part who is identified as being mute. But again we cant know actually at this juncture whether that person was deaf at all. That person could have been autistic because many fraction of individuals are do not or are not do not express. So the american prohibit, but they dont express. And thats true for deaf individuals who are autistic as well. Some deaf and eventually with autism are very, very little expressive language. So thats true for deaf individuals with autism and hearing individuals with autism, however, that knew the individual could merely have been a hearing individual who for whatever reason did speak. We cant conclude with certainty. I mean, it was deaf. Your Genetic Information<\/a> seems to imply or assume, i guess that there is a single genetic alley or mutation recessive gene for all of this deafness. It what whats the basis for that i guess. Well thats its harder and there happens to be common recessive deafness, the form of deafness that was very common in the mediterranean or area of europe and quite common even up england. So its possible that one recessive form of deafness is a recessive of deafness victim here. And i dont know if you remember right now the name of their gene. No i cant its a its the junction beta jgb. I cant remember the number but it it was a common cause of deafness in europe and that may be the gene that works here now. It could be again to get to the question of how many are rare, generically deaf, there could have been some individuals were deaf but have a different form of deafness. That might explain further reason why some there were no deaf offspring. And that certainly could have been for the main one. But so i remember we have arlen deaf, we have this small this reproductively. Its not unreasonable, unreasonable to assume that they shared a common genetic basis for deafness. But then we have five women who move the mainland and most marriages do not yield. Many. Individuals and have five deaf women who moved to the island. And again, there werent many deaf offspring born in henniker. You hampshire. The family there did have deaf children. Ah, we have good to believe that the father had a dominant form of deafness. So that means that half of his children would have deaf and. So the marriage yielded deaf children. But the mother may not have contributed to the deafness of her offspring. It may have entire way been the father who had a dominant of deafness, in which case you only need one copy of the gene gene. Thank you so much for this talk. I do have a question about gross book that you mentioned. A two handed signing was mentioned and also she mentioned her book about codas children of deaf adults or other children had deaf parents and some of them might have known british sign language and that apparently there was something published in london about a two handed signing what we called old british sign language. In 1696 and apparently that was what was reported that was brought to the island have. You found anything else in your research about a two handed signing system system . So thank you for your question. So youre referring to two hand finger spelling system and one just general about finger spelling systems. Is that so example, if youre upstairs and you see the exhibition and you can see the nice pictures of the hand shapes that represent different letters, its its quite easy, in a sense, to share finger spelling alphabets without. An individual necessarily having to show another individual how to do it can do it pictorially. So it is possible. We know, for example, that some deaf individuals in new england before the founding of sd, they were familiar with the french finger spelling alphabet and probably also with the two handed fingers spelling alphabet. So even though they hadnt been to a school for, the deaf, maybe they hadnt met a lot of other deaf individuals. They were nevertheless familiar with finger spelling alphabets. Okay. So that that could also have been true here on the island. We know that, for example, that the mae hughes had already heard about the American School<\/a> for the deaf, perhaps some information about finger spelling alphabets that had also made its way here. Theres also information and what is the name lo . Is it pronounced lo at all or. El0ewl 2000 is it 2000 paper. I dont remember. Yeah. Right around 2000. Thats about right. Low at all. 2000. Theyve provided evidence that there was a two handed finger spelling in use in the United States<\/a> and some parts of the United States<\/a>. Sure, there may have been some differences. Then the next part of of next bit of evidence for the next thing to say is that theres very limited evidence actually that a two handed finger spelling alphabet was used here on the island. So our colleague lee or fella here in the back lee, if you want to way, has has thoroughly gone oral history interviews with hearing islanders who knew deaf individuals. And is it true, lee, that individual reported having known that a two handed version of a two handed finger spanning element saying. She knew she knew both the two handed and the one handed finger spelling alphabet. So of the of the oral into of the end of the hearing individuals were interviewed here on the island just one reported having known about a two handed finger spelling alphabet. Just along those lines. Everyone i spoke to always remarked that a one handed signing was used for both the kind of pictorial images, i mean signs and for the alphabet. And just one additional comment there, and its important also to remember that the oral history interviews were again, of course, took place in the 20th century. So if you remember here the population graph, for example, with deaf parents and individuals who there were more of them, deaf individuals later in the 20th century. So this is basically the period that were looking at. We have individuals who lived about during that time. So what was true before that period when there were more deaf individuals on the island than for deaf parents who hearing individuals we dont know. We dont have oral history from that from that time. Hi. Thank you for your talk when im not clear on is what evidence have for a separate and indigent language that original did here in comparison to you know later sign language and also how lip reading influenced those the development those because many deaf communities are you know involved with both signing and lip reading and to discount that as part of what went here on the island would surprise me. Im sure, and take the first part and ill take the second. Sure. Well, there various we know that there were some signs unique to Marthas Vineyard<\/a> and lee or phil and, her work. She has a paper and submission for publication, has identified some that are unique, often are vocabulary for, you know, things that were important on the island like a sign for cod that is like thats a fish and swordfish. Yeah. So there were some local signs that were important because fishing. Thats important. And the site for cod, as far as we know, is not generally known or amongst signers of American Sign Language<\/a>. Its typically fingerstyle sea organ. So so so there were unique signs when no also this is inferential that in deaf families in families with deaf children there are so called home science systems. In those families. And so these are gestural systems become over time or learned and. Those systems are used by the deaf child. Even a single tone child in interact with his or her parents with the and so on so in families with multiple deaf children. Those language systems are likely to be more developed because the second born child has input from the firstborn child and the third born child has even a richer sign linguistic environment. And so one of my other students asked in german is actually looking families sign language used in state of chiapas in mexico and there are three deaf individuals in that. The first born woman, alvis foreman, is not a terribly fluent the second and third born are brothers are, quite fluent and have a much seemingly have a much more developed sign system than does their older sister. So we see many around the world that would lead us to suggest that if you had seven deaf child children in this small area and screamed in western chilmark that they would have developed a gestural within family and across those two families. So that gives us every reason to think that a language would have gotten started in the between 1785 and 1825. These example of these cases are now very well tested in the linguistic and Child Development<\/a> literature. The but we cant know what it was like or in specific we dont have much evidence we dont have any evidence of what it was like. But it seems a fair supposition that we that such a language would have emerged and given. David, we have reported on the interruption in the continuity of the deaf population around 1785. That is the mothers in chilmark knew no deaf and eventually rebecca skiff who they might have, seems to have disappeared from history. Rebecca could have been that deaf woman who was scheming at the funeral, but they didnt know her. So. So there was an interruption. Whatever sign language have existed prior to 1785 could not have persisted beyond. 85. There were no deaf people. There was no link, no continuous deaf population. And between the deaf individuals who lived before. 85 and after 1785, so during the period from 1785 and 1825, the sign had 40 years to emerge. Then it runs into American Sign Language<\/a>. Thats case were making. Yeah, yeah. Let me just say a couple of words about the second part of the question and just in general, the rise in whats called art called oralism or the oral approach, Deaf Education<\/a>. Now in the second half of the 1800s, particularly in connection the work of Alexander Graham<\/a>, but also others, this idea that you could teach deaf children to speak by using english with them all the time, that that really started to gain purchase among deaf educators. And so throughout the second half of the 19th century became more and more the focus of Deaf Education<\/a>. Even in places like American School<\/a> for the deaf, which historically had been very strongly in favor of using sign language, not what they called articulate teaching articulation. So it the the deaf population on the island not separated from those wider movements within, Deaf Education<\/a>. It was the case that the last who attended the American School<\/a> for the deaf that we showed here into the 1890s that he first attended the the clarks in northampton which was an oral and oral list school that Alexander Graham<\/a> bell was to he attended that school first for whatever reason he didnt stay there very long and then went on to attend the American School<\/a> for the deaf for years, i think seven or eight years after after that individual, we know that there were three other islander deaf individuals who attended the clark school. So and none that period who attended the American School<\/a> for the deaf so yeah again the kind of wider movements in Deaf Education<\/a> affected deaf individuals here on the island. Think this was a fascinating and ear for color graph i think makes an excellent case that the people the hearing people in the community most to use of sign language to some degree though or family members or close relatives do you see any way of even ballpark in either the number of, nonfamily members in or moreover west tisbury who might have had some degree of facility with the language or ballpark . The degree of facility is there any way to get at that from . Looking at other village sign language, perhaps exactly. Yeah, thats a a yeah. Thank you for that question. But so i can answer the first part of that question and thats to say that youre on exactly the same track that that we were on in the paper that has just recently accepted in our paper we do exactly that. We at other village signing communities take the kinds of percentages that have been reported of relatively Fluent Fluent<\/a> signers within those communities and then apply them to the populations, chilmark and west tisbury and so on over time that gives you a very rough estimate because the the percentages are very wide, you know, from from 15 to more than 60 , you know, it does give you some it gives you as you said, it gives you a kind of ballpark figure. You know there may be a better ways to think through that that issue. We know that there were individuals who who didnt to one of those groups werent, the child of a deaf parent who werent a younger sibling or who werent married to a deaf individual. But from based on oral history, we know that they were that they signed. So it is an interesting methodological how do we how do we get a good account those individuals as you want to add anything to that. Yeah i think i would just add before david just reported on that slide that gives us an estimate of the hearing individuals must have for very likely to now sign language so their children and children of deaf individuals the younger of deaf individuals the older might have known sign language. But i dont think we can trust much that they would have known as the sign language as younger sibs who always have a deaf individual in the household. So that gives us the best estimate can have of those people who are like to have have a degree, a good degree of fluency. With the issue of oral ism in person. So i talked to who were might have been part of the recessive gene pool but were born in the toes and went to school 1920s and went to school at hartford probably in the thirties, forties. His report was they were not allowed to use sign language that was private language just in 1930, 40. That was a private language. They used, you know once they went to bed or wherever they were and that they were taught to liberate and to speak. And ive heard that from number of people. So did you meet you said hartford. Did you mean the clark school, the individual who went mean . You say hard for me. Excuse me. It was hartford. Hmm, but you know, people. Can i had an interpreter work with me, so i heard through what the interpreter thought he was saying so maybe that could be the case. She also said that when she was teaching in the up until the seventies in arizona. She was a speaking woman but and hearing woman she said that was the emphasis when she taught and so interesting. I remember the thirties, forties and fifties were really the dark days of sign language for sign language in this country. So where we know the history hartford, the Hartford School<\/a> up until. 1880s or so were not complete when familiar at all with the curriculum at later points. So so what your report might been true for the Hartford School<\/a> even if look at all the state residential for the deaf in this country like the new school the Pennsylvania School<\/a> or again the one in austin texas, they all started as manual schools that were emphasized sign and then as the 19th century and especially into the 20th century there became greater emphasis on speech and certainly many of state residential schools in the fifties or early sixties there would have been a very heavy emphasis on speech and, no allowance for sign in classroom. Now those schools all have moved to sign and emphasize socalled bilingual bi cultural education. Both languages are both hearing and deaf culture. Is something you touched on little bit was the vocabulary of the american. Oh sure. And something you touched on a little bit. The vocabulary of the Martha Vinyard<\/a> language. How much do you actually know that it it seems to be fascinating to figure out how that developed . I mean, likely is to. Yeah. So so have records of about hundred signs that were remembered by some hearing people on the island in. 1977, 1978 and a few interviews later as well. They. Youre sorry sorry. Your question was much we know about it. They were you need were they about. 65 of them were similar to modern asl signs. If we compare them to all asl signs that would have been used at the time that the deaf people were going to school, it was about 75 overlap. So there was definitely a lot of overlap there. Of course, you know, after a long period of contact between asl and Marthas Vineyard<\/a> sign language and what that would have looked like at the beginning of that period, we dont know. That was, you know, after all of the deaf people on the island went to school, had gone to school there and come is is the result that were seeing there. So there was a lot of influence and a lot of overlap there. Yeah, but there were certainly signs that were unique there were signs that were unique that all of the people who were interviewed all agreed that was the sign. And its different than. Any asl sign that we know of. So, so some unique signs definitely persisted as well. Yeah. Let me just from least word the rare if we think that marthas your sign language was derived a language used in england in the county of kent. We might think that were that Marthas Vineyard<\/a> language would show a greater relationship to british sign language than does so. So so so that would assume that whatever language was used in kent somehow influenced the development of. Modern british sign language. But in work there is only one sign out of a whole group that works, that has a strong and a kind of compelling resemblance to a modern british sign. Now its possible that british sign was used a cell or but theres only one sign that provide any in and of itself looks compellingly like it could have come from british sign language and thats the sign for block why we should or. So a sign for block that its not known in modern asl but you cant base a theory of a historical george ince of a language on one word on one side. Thats an interesting example. But thats really. Thank you so much this has been fascinating here. Report on the years following the soviet invasion of afghanistan. 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