Linguists have long known that sign languages are as grammatically and logically sophisticated as spoken languages—and also make greater use of “iconicity,” the property by which some words refer to ...

The emotionality of ASL can free you from the trap of precision. By Hannah Seo When I arrived on the second floor of a commercial building in Manhattan for my first sign-language class, a man took one ...

In a visual language, a subtle hand movement can help you get the joke. By Sam Corbin Nobody talks, if they can help it, at the Sign Language Center in New York City. The practice is both instructive ...

Sign language is a language you express by using your hands and face instead of spoken words. It’s most commonly used by people in the Deaf community. How many types of sign language are there? There ...

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Amanda Morris about how sign language evolves over time, the subject of her recent piece in The New York Times. In 2014, the Oxford English Dictionary, perhaps the most ...