Auslan (; an abbreviation of Australian Sign Language) is the sign language used by the majority of the Australian Deaf community. Auslan is related to British Sign Language (BSL) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL); the three have descended from the same parent language, and together comprise the BANZSL language family. As with other sign languages, Auslan's grammar and vocabulary is quite different from spoken English. Its origin cannot be attributed to any individual; rather, it is a natural language that emerged spontaneously and has changed over time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Auslan experienced a period of increased visibility through press conferences from federal and state leaders and health officials, which invariably featured Auslan interpreters. Since 2020, the ABC News channel's Sunday 5pm bulletin has included Auslan interpretation.

Auslan Day is celebrated on 13 April each year. This date was chosen as the anniversary of the publication of the first Auslan dictionary in 1989.

Prominent advocates for Auslan

In 2006 David Gibson was the first member of any Parliament in Australia to give a maiden speech in Auslan and was involved in Auslan events for the National Week of Deaf People at the Queensland Parliament, including the use of Auslan interpreters for question time and a debate between members of the deaf community and members of parliament on disability issues in 2007.

The Young Australian of the Year for 2015, Drisana Levitzke-Gray, is a strong proponent of Auslan and, in her acceptance speech using Auslan, called on the Government of Australia, and Australians, to learn and use Auslan as a natural language, as a human right for Australians.

History

thumb|Thomas Pattison, early Deaf educator

Auslan evolved from sign language varieties brought to Australia during the nineteenth century from Britain and Ireland. The earliest record of a deaf Australian was convict Elizabeth Steel, who arrived in 1790 on the Second Fleet ship "Lady Juliana". In general, word order in Auslan takes into account context and fluidity between signs being used, being less rigid than many spoken languages. Rather, Auslan instead follows the clause/word order of TTC—Time, topic, comment. The frequency of SVO in Auslan may come from code-switching with English (with very high bilingualism for Auslan users), as it is more common with "loan words (signs), English-based idiomatic phrases [and] fingerspelling" as well as by those who learned Auslan later in life.

In question phrases, the question word must always be at the end in Auslan in open questions. This word order is the same for both questions and statements, with questions in Auslan formed by either adding a question word at the end of a clause TOM KICKED PETER WHY or using nonmanual features of a questioning expression.

Verbs

Verbs in Auslan which are depicting signs use head-marking to show the semantic role of the arguments, rather than subject/object. An example of this is the word give, which involves an actor and a recipient. Both of these arguments can be expressed on the verb by using signing space.

Verb predicates can be formed by using individual vocabulary words in sequential order (more commonly used by anglophones who speak Auslan as a second language) or using depicting signs, which can "blur" word order, as it allows for multiple signs to be used at once. This is generally a mark of high competence and fluency in the language. Lexicalisation of common predicates is common, and compounding is the most common way that new lexical items are produced.

Auslan is a zero-copula language, which means that the verb to be is not used at all except when quoting English (in which it is finger-spelt). Examples of use are as follows:

  • Phoebe is an engineer : PHOEBE WHAT ENGINEER
  • She is at school : SHE WHERE SCHOOL
  • I went shopping with my sister : (BEFORE) I SHOP WITH WHO MY SISTER

Pronouns

Pronouns are established using the signing space, either arbitrary (for non-present people/things) or iconic.

See also

  • List of sign languages

References

Sources

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Further reading

  • Johnston, T. & Schembri, A. (2007). Australian Sign Language (Auslan): An introduction to sign language linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
  • Johnston, T.A. & Wilkin, P. (1998; reprinted 2010, see Deaf Australia : Auslan Shop .) Signs of Australia : A new dictionary of Auslan (the sign language of the Australian Deaf community). North Rocks, NSW, Australia : North Rocks Press : Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children.
  • www.auslan.org.au - An online dictionary of Auslan video clips
  • ASLIA - Australian Sign Language Interpreters Association
  • Auslan online dictionaries
  • The Endangered Languages Archive of Auslan recordings