INTRODUCTION
The first edition of the Sign Manual having been exhausted and the demand for copies being continuous the only thing to do was to get out a second edition which is herewith presented with such changes and additions as experience has suggested.
Among these additions the most important is an appendix containing distinctively Catholic signs, with illustrations to accompany the descriptions.
The manual originally had its inception while the author was teaching signs to a class of hearing teachers. After the signs had been shown, a written description was furnished as a guide for reference. The success of the plan suggested that such a descriptive vocabulary would be a help to those who were anxious to learn the sign language and to others who felt the occasional need of some standard of reference to refresh their memory or add to the signs already known.
The work is not presented with the idea that persons unfamiliar with the deaf or their language can take it up and therefrom master the art of communicating in the language of pantomine and understand its peculiarities. But it is believed that those who have had some experience with the deaf and have opportunities to see the signs made will find it easy to follow the instructions given. As with all other languages, so with this language, ease and familiarity in its use and the mastery of its idiom come only by long practice and association with those to whom it is most familiar.
The Sign Language is not now used as a means in the education of the deaf to so great an extent as during the early years of the work. And in no school is it taught as was formerly the case. Its use in schools for the deaf at present is confined to chapel and religious exercises, in their social gatherings of pupils and on the playground.
As a result, pupils merely pick it up haphazard and often from those unfamiliar with it, and no attempt is made to see that it is learned and used correctly. Consequently this very useful and valuable language of pantomime has not been acquired by the rising generation in that purity and perfection attained by the deaf and their instructors during the early decades of its use in this country. It is believed, therefore, that the adult deaf on leaving school will find the manual of assistance in acquiring a more certain and accurate command of their natural language.
Another hope of the author is that it will help to preserve this expressive language, to which the deaf owe so much, in its original purity and beauty, and that it will serve as a standard of comparison in different parts of the country, thereby tending to secure greater uniformity.
The list below, I believe, includes practically all of the root signs used by the deaf. It is by the use of these in combination and for definition that the signs for other words are made. It is not feasible in a work of this kind to indicate the combination for every word, owing to the fact that it is an ideographic and not a word language.
The words have been grouped under certain heads or classes into which they seemed most naturally to fall. At times the relation of certain words to their head may appear far-fetched and the classification somewhat arbitrary, but such words have been so placed on account of suggestion or association.
In making acknowledgments it is a pleasure to name first of all the one who has ever been my greatest inspiration and help in the preparation of the work—my wife. In taking up the task I had her prompting and encouragement, and during its progress her suggestions, advice and help were of the greatest value. She alone made the additional drawings on the photographs which amplified and completed the illustrations.
I am also indebted to Rev. Dr. Philip J. Hasenstab, of Chicago, who carefully went over the manuscript, verifying the descriptions, pointing out errors, and offering many suggestions which have added to the value of the completed material. Dr. Hasenstab received his early education in the Indiana school under early masters of the Sign Language who learned it at Hartford. This gives the assurance, therefore, that the descriptions conform to the original manner of making the signs.
In the preparation of the second edition I am further indebted to Rev. Father F. A. Moeller, formerly of Chicago, but now of Kansas City, for the descriptions of distinctively Catholic signs which are here added. Father Moeller is president of the Catholic Deaf-Mute Conference which approved his sign vocabulary. In addition to furnishing the descriptions he posed for the pictures used in the illustrations.