Monastic sign languages

{{Short description|Gestural communication used by Christian monks}} {{Infobox language |name=Monastic Sign |region=[[Europe]] |speakers=none |ref=<ref>{{e16|mzg}}</ref> |familycolor=sign |family=(sign lexicons) |dia1=Anglo-Saxon |dia2=Augustinian |dia3=Benedictine |dia4=Cistercian |iso3=mzg |linglist=mzg |glotto=mona1241 |glottorefname=Monastic Sign Language }} '''Monastic sign languages''' have been used in Europe from at least the tenth century by [[Christians|Christian]] [[monk]]s, and some, such as [[Cistercians|Cistercian]] and [[Trappists|Trappist]] sign, are still in use today—not only in [[Europe]], but also in [[China]], [[Japan]], and the [[United States]].<ref>*'''Cistercian''' : Barakat, Robert. (1975). ''Cistercian sign language: A study in non-verbal communication.'' Cistercian Studies Series, 7. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications. {{ISBN|0-87907-811-1}}<br />*'''Trappist''' : Quay, Suzanne. (2001). ''Signs of Silence: Two Examples of Trappist Sign Language in the Far East''. Cîteaux: Commentarii cistercienses, Vol. 52 (3-4), pp. 211-230</ref> Unlike deaf [[sign language]]s, they are better understood as forms of symbolic [[gesture|gestural]] communication rather than [[language]]s, and some writers have preferred to describe them as sign [[lexicon]]s.<ref>Barley, Nigel F. (1974). ''Two Anglo-Saxon sign systems compared.'' Semiotica, 12, 227–237. (see pp. 234–35 on this point).</ref>

==Uses== The purposes for which these sign lexicons were used were varied. Travelling [[Franciscan]] [[friars]] used [[fingerspelling|finger alphabet]]s, possibly as memory aids for preaching, and in [[Order of Saint Benedict|Benedictine]] [[Monastery|monasteries]], signs representing words were used for limited communication when silence was required. Rather than the popularly imagined total "[[Vow]]s of Silence", the [[Rule of St. Benedict]] merely prohibits conversation in certain areas of the monastery during certain hours of the day. The most common time for silence was known as the "Great Silence" which took place at night. It was only much later, in the seventeenth century, that reform movements within the Cistercian and Trappist communities came to see absolute silence as a valuable penance along with other austere, yet voluntary, deprivations.<ref>Bragg, Lois (1997). ''Visual-Kinetic Communication in Europe Before 1600: A Survey of Sign Lexicons and Finger Alphabets Prior to the Rise of Deaf Education'' Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2:1 Winter 1997</ref>

==Signs== Signs are well documented in medieval Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe, from [[Portugal]] to [[England]]. Antique texts present lists of words with accompanying signs, including instructions for sign production. Occasionally they also explain the rationale behind the sign. Signs are mostly [[noun]]s relating to monastic life. Foods, articles of clothing, particular rooms and buildings, ritual objects, and different ranks of clerical office dominate the vocabulary. The few signs that act as [[verb]]s include "sit", "stand up", "kneel", and "confess".<ref>Rijnberk, G. van (1954). ''Le langage par signes chez le moines.'' Amsterdam: North-Holland. p. 12</ref> They almost always bear an [[Iconicity|iconic]] or visually motivated connection to the thing represented by the sign. No grammar is described for these signs, and they were probably used in the [[word order]] of an oral language—either [[Latin]] or the local vernacular—and possibly with accompanying gesture such as pointing. Modern Cistercian monks in England or the [[United States]] use a syntax derived "heavily, but not exclusively", from English,<ref>Baron, N. S. (1981). ''Speech, writing, and sign: A functional view of linguistic representation.'' Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 238</ref> while Cistercian monks in [[France]] loosely follow the syntax of the [[French language]]; at least as much as it is possible to do so, given the limited lexicon.<ref>Barakat, R. (1975). ''Cistercian sign language: A study in non-verbal communication.'' Cistercian Studies Series, 11. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications.</ref> Vocabulary lists in the medieval texts ranged from 52 signs to 472, with "the average at 178 and a mean at 145."<ref>Calculations by Bragg (1997), using data from Rijnberk (1954).</ref>

The earliest Benedictine sign books date from around 1075 (and again at about 1083) at the [[Abbey of Cluny]]<ref>Bernhard of Cluny, ''De notitia signorum'', in: Umiker-Sebeok et al., Monastic Sign Languages, Approaches to Semiotics 76 (1987), Amsterdam: Benjamins, 345-4</ref> (in what is now France), and [[Hirsau Abbey]]<ref>''Constitutions Hirsaugienses.'' Book I, ch. 6-25. In J.-P. Migne, (Ed.), Patrologiae: Cusus Completus (Paris, 1844-64), vol. 150, colo. 940-57.</ref> (in what is now [[Germany]]) at around the same time. [[Bonaventure]] in the thirteenth century used a finger alphabet,<ref>Werner H. (1932). ''Geschichte des Taubstummenproblems bis ins 17, Jahrhundert'' ("History of the deaf-mute problem in the seventeenth century"). Jena, Germany: Verlag von Gustav Fisher; 1932.</ref> and the medieval ''Monasteriales Indicia'' describes 127 signs used by Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monks.<ref>''Monasteriales Indicia: The Anglo-Saxon Monastic Sign Language'', Edited with notes and translation by [[Debby Banham]]. {{ISBN|0-9516209-4-0}}. </ref> Signs from a sixteenth century Portuguese monastic sign language have also been documented.<ref>Martins, M. (1960). ''Livros de sinais dos Cistercienses Portugueses.'' Boletim de Filologia, 17, 293-357. 1-27.</ref>

==List== *Benedictine sign language ** (Cluny dialect) *Anglo-Saxon monastic sign language (defunct) *Augustinian Sign Language = Canons Sign Language (defunct) ** Dublin Cathedral (defunct) ** Ely Cathedral (defunct) ** Paris (defunct) *Trappist Sign Language *[[Cistercians|Cistercian]] Sign Language

==References== <references />

==Further reading== *Bruce, Scott G. (2001). "The Origins of Cistercian Sign Language", ''Cîteaux: Commentarii cistercienses'' 52 (2001): 193–209. *Bruce, Scott G. (2005). "Monastic Sign Language in the Cluniac Customaries", in ''From Dead of Night to End of Day: The Medieval Customs of Cluny / Du cœur de la nuit à la fin du jour : Les coutumes clunisiennes au Moyen-Âge''. Eds. S. Boynton & I. Cochelin (Disciplina monastica 3). Turnhout: Brepols, 2005, pp. 273–286. *Bruce, Scott G. (2007). ''Silence and Sign Language in Medieval Monasticism: The Cluniac Tradition, c. 900-1200''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. *Barakat, Robert (1975). ''The Cistercian sign language: a study in non-verbal communication''. (Cistercian Study Series; 7) Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1975. Reviewed by [[William Stokoe|Stokoe, W.]] (1978) in ''Semiotica'', 24 (1975): 181-94 *Barley, Nigel F. (1974). "Two Anglo-Saxon sign systems compared", ''Semiotica: journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies'' 12 (1974): 227-37. *Jarecki, Walter (1981). ''Signa loquendi: Die cluniacensischen Signa-Listen eingeleitet und herausgegeben.'' Baden-Baden: Koerner. *Daniels, Marilyn (1997). ''Benedictine Roots in the Development of Deaf Education''. Bergin & Garvey. {{ISBN|0-89789-500-2}} *[[Adam Kendon|Kendon, Adam]] (1990). "Signs in the cloister and elsewhere", ''Semiotica'' 79, nos. 3-4 (1990), pp. 307–329 *Nitschke, August (1997). "Sign language and gesture in medieval Europe: Monasteries, courts of justice, and society", in ''Nonverbal communication: where nature meets culture''. Eds. Ullica Segerstråle & Peter Molnár. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1997, pp. 263–274. *Umiker-Sebeok, Jean & Thomas A. Sebeok, eds. (1987). ''Monastic sign language''. (Approaches to Semiotics 76). Berlin-NY-Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter.

[[Category:Non-deaf sign languages]] [[Category:Ritual languages]] [[Category:Languages of Europe]] [[Category:Monasticism]] [[Category:Cistercian Order]] [[Category:Languages attested from the 10th century]]