Gebärdensprache
Sign language is the most important instrument for communication between deaf people and the Deaf culture. Using sign language deaf people can join social networks, local and globally, which join the Deaf culture together. Sign Language is a loose term for people that are deaf or hard of hearing and use signs to communicate. American Sign Language (ASL) is most closely related to the older form of French Sign Language, as Laurent Clerc, who was deaf and a teacher, was brought to the America's by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Though Clerc brought French Sign Language, there was already sign language being used. Martha's Vineyard had more than average deaf people who had created their own Sign Language. The French Sign Language and the Sign Language that was already in use, became American Sign Language. Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities are closely drawn together due to their culture and use of Sign Language. Sign language, like the English language, is always changing. If you learn Sign Language on the West coast of the United States and then travel to the East Coast, you will find a different dialect of ASL; although very similar, there are differences. In the United States you will find many dialects of Sign Language - from SEE sign (Signed Exact English), which follows English grammar rules when using modified ASL signs, to the Rochester Method, where every single word is finger spelled out in the English Language, generally without the use of signs. There is a grey area in between 'English' and 'ASL' known as Contact Variety (previously referred to as Pidgin Sign Language, or PSE), which uses any number of combinations of English word order/grammar combined with aspects of ASL (or SEE). You then have people that are not originally from the United States that move here and once they acclimate to ASL, what they sign becomes a mixture of ASL, SEE and their native countries' Sign Language, creating yet another dialect of Sign Language.