page_title: Sign language
section_title: Interpretation
hierarchical_section_title: Sign language / In society / Interpretation
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Das Musikfestival Haltestelle Woodstock im Jahr 2017 in Kostrzyn nad Odrą, Polen. Polski: Festiwal muzyczny Przystanek Woodstock w 2017 r. w Kostrzynie nad Odrą. English: Przystanek Woodstock in 2017. Čeština: Polský rockový festival Przystanek Woodstock (Zastávka Woodstock). Русский: Рок-фестиваль остановка Вудсток.
context_page_description: Sign languages are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulations in combination with non-manual elements. Sign languages are full-fledged natural languages with their own grammar and lexicon. Sign languages are not universal and they are not mutually intelligible with each other, although there are also striking similarities among sign languages.
  Linguists consider both spoken and signed communication to be types of natural language, meaning that both emerged through an abstract, protracted aging process and evolved over time without meticulous planning. Sign language should not be confused with body language, a type of nonverbal communication.
  Wherever communities of deaf people exist, sign languages have developed as handy means of communication and they form the core of local deaf cultures. Although signing is used primarily by the deaf and hard of hearing, it is also used by hearing individuals, such as those unable to physically speak, those who have trouble with spoken language due to a disability or condition, or those with deaf family members, such as children of deaf adults.
context_section_description: In order to facilitate communication between deaf and hearing people, sign language interpreters are often used.  Such activities involve considerable effort on the part of the interpreter, since sign languages are distinct natural languages with their own syntax, different from any spoken language.
  The interpretation flow is normally between a sign language and a spoken language that are customarily used in the same country, such as French Sign Language (LSF) and spoken French in France, Spanish Sign Language (LSE) to spoken Spanish in Spain, British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English in the U.K., and American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken English in the US and most of anglophone Canada (since BSL and ASL are distinct sign languages both used in English-speaking countries), etc. Sign language interpreters who can translate between signed and spoken languages that are not normally paired (such as between LSE and English), are also available, albeit less frequently.
  With recent developments in artificial intelligence in computer science, some recent deep learning based machine translation algorithms have been developed which automatically translate short videos containing sign language sentences (often simple sentence consists of only one clause) directly to written language.
caption: A Polish Sign Language interpreter at the Przystanek Woodstock in 2017
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