Oolick Sign Language

## Overview

Oolick Sign Language (also known as OSL, or Oolsign) is a sign language primarily used by Oolickers, and is the de facto national sign language of the Ool Union. While only 6% of the Union's populace suffer some form of hearing impairment (roughly 108,000 people), more than two-thirds of all Union citizens are fluent in OSL (roughly 1.2 million people). And most of the remainder are able to recognise the most common signs and gestures, and sometimes even replicate them.

## History

Ools first began signing as a complement to spoken Oolick. Ools lack the ability to form complex expressions with their faces, and so they adopted various forms of body language to accent or emphasize their speech.

The Ools' first exclusively signed language (that is, a gestural language with zero audio elements) was developed by the Parents' Union, as a means to communicate with deaf and hard-of-hearing children. This language began as a simplified version of Oolick, and so shares much of its vocabulary and syntax with the spoken language. By the time of the Union's alliance with the Kingdom of Rothan, Oolick Sign Language had already developed into a functionally complete form. OSL would remain in use over the following centuries, changing very little, as the Parents made efforts to unify and standardize the language as-taught.

Prior to the Thode Reforms, the Warriors' Union took an interest in Oolick Sign Language. While the Warriors did not allow deaf citizens to serve in their forces, they saw value in the use of sign language among their non-deaf troops. They developed their own variant of OSL, Military OSL (or MOSL), that was better suited for use in martial contexts. The Warriors taught and used MOSL for the entirety of their Union's existence.

After the Thode Reforms, the Defenders' Union continued teaching and using MOSL, just as the Warriors had. With the establishment of the modern levy system, MOSL began to filter down into civilian use. In the modern day, MOSL has been entirely subsumed back into standard OSL, and is rarely recognised as a distinct variant of the language.

## Usage

Oolick Sign Language is primarily used by Oolick citizens who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Hearing-impaired children are taught OSL by their Parents. Fluency in the language is a requirement of being a Parent, both to be able to teach it, and to hold conversations with deaf children in everyday situations.

Due to the communal nature of Oolick childrearing, many Ools and half-grubs grow up around deaf peers. As such, many are either taught OSL along with their deaf peers, or seek to learn it so they can keep up with signed conversations. This learning environment has produced a citizen body that is majority fluent in OSL.

Deaf citizens have very little trouble navigating Union society, as they can understand and be understood by the vast majority of people they will meet. And if they can't, a fluent signer can usually be found close to hand. Furthermore, it is standard practise for one or more designated signers to be present at public assemblies, such as council meetings and theatrical performances, in order to keep deaf audience-members informed.

While OSL was intended to allow communication between deaf and non-deaf people, OSL is also occasionally employed by non-deaf Oolickers, to communicate among themselves secretly, silently, and/or over long distances. OSL is also often employed alongside spoken speech, where simultaneously speaking and signing is used to accent or emphasize one's message.

Due to its ubiquity, OSL boasts a rich tradition of stories, jokes, puns and idioms, told exclusively through sign and gesture. Also due to its ubiquity, OSL is frequently used hastily, lazily and sloppily, as its users can trust their audience to fill in any errors from context. While Parents endeavour to teach OSL in a standard form, various pieces of slang and warped grammar have crept into common gesture over time.

### Military Usage

Military Oolick Sign Language (MOSL) is a set of signs and gestures originally devised for use in martial contexts. It includes a variety of signs that account for the signer holding a shield or bow in their off-hand, and/or holding a sword or arrow in their dominant hand. MOSL also includes a number of one-handed gestures, performed with one's dominant hand held at or above head-height. These signs allow the signer to communicate one-way with observers stood behind them. For instance, an officer standing at the front of a formation could rapidly and silently issue orders to their subordinates stood behind them. Or a warrior could acknowledge and reply to a superior behind them, without turning around.

While regularly used by Defenders and the elect levy, MOSL is also frequently used by civilians. The hands-full signs see a lot of use among citizens attending muster, deaf and able alike, allowing them to spar and sign without dropping their weapons. But they are also frequently used among citizens who have their hands full in other contexts, such as carrying tools or heavy loads. The backwards signs are also used at muster, allowing deaf citizens to follow marching drills without hearing spoken orders. But also in casual contexts, as being one-way gestures, they offer lazy and rude individuals a variety of ways to reply to speakers without turning to face them.

### Foreign Usage

Despite its ubiquity within the Ool Union, very few foreigners know OSL - even fewer than know spoken Oolick. Even the deaf folk living in the Union's neighbouring and allied states have not bothered adopting it. This is partly due to simple familiarity - they are used to their native sign-languages, and lack the means or motivation to learn a second. Another part is that the deaf communities in those countries rarely interact with Oolickers, and so are rarely exposed to OSL in the first place.

And part of it is that, thanks to OSL having so many fluent users, for so long, it has evolved into a bullshit mongrel language. OSL has no end of grammatical exceptions, loan-signs from other languages, and other linguistic detritus that has accumulated over the centuries. Similar to spoken Oolick, if a person didn't grow up surrounded by people signing in it, OSL is a complete pain in the ass to learn.