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The French Sign Language (LSF) family is a language family of sign languages which includes French Sign Language and American Sign Language, among others.
The FSL family descends from Old French Sign Language, which developed among the deaf community in Paris. The earliest mention of Old French Sign Language is by the abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée in the late seventeenth century, but it could have existed for centuries prior. Several European sign languages, such as Russian, derive from it, as does American Sign Language, established when French educator Laurent Clerc taught his language at the American School for the Deaf. Others, such as Spanish Sign Language, are thought to be related to French Sign Language even if not directly descendant from it.
Wittmann (1991)[1] lists the following suspected members of the family, with date of establishment or earliest attestation:
French Sign Language (1752; may be different from Old French Sign Language)
and, perhaps,
Wittnann believes Lyons Sign Language, Spanish Sign Language, Brazilian Sign Language, and Venezuelan Sign Language, which are sometimes counted in the French family, had separate origins, though with some contact through stimulus diffusion, and it was Lyons SL rather than FSL that gave rise to Belgian Sign Language. Chilean Sign Language (1852) has also been included in the French family, but is not listed by Wittmann.
Anderson (1979)[3] had previously postulated the following classification of FSL and its relatives, with derivation from Medieval monk's sign systems, though some lineages are apparently traced by their manual alphabets and thus irrelevant for actual classification:
Canada, North America, West Africa, Martha's Vineyard Sign Language, United States
American Sign Language, Austronesian languages, French Sign Language family, Swedish Sign Language family, Uto-Aztecan languages
Formosan languages, Madagascar, Malayo-Polynesian languages, Taiwan, Tai–Kadai languages
American Sign Language, British Sign Language, Australian Aboriginal sign languages, Banzsl, Language
French Sign Language family, Togo, Banzsl, Madagascar, British Sign Language
Austria, French Sign Language family, Sign language, Australian Aboriginal sign languages, American Sign Language
Denmark, French Sign Language family, Sign language, Australian Aboriginal sign languages, American Sign Language
Philippines, American Sign Language, French Sign Language family, Sign language, Bohol