Myth: Sign Language is invented by hearing people
Fact: Some researchers believe that sign languages are in fact invented by deaf people. Deaf people are probably always building “home sign systems” to communicate with their hearing family. Home sign systems are simple sign languages with small words and not a multilingual grammar. When the deaf begin to gather and build a community, they begin to use their home symbols. Gradually, sign language begins to develop, as the community uses the same symbols with the same meanings. They started combining symbols to make sentences in the same way. The number of signs is increasing as they use a new language to talk about many new things, and grammar rules emerge. This is where home sign systems become real sign languages.
Some scientists believe that the early men created the sign language, as they probably used gestures to communicate, rather than speaking. But some people have this theory that Juan Pablo De Bonet was the inventor of sign language. He wrote a book in 1620, which contained the first known manual alphabet system.
Book – Reduction de las letras, y arte para enseñar a ablar los mudos (Simplification of the Letters of the Alphabet and Method of Teaching Deaf-mutes to Speak)
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When people are asked – “Who created the sign language?”; the most common answer that has been seen is “Abbe Charles Michel de L’Epee”. He created the first free public school for the deaf community in 1771, Paris. In this school, deaf people were taught a sign language that was created by Charles, which became the reason of people believing that he has created the sign language. He is also known as “The Father of Deaf”.
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Apart from this, history of the sign language is unknown to some extent. It could be possible that some sign languages are thousands of years old. In Turkey, deaf people are using sign language from the last 400 years (approximately). First deaf school in India was opened almost 100 years ago. But it should be noted that the deaf have invented their own language, and not the hearing people.