Editing Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (section)

{{Short description|Extinct sign language of Massachusetts}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Martha's Vineyard Sign Language
| nativename = MVSL
| states = United States
| region = [[Martha's Vineyard]]
| extinct = 1952
| familycolor = Sign
| family = [[Village sign language]]
| ancestor = [[Old Kentish Sign Language]]
| ancestor2 = Chilmark Sign Language<ref name=Chilmark>{{cite web|publisher=Lifeprint|url=http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/marthasvineyard.htm|title=Martha's Vineyard Sign Language|access-date=13 October 2015|archive-date=14 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151014210005/http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/marthasvineyard.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>
| iso3 = mre
| glotto = mart1251
| glottorefname = Martha's Vineyard Sign Language
| linglist = mre
| dia1 = [[Sandy River Valley Sign Language|Sandy River Valley SL]]?
}}
'''Martha's Vineyard Sign Language''' ('''MVSL''') was a [[village sign language|village sign-language]] that was once widely used on the island of [[Martha's Vineyard]], United States, from the early 18th century to 1952. It was used by both [[deaf]] and [[Hearing (person)|hearing]] people in the community; consequently, deafness was not a barrier to participation in public life. Deaf people who signed Martha's Vineyard Sign Language were extremely independent.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/marthas-vineyard-sign-language-asl/407191/|title=The Life and Death of Martha's Vineyard Sign Language|website=[[The Atlantic]]|date=25 September 2015|access-date=4 July 2018|archive-date=4 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704092932/https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/marthas-vineyard-sign-language-asl/407191/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=4 May 2016 |title=Everyone on Martha's Vineyard Used to Know Sign Language |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-hidden-history-of-marthas-vineyard-sign-language |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127095022/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-hidden-history-of-marthas-vineyard-sign-language |archive-date=27 November 2020 |access-date=19 November 2020 |website=[[Atlas Obscura]]}}</ref>

The language was able to thrive because of the unusually high percentage of deaf islanders and because deafness was a [[Dominance (genetics)|recessive]] [[hereditary trait|trait]], which meant that almost anyone might have both deaf and hearing siblings. In 1854, when the island's deaf population peaked, an average of one person in 155 was deaf, while the United States national average was one in about 5,730. In the town of [[Chilmark, Massachusetts|Chilmark]], which had the highest concentration of deaf people on the island, the average was 1 in 25; at one point, in a section of Chilmark called Squibnocket, as much as 1 in 4 of the population of 60 was deaf.<ref name="library">{{Cite web|url=http://catalog.chilmarklibrary.org/pdf/|title=Chilmark Deaf Community Digital Historical Archive|website=catalog.chilmarklibrary.org|access-date=2018-07-04|archive-date=2016-08-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160811201121/http://catalog.chilmarklibrary.org/pdf/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Sign language]] on the island declined when the population migrated to the mainland. There are no fluent signers of MVSL today. Katie West, the last deaf person born into the island's sign-language tradition, died in 1952,<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/marthas-vineyard-sign-language-asl/407191/|title=The Life and Death of Martha's Vineyard Sign Language|last=Romm|first=Cari|date=2015-09-25|work=The Atlantic|access-date=2018-07-04|language=en-US|archive-date=2018-07-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704092932/https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/marthas-vineyard-sign-language-asl/407191/|url-status=live}}</ref> though there were a few elderly residents still able to recall MVSL when researchers started examining the language in the 1980s.<ref name=library/> Linguists are working to save the language, but their task is difficult because they cannot experience MVSL firsthand.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}}