Editing Nicaraguan Sign Language (section)

==History==
Before the 1970s, a [[deaf community]] largely socializing with and amongst each other was not present in Nicaragua.{{sfn|Polich|2005}} Deaf people were generally isolated from one another and mostly used simple [[home sign]] systems and [[gesture]] ({{lang|es|mímicas}}) to communicate with their families and friends, though there were several cases of [[idioglossia]] among deaf siblings.{{sfn|Meir|Sandler|Padden|Aronoff|2010}} The conditions necessary for a language to arise occurred in 1977 when a center for special education established a scheme that was initially attended by 50 deaf children. The number of pupils at the school (in the [[Managua]] neighborhood of San Judas) then grew to 100 by 1979, the beginning of the [[Sandinista Revolution]].

In 1980 a vocational school for deaf adolescents was opened in the Villa Libertad area of [[Managua]]. By 1983 more than 400 deaf pupils were enrolled in the two schools. Initially, the language scheme emphasized spoken [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and [[lipreading]], and the use of signs by teachers was limited to [[fingerspelling]] (using simple signs to sign the alphabet).

The scheme achieved little success, with most pupils failing to grasp the concept of Spanish words. The children subsequently remained linguistically disconnected from their teachers, but the schoolyard, the street, and the school bus provided fertile ground for them to communicate with one another. By combining gestures and elements of their home-sign systems, a [[pidgin]]-like form and a [[creole language|creole]]-like language rapidly emerged — they were creating their language. The "first-stage" pidgin has been called {{lang|es|Lenguaje de Signos Nicaragüense}} (LSN) and is still used by many who attended the school at the time.{{when|date=April 2019}}

Staff at the school, unaware of the development of this new language, saw the children's gesturing as mime and a failure to acquire Spanish. Unable to understand what the children were saying, they asked for outside help. In June 1986, the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education contacted [[Judy Kegl]], an [[American Sign Language]] linguist from MIT. As Kegl and other researchers began to analyze the language they noticed that the young children had taken the pidgin-like form of the older children to a higher level of complexity, with [[Verb#Agreement|verb agreement]] and other conventions of grammar. The more complex sign language is now known as {{lang|es|Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua}} (ISN).

From the beginning of her research until Nicaraguan Sign Language was well established, Kegl carefully avoided introducing the sign languages that she knew, in particular American Sign Language, to the deaf community in Nicaragua.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bouchard |first=Kelly |date=March 19, 2018 |title=Seeing the signs: Renowned USM professor reflects on life-changing language discovery |work=[[Portland Press Herald]] |url=https://www.pressherald.com/2018/03/19/seeing-the-signs-renowned-usm-professor-reflects-on-life-changing-language-discovery/ |access-date=October 13, 2018 |archive-date=March 19, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180319103400/https://www.pressherald.com/2018/03/19/seeing-the-signs-renowned-usm-professor-reflects-on-life-changing-language-discovery/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Critics argued a form of [[linguistic imperialism]] had been occurring internationally for decades, in which individuals would introduce ASL to populations of deaf people in other countries, often supplanting existing local sign languages. Kegl's policy was to document and study rather than to impose or change the language or its community. Whilst she did not interfere with deaf Nicaraguans gaining exposure to other sign languages, she did not introduce such opportunities. She has, however, documented contact and influences with other sign languages that have occurred since the 1990s. Critics, such as [[Felicia Nimue Ackerman|Felicia Ackerman]], have taken issue with the ethics of isolating the Nicaraguan children.<ref>{{cite news |last=Ackerman |first=Felicia |date=November 28, 1999 |title=A Linguistic Big Bang |work=[[The New York Times]] |language=en |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/28/magazine/l-a-linguistic-big-bang-591700.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527105803/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/28/magazine/l-a-linguistic-big-bang-591700.html |archive-date=May 27, 2015}}</ref>

Kegl's organization, Nicaraguan Sign Language Projects, helped establish a deaf school staffed entirely by deaf Nicaraguan teachers and has supported deaf Nicaraguans in attending and presenting at international conferences.<ref>[http://www.nicaraguansignlanguageprojects.org/ Nicaraguan Sign Language Projects] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171111001443/http://www.nicaraguansignlanguageprojects.org/ |date=2017-11-11 }}, Inc. 2014.</ref>