The purposes for which these sign lexicons were used were varied. TravellingFranciscanfriars usedfinger alphabets, possibly as memory aids for preaching, and inBenedictinemonasteries, signs representing words were used for limited communication when silence was required. Rather than the popularly imagined total "Vows of Silence", theRule of St. Benedict merely prohibits conversation in certain areas of the monastery during certain hours of the day. The most common time for silence was known as the "Great Silence" which took place at night. It was only much later, in the seventeenth century, that reform movements within the Cistercian and Trappist communities came to see absolute silence as a valuable penance along with other austere, yet voluntary, deprivations.[4]
Signs are well documented in medieval Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe, fromPortugal toEngland. Antique texts present lists of words with accompanying signs, including instructions for sign production. Occasionally they also explain the rationale behind the sign. Signs are mostlynouns relating to monastic life. Foods, articles of clothing, particular rooms and buildings, ritual objects, and different ranks of clerical office dominate the vocabulary. The few signs that act asverbs include "sit", "stand up", "kneel", and "confess".[5] They almost always bear aniconic or visually motivated connection to the thing represented by the sign. No grammar is described for these signs, and they were probably used in theword order of an oral language—eitherLatin or the local vernacular—and possibly with accompanying gesture such as pointing. Modern Cistercian monks in England or theUnited States use a syntax derived "heavily, but not exclusively", from English,[6] while Cistercian monks inFrance loosely follow the syntax of theFrench language; at least as much as it is possible to do so, given the limited lexicon.[7] Vocabulary lists in the medieval texts ranged from 52 signs to 472, with "the average at 178 and a mean at 145."[8]
The earliest Benedictine sign books date from around 1075 (and again at about 1083) at theAbbey of Cluny[9] (in what is nowFrance), andHirsau Abbey[10] (in what is nowGermany) at around the same time.Bonaventure in the thirteenth century used a finger alphabet,[11] and the medievalMonasteriales Indicia describes 127 signs used by Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monks.[12] Signs from a sixteenth century Portuguese monastic sign language have also been documented.[13]
^*Cistercian : Barakat, Robert. (1975).Cistercian sign language: A study in non-verbal communication. Cistercian Studies Series, 7. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications.ISBN0-87907-811-1 *Trappist : Quay, Suzanne. (2001).Signs of Silence: Two Examples of Trappist Sign Language in the Far East. Cîteaux: Commentarii cistercienses, Vol. 52 (3-4), pp. 211-230
^Barley, Nigel F. (1974).Two Anglo-Saxon sign systems compared. Semiotica, 12, 227–237. (see pp. 234–35 on this point).
^Bragg, Lois (1997).Visual-Kinetic Communication in Europe Before 1600: A Survey of Sign Lexicons and Finger Alphabets Prior to the Rise of Deaf Education Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2:1 Winter 1997
^Rijnberk, G. van (1954).Le langage par signes chez le moines. Amsterdam: North-Holland. p. 12
^Baron, N. S. (1981).Speech, writing, and sign: A functional view of linguistic representation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 238
^Barakat, R. (1975).Cistercian sign language: A study in non-verbal communication. Cistercian Studies Series, 11. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications.
^Calculations by Bragg (1997), using data from Rijnberk (1954).
^Bernhard of Cluny,De notitia signorum, in: Umiker-Sebeok et al., Monastic Sign Languages, Approaches to Semiotics 76 (1987), Amsterdam: Benjamins, 345-4
^Constitutions Hirsaugienses. Book I, ch. 6-25. In J.-P. Migne, (Ed.), Patrologiae: Cusus Completus (Paris, 1844-64), vol. 150, colo. 940-57.
^Werner H. (1932).Geschichte des Taubstummenproblems bis ins 17, Jahrhundert ("History of the deaf-mute problem in the seventeenth century"). Jena, Germany: Verlag von Gustav Fisher; 1932.
^Monasteriales Indicia: The Anglo-Saxon Monastic Sign Language, Edited with notes and translation byDebby Banham.ISBN0-9516209-4-0.
^Martins, M. (1960).Livros de sinais dos Cistercienses Portugueses. Boletim de Filologia, 17, 293-357. 1-27.
Bruce, Scott G. (2001). "The Origins of Cistercian Sign Language",Cîteaux: Commentarii cistercienses 52 (2001): 193–209.
Bruce, Scott G. (2005). ‘Monastic Sign Language in the Cluniac Customaries’, inFrom Dead of Night to End of Day: The Medieval Customs of Cluny / Du cœur de la nuit à la fin du jour : Les coutumes clunisiennes au Moyen-Âge. Eds. S. Boynton & I. Cochelin (Disciplina monastica 3). Turnhout: Brepols, 2005, pp. 273–286.
Bruce, Scott G. (2007).Silence and Sign Language in Medieval Monasticism: The Cluniac Tradition, c. 900-1200. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Barakat, Robert (1975).The Cistercian sign language: a study in non-verbal communication. (Cistercian Study Series; 7) Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1975. Reviewed byStokoe, W. (1978) inSemiotica, 24 (1975): 181-94
Barley, Nigel F. (1974). ‘Two Anglo-Saxon sign systems compared’,Semiotica: journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies 12 (1974): 227-37.
Jarecki, Walter (1981).Signa loquendi: Die cluniacensischen Signa-Listen eingeleitet und herausgegeben. Baden-Baden: Koerner.
Daniels, Marilyn (1997).Benedictine Roots in the Development of Deaf Education. Bergin & Garvey.ISBN0-89789-500-2
Kendon, Adam (1990). ‘Signs in the cloister and elsewhere’,Semiotica 79, nos. 3-4 (1990), pp. 307–329
Nitschke, August (1997). ‘Sign language and gesture in medieval Europe: Monasteries, courts of justice, and society’, inNonverbal communication: where nature meets culture. Eds. Ullica Segerstråle & Peter Molnár. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1997, pp. 263–274.
Umiker-Sebeok, Jean & Thomas A. Sebeok, eds. (1987).Monastic sign language. (Approaches to Semiotics 76). Berlin-NY-Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter.
^a Sign-language names reflect the region of origin. Natural sign languages are not related to the spoken language used in the same region. For example, French Sign Language originated in France, but is not related to French. Conversely,ASL andBSL both originated in English-speaking countries but are not related to each other; ASL however is related toFrench Sign Language.
^b Denotes the number (if known) of languages within the family. No further information is given on these languages.
