French Sign Language

I have been told many times in the course of interpreting that sign language is gramatically French. I learned how adjectives follow nouns and various other grammer specific examples. Recently, I attended a workshop given by a Deaf priest. He gave us an actual symbol that American Sign Language has kept. In ASL the index finger pointing straight up is a classifier that represents a person. This "person" can go up the stairs, down the elevator, "meet" another person, meet and greet a lot of other people, kiss, fall over dead, and many other actions without changing the hand shape. In French Sign Language this same concept is represented with a thumbs up. In ASL the sign for basement is a 'thumbs up' going under a flat palm (orientation down). So the 'person' is going under the 'floor'. The words: with, pass, backslide, race, Babtist, crash, sweetheart, challenge, and pride are all concepts in ASL that are expressed with the FSL classifier for 'person'. The small group I was part of at this workshop come up with over 40 of these 'French' signs in about five minutes off the top of our heads. This was an amazing concept for me. Many of the signs that I simply knew by rote have a visual meaning that I was completely missing. This information may or may not make me a better interpreter, but it did make this language more alive as I can look and see the influences that have shaped it into what it is today.