Within Deaf culture there are so many aspects that make its own. But even sign language itself has its own “rules” that makes it a language unlike any other. For this post, I’m going to be talking about American Sign Language only. Other sign language have their own things that set them apart. So in ASL there are certain words that they just don’t use like and, is, of and or. However there is a way to compare things within the language and that is a shoulder shift. Shoulder shifts allow you to say the word and without finger-spelling it. I’ve attached the video below that shows an example of shoulder shifting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okjDOgaxHIM
Another aspect of sign language is eyebrows up or down questions. So when asking a question, you need to either put your eyebrows up for a yes/no question, and eyebrows down for any other question. The next two attachments are examples of the eyebrows question.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axQPGskTxus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8baQwYZYhM
The last aspect of ASL that i wanted to bring up is the grammar. So in ASL the grammar is structured “TIME TOPIC COMMENT”
For example to say Do you want to go with me to the movies tomorrow night?
You would sign Tomorrow Night Movies Go-To Want You,
Now some deaf people do use PSE which is a form of Sign Language but it uses word for word English Grammar.