2023 Volume 32 Issue 2 Pages 31-36
This paper is intended to discuss how the sign language are used and spread in Japan from the perspective of Deaf researcher whose native language is Nippon Shuwa Gengo. Nippon Shuwa Gengo as a descriptive grammar of the natural sign language of Japan is routinely transformed by social, historical, and political backgrounds, while being influenced by the Japanese language. In fact, there are many Deaf people and sign language learners who cannot understand the difference between so-called Japanese Sign Language and Signing Exact Japanese, or Signed Japanese, as some sign language teachers and sign language researchers claim. The main reason for it is that many people mistakenly believe that the meaning of the Japanese gloss attached to each sign language expression is exactly the same as the meaning of the sign language expression itself. Furthermore, although there is a sign (visual) language that has been passed down from generation to generation on the platform of the sign language grammar (regularities, word order, and expressions, etc.) that was naturally generated, developed, and matured by the instincts of our Deaf ancestors, sign language expressions that ignore this sign language grammar are increasingly being created and spread more and more. This is the reason why Nippon Shuwa Gengo has changed so much. The influence of Japanese gloss is so great that Nippon Shuwa Gengo has been transformed. This paper clarifies the reality of the use of Nippon Shuwa Gengo.
