Here’s an interesting question to consider: which one of “he/she/someone uses ASL” or “he/she/someone speaks ASL” should you use in writing and conversation? The answer isn’t obvious to most people without knowledge of ASL, because while speak is the default term for most languages, it’s not clear if ASL falls under that category due to its visual nature (and, I might add, its no-speaking requirement).

I never had someone tell me which of the two phrases to use, and I’ve flip-flopped on my usage. I would say speak when I was younger, then in recent years I switched to saying use, and now I’m starting to think I should go back to speak. My recent shift is due to a discussion on the Deaf Academics mailing list.

Here is a video of someone arguing on behalf of speak, and here is the transcript (the meaning of s5s is explained in the video):

“Hi, I’m Michele Westfall and I currently write for ASL Rose. John Clark asked me to talk with you about Speak vs Sign, and I’m happy to do so. It’s no problem at all. Why? For the past couple of years, I’ve been encouraging Deaf people … really, everyone to use the word “speak” in relation to ASL. Why? I’ve been noticing that the hearing society frequently sees us as “silent.” Yes, they regard ASL as “beautiful,” but when it really counts and really comes down to it, we are still SILENT in their eyes. I’ve noticed that both hearing and Deaf people tend to say “ASL users”…and that bothers me.

Think about it: hearing people never say “English users”…”French users”…”Spanish users”…”Chinese users.” Really, the contrast is huge. We say “ASL users”, “we sign”, “we do ASL”….which serves to emphasize the difference between ASL and all other voiced languages and puts way too much emphasis on the Voice. Hearing people get to say “speak”…and we can’t.

I disagree with that. I say, YES, we speak ASL. Understand, I’m not saying we have to say “We speak [using 4-handshape on chin] ASL.”  That’s wrong. What’s the right way? “We speak [using s-5-s handshape] ASL.” Get it? s5s = speak…that’s our version of speak. Don’t say 4-handshape on chin/speak. That’s the hearing version (or the hearing-minded version). We s5s/speak ASL. Or…”I’m an ASL s5s/person [speaker].” Or “The ASL s5s/person [speaker] for the day is XXXXX.”

Just an example. You s5s/speak ASL. I s5s/speak ASL. To let you know, I’ve been saying this for the past several years. I even write it…for example “I speak ASL.” on paper. In English sentence….I speak ASL/you speak ASL. And hearing people always accept it and never object. They don’t say, “Wait a minute! What’s this?” They accept it because it seems natural to them. I think…it’s time. We’ve been saying all along that ASL is a language. It means we must change our words to reflect that reality. What’s our reality? ASL is our language, and therefore…what? We speak ASL!  We don’t sign ASL.

Saying “We sign ASL” gives way too much credit/weight to Voice. No. Enough. It’s time to bring ASL on equal footing with all other voiced languages. You speak ASL. I speak ASL. We don’t “do” ASL. We don’t “use” ASL. We speak ASL. We are ASL speakers. I hope this makes sense to you. If not, let me know. Bye bye.”