Aronoff Mark, Meir Irit, Padden Carol, Sandler Wendy
Stony Brook University.
Interact Stud. 2008;9(1):133-153. doi: 10.1075/is.9.1.10aro.
It is possible for a language to emerge with no direct linguistic history or outside linguistic influence. Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) arose about 70 years ago in a small, insular community with a high incidence of profound prelingual neurosensory deafness. In ABSL, we have been able to identify the beginnings of phonology, morphology, syntax, and prosody. The linguistic elements we find in ABSL are not exclusively holistic, nor are they all compositional, but a combination of both. We do not, however, find in ABSL certain features that have been posited as essential even for a proto-language. ABSL has a highly regular syntax as well as word-internal compounding, also highly regular but quite distinct from syntax in its patterns. ABSL, however, has no discernable word-internal structure of the kind observed in more mature sign languages: no spatially organized morphology and no evident duality of phonological patterning.
一种语言有可能在没有直接语言历史或外部语言影响的情况下出现。阿尔-赛义德贝都因手语（ABSL）大约在70年前出现在一个小型封闭社区，该社区先天性深度神经感觉性耳聋的发病率很高。在ABSL中，我们已经能够识别出声韵学、形态学、句法和韵律的开端。我们在ABSL中发现的语言元素并非完全是整体性的，也并非都是组合性的，而是两者的结合。然而，我们在ABSL中并未发现某些即使对于原始语言也被认为是必不可少的特征。ABSL有高度规则的句法以及词内复合，词内复合也高度规则，但在模式上与句法截然不同。然而，ABSL没有在更成熟的手语中观察到的那种可识别的词内结构：没有空间组织的形态学，也没有明显的音韵模式二元性。
