Sign Language

What is Auslan?

There are many other sign languages used internationally in each separate country. In order to distinguish Australian Sign Language from these, it was shortened to the acronym ‘AUSLAN’.

The primary stimulus that led to the development of sign language was the deaf community’s need to communicate. Auslan evolved by taking signs from British Sign Language (BSL) and merging it with signs from other countries to make a separate language in Australia.

Auslan uses vision, space and movement to develop a unique visual-spatial language. Sign language is manually carried, together with facial expressions to convey meaning. There are 5 different categories that make up Auslan; Handshape, Orientation, Location, Movement and facial Expression. An easy way to remember these is to think of the acronym ‘HOLME’. As with any language other than English, it has different grammar and syntax rules. A sentence in English is often shorter when translated into Auslan. For example “I’m going to catch the bus at 8:30 this morning” would be “Me catch bus 8:30 am today”.

Names of people, places and words without signs are communicated by Fingerspelling. This can also be useful if a person either doesn’t know or can’t remember a particular sign.

The top 10 reasons for learning Auslan

To provide you with an insight of into why people learn Auslan, the list below contains the top 10 reasons for learning:

• You can communicate through windows
• Sign language is a 3D language
• You can talk with your mouth full
• Hearing parents can communicate with their deaf children
• You can talk underwater
• Sign language is a neat way of expressing yourself
• You can communicate across a room without shouting
• Sign language is beautiful
• You can make friends with Deaf people
• Sign language brings together Hearing and Deaf people