LANGUAGE VITALITY
TTSL has continued to change and develop since it first emerged in the 1950s and '60s. The emergence of new technologies has made it possible for deaf Trinbagonians to watch videos of other sign languages around the world, and to bring TTSL to a wider audience. Recently, a weekly Deaf News programme, produced by members of the deaf community, and made available through YouTube and Facebook, has provided TTSL language news for the first time.
Over the last two decades, it has become apparent that many, perhaps most of the languages of the world are in imminent danger of disappearing. This series has covered several languages which have already disappeared from Trinidad and Tobago, such as Warao and Lokono, and some which were once spoken much more widely than they are today, such as Patois/French Creole. Signed languages are, in some ways, particularly vulnerable since they cannot easily be written down, and deaf communities are typically relatively small. Changes in government policy and other influences from outside can have profound effects. Konchri Sain, for example, an indigenous Jamaican sign language which was created and used in St Elizabeth Parish, has shrunk drastically in recent years as a result of the growing influence of the completely different sign language used in other parts of Jamaica. In a few years it is possible that Konchri Sain may be completely gone.
There is a danger that TTSL could disappear too. UWI tutor and President of the Deaf Empowerment Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago, Bryan Rodrigues, expressed a view shared by most deaf Trinbagonians, in a recent interview with the Trinidad Express: “some people think that it doesn’t matter if TTSL disappears but it is very precious and it needs to be preserved and continued. Many missionaries have come from America bringing ASL and it has put pressure on TTSL, but we shouldn’t let it disappear” (translated into English by Ben Braithwaite).
TTSL is important because it is the primary language of hundreds of deaf Trinbagonians, a source of great pride and a means of expressing a unique cultural identity. It is no coincidence that the Deaf Empowerment Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago (DEOTT), the first such organisation to have a committee composed entirely of deaf Trinbagonians, grew out of a Government-funded project to produce a dictionary of TTSL. The connection between TTSL and the empowerment of deaf Trinbagonians is also reflected in the fact that much of DEOTT’s work has focused on documenting and promoting their unique language.
TTSL is also of considerable academic interest: it is very unusual to be able to pinpoint the origins of a language so precisely, and even rarer to be able to talk to the people who created the language. Understanding how a new language can be born may help us to better understand the human capacity for language.
The UWI is contributing to the documentation and promotion of TTSL. In addition to ongoing research projects, the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics offers a Diploma in Caribbean Sign Language Interpreting, and anyone wishing to learn more about the history of TTSL and the prospects for the future could also enroll in the course LING 2204 Deaf Language and Culture, offered in Semester I. UWI has also hosted two symposia on sign language and deaf culture in Trinidad and Tobago and provided the venue for only the second TTSL class ever to be offered. Through ongoing partnership with the deaf community, we hope that more hearing people will be encouraged to learn more about this remarkable language and to start signing themselves.
