Of which non-English language am I talking?

This non-English language is one of the top five non-English languages used in the USA. I am not talking about any computer languages or mathematical symbology, etc. This non-English language is used by regular people. Use of this language has the full and unequivocal support of the Congress of the United States by members of both parties. No demonstrations have ever been held against this language. No users of this language in the modern era of the USA have been told to stop using it in a public venue. No parents have complained if their children are taught this language in the schools. Bills that have been passed by the Congress of the United States regarding this language have all been positive and supportive. Of which non-English language am I talking?  Why American Sign Language.

American Sign Language (or ASL, Ameslan) is the dominant sign language of deaf Americans (which include the deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico. Although the United Kingdom and the United States share English as a spoken and written language, British Sign Language (BSL) is quite different from ASL, and the two sign languages are not mutually intelligible.

ASL is a language distinct from spoken English; while it borrows many elements of English (e.g., spelled words, “initialized” signs (for example the signs for group and team are the same motion but the hand are held with the sign for the letters “G” and “T” respectively to denote meaning), and direct translations of English idioms, it nonetheless possesses its own syntax and grammar and supports its own culture.

How did ASL get started?

In 1815, a Protestant minister, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, left his home in Hartford, Connecticut to visit Europe. Dr. Mason Cogswell had asked Gallaudet to investigate methods of teaching his deaf daughter, Alice Cogswell. While in England, Gallaudet hit a roadblock when directors of the Braidwood Schools, who taught the oral method, refused to share their methods of teaching. Nevertheless, while in London, Gallaudet met with Abbé Sicard, director of the Royal Institution for the Deaf in Paris, and two of his students, one of whom was Laurent Clerc. Sicard invited Gallaudet to visit the school in Paris. He did not go immediately, but instead traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland where he again met the methods of Braidwood. They again refused to teach him their methods. Gallaudet then traveled to Paris and learned the educational methods of the Royal Institution for the Deaf with sign language, a combination of Old French Sign Language and the signs developed by Abbé Charles Michel de l’Épée. Gallaudet persuaded Clerc to return with him to Connecticut and become a teacher for the deaf. Gallaudet and Clerc opened the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons (now called American School for the Deaf) in April 1817. Deaf students were taught French signs and brought in signs of their own, such as those from Martha’s Vineyard. Thus, it was at this school that all these influences would intermingle and become what is now known as American Sign Language.

Interestingly, because of the early influence of the sign language of France upon the school, the vocabularies of ASL and modern French Sign Language are approximately 60% shared, whereas ASL and British Sign Language, for example, are almost completely dissimilar.

So, why do I bring this up? Look at the last two paragraphs. ASL comes as a result of a cooperation between an American Protestant minister and a French Catholic abbot. It is nice to read a story of cooperation that led to such good results instead of the more usual opposition of one to another.