Douglass Bullard
Words: 762
[Essay]

Truth be known, most hearing people do not always speak perfect English. They most often speak in colloquial English rather than proper English. They say things like, "You late, why?" "This hamburger damn good, eh?" "Me go there, no way!" "You nervous, what's up?"

I myself did not know or realize this until the advent of closed captioning. Like most deaf people, I presumed that most hearies spoke in more or less correct English. I was shocked to realize from closed captioning that people simply did not go around talking like a grammar teacher. Indeed, people who spoke precise English were often cast in less favorable light than those who spoke in colloquialism.

Later on, a magazine article opened my eyes. The writer contended that airline pilots learned that drawling over the intercom helped relax the passengers. Speaking perfect English actually made them nervous and anxious, and gave the idea the pilot was afraid. Talking like a hillbilly or cowboy gave the passengers the impression the pilot was relaxed and confident and that he knew what he was doing.

The point is, it's mostly true that hearing people do not go around speaking perfect English like our teachers led us to believe. What they do is manipulate their language to fit the occasion. A lawyer, for example, will use precise English in the courtroom, but not in social situations or fishing trips. He will modify it to best fit whatever situation he finds himself in--as well as convey the impression he wishes to make on his listeners. For another example, men do not use the same words when ladies are present that they use among each other.

"Watch your mouth! Them're ladies present!"

Even though a large majority of deaf people have yet to master English, we deaf people do know how important good English can be for our careers and opportunities. We try to write letters in the best English we can muster.
Nothing wrong with that, because we are communicating with hearing employers in a forum that demands good English in an effort to give them a good impression of our abilities. We all know the old joke about a deaf man writing a note to show to prospective employers only to get laughed out of the office. He had written, "I want your job." His words are perfect Deaf English, but poor hearing English. "History hate me," "Ice-cream want me," "Sick my wife" are examples of Deaf English that deaf people readily understand but are easily misunderstood by non-signers.

For years people, even many deaf, have considered ASL to be poor English, or at best, chopped or short English. Of course linguists have shown this not to be true, and that ASL is a fine language in its own right. ASL was developed among the deaf over the years to fit the medium of the eye.
Indeed, Signed English is often misunderstood by many deaf people, just as Deaf English is by many hearies. Signed English looks unnatural to the eye and is full of movements that give out false signals. The ear and the eye certainly do not see eye to eye!

Us deaf communicate by the eye of course, and this creates a thought process wildly different than that processed by the ear. What looks right to the ear does not necessarily look right to the eye. Many deaf people process language along the lines of ASL, and when they write, the syntax reflects this thought process. "Me late why? because car broke, can't start" does reflect the thought process of the deaf ASL signer far more faithfully than would the correct English equivalent.

Over the years I have been most charmed by notes and messages by ASL deaf to the point I have come to love Deaf English. The reason for calling it Deaf English is it is in written form using English words. So far we do not have written ASL, but deaf people have been writing with English words for years in ASL grammar rather than English grammar. "Me write words paper, why? Because no signs paper, that why."

The past several years my novels about the deaf have been in fairly correct English, using Deaf English only for dialogue and TTY messages.

This is for the simple reason the market demands it. One of these days, I just might go ahead and write one in Deaf English. Mark Twain did depart from common usage to write THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN in redneck English. Why not a deaf novel in Deaf English?

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The late Douglass Bullard was the author of Islay, the first novel by a Deaf writer featuring Deaf characters. This piece first appeared in The Tactile Mind Weekly.