Monastic sign languages

Monastic Sign
Monastic Sign
Region	Europe
Native speakers	None
Language family	(sign lexicons)
Dialects	Anglo-Saxon; Augustinian; Benedictine; Cistercian;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mzg
Linguist List	mzg
Glottolog	mona1241

Monastic sign languages have been used in Europe from at least the tenth century by Christian monks, and some, such as Cistercian and Trappist sign, are still in use today—not only in Europe, but also in Japan, China and the US.^[2] Unlike deaf sign languages, they are better understood as forms of symbolic gestural communication rather than languages, and some writers have preferred to describe them as sign lexicons.^[3]

^ Monastic sign languages at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
^ *Cistercian : Barakat, Robert. (1975). Cistercian sign language: A study in non-verbal communication. Cistercian Studies Series, 7. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications. ISBN 0-87907-811-1
*Trappist : Quay, Suzanne. (2001). Signs of Silence: Two Examples of Trappist Sign Language in the Far East. Cîteaux: Commentarii cistercienses, Vol. 52 (3-4), pp. 211-230
^ Barley, Nigel F. (1974). Two Anglo-Saxon sign systems compared. Semiotica, 12, 227–237. (see pp. 234–35 on this point).

[1] Monastic sign languages at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)

[2] *Cistercian : Barakat, Robert. (1975). Cistercian sign language: A study in non-verbal communication. Cistercian Studies Series, 7. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications. ISBN 0-87907-811-1
*Trappist : Quay, Suzanne. (2001). Signs of Silence: Two Examples of Trappist Sign Language in the Far East. Cîteaux: Commentarii cistercienses, Vol. 52 (3-4), pp. 211-230

[3] Barley, Nigel F. (1974). Two Anglo-Saxon sign systems compared. Semiotica, 12, 227–237. (see pp. 234–35 on this point).

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