Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library

Miscellaneous Languages

	Miscellaneous languages are those not falling into any of the preceding
groupings.  Also included here is the category "Polyglot," for multilingual works.
Please note that those languages which linguists are simply uncertain where to
classify do not fall here, but under "Presently Unidentified Natural Languages,"
under "Natural Languages."

• Indian Sign Language
  
• Laadan
  
• Polyglot
  

Indian Sign Language				updated 10-30-2001

	Indian Sign Language developed among the various Indian tribes of North
America (most commonly among the Plains Indians), when they needed to
communicate with one another but did not share a common language.  It was a system
of hand-shapes and movements that conveyed the message visually.  It is entirely
different from the Sign Language of the Deaf, although some studies have compared
the two.  Early White scouts and trappers mastered Indian Sign Language to varying
degrees, thus enabling them to also communicate with some Indians.  Besides hand
signs, American Indians also used picture-writing.  (Early forms are often called
"pictographs," although they are generally much later than pictographs found in
Europe).  Additionally, they employed smoke signals, trail markers, the "language
of feathers," the "language of blankets," and specialized ways of painting their bodies
to convey meaning.  Today Boy Scouts often learn Indian signs as part of their training
in tracking and following a trail, as well as a fun alternate to spoken communication.

970.6		Amon, Aline
Children		Talking hands : Indian sign language. -- Garden City, N.Y. :
		Doubleday, 1968.
		RID: 68-10123			ITEM #: isg00007

  M		Clark, W. P. (William Philo), 1845?-1884
970.6419		The Indian sign language, with brief explanatory notes of the gestures
C596i		taught deaf-mutes in our institutions for their instruction, and a description
		of some of the peculiar laws, customs, myths, superstitions, ways of living,
		code of peace, and war signals of our aborigines. -- San Jose, Calif., 1991.
		RID: 59-12129					ITEM #: isg00005

  M		Cody, Iron Eyes, 1904-
970.6419		How : sign talk in pictures. -- Hollywood, Calif. : published as a Boelter
C671h		Classic by H. H. Boelter Lithography, 1952.
		RID: 52-39911					ITEM #: isg00006

419		Fronval, George
F936s.Ee		[Signes mysterieux des peaux-rouges. English]
			Indian signals and sign language / by George Fronval and
		Daniel DuBois. - New York : Wings Books, 1994
			Includes Indian Sign Language, hand-signs, picture-
		writing, smoke signals, trail signs and markers, the "language of
		feathers," the "language of blankets," and body/war paint.
		RID: ---				ITEM #: isg00007

375.001		Fry, Edward Bernard, 1925-
F946r			The reading teacher's book of lists / Edward Bernard Fry,
1993		Jacqueline E. Kress, Dona Lee Fountoukidis. - Englewood
		Cliffs, NJ : Prentice Hall, 1993
			Includes written Indian Sign Language.
		RID: 93-9256				ITEM #: gre00207

810.915		Irwin, John T
I72am			American hieroglyphics. - New Haven : Yale
		University Press, 1980
			About written Indian Sign Language.
		RID: 80-130				ITEM #: egy00023

599.77		Long, Kim
L8489w			Wolves. - [S.l.] : Johnson Books, 1996
			Includes illustrations of Indian Sign Language.
		RID: 96-26553				ITEM #: isg00008

970.02		McGaw, Jessie Brewer
C967mcg			Chief Red Horse tells about Custer : the Battle of the Little Bighorn
1981		: an eyewitness account told in Indian sign language. -- New York : Elsevier/
		Nelson Books, 1981.
		RID: 81-1392					ITEM #: isg00004

897		New voices in Native American literary criticism / edited by
N532			Arnold Krupat. - Washington : Smithsonian Institution
			Press, 1993
		RID: 92-18673				ITEM #: jiv00001

  M		Tomkins, William
497			Indian sign language. -- New York : Dover Publications, 1969.
T658u			Unabridged and corrected republication of the 1931 fifth ed.
1969			Meaning of signs in French and German as well as English.
		RID: 69-13654				ITEM #: isg00003

497		Tomkins, William
T658u			Universal Indian sign language of the plains Indians of North America,
1937		together with a simplified method of study, a list of words in most general use,
		a codification of pictographic symbols of the Sioux and Ojibway; a dictionary
		of synonyms, a history of sign language, chapters on smoke signaling, use of
		idioms, etc., and other important co-related matter. -- 7th ed. -- San Diego, Calif.
		: W. Tomkins, 1937.
			French and German equivalents are shown with each illustration.
		RID: wln86-109036				ITEM #: isg00001

  M		Tomkins, William
970.6419		Universal Indian sign language of the plains Indians of North America,
T658u		together with a simplified method of study, a list of words in most general use,
1956		a codification of pictographic symbols of the Sioux and Ojibway, a dictionary
		of synonyms, a history of sign language, chapters on smoke signaling, use of
		idioms, etc., and other important co-related matter. -- 12th ed. -- San Diego, Calif.
		: W. Tomkins, 1956.
			French and German equivalents are shown with each illustration.
		RID: wln86-115864				ITEM #: isg00002

970.00497	Warhus, Mark
W275a			Another America. - [S.l.] : St. Martin's Press, 1997
			Includes written Indian Sign Language (pictographs).
		RID: 96-44903				ITEM #: inu00010

This page was last updated on 9-13-2002.
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