Diachronic development of Israeli Sign Language
The historical development of Israeli Sign Language (ISL), from its earliest days to the present, is the focus of this research project, conducted by Irit Meir. Since ISL is a young language, having come into existence as the local Deaf community coalesced, beginning about 80 years ago, it provides a natural laboratory for investigating the formation of a national sign language language change in a culturally and linguistically diverse community. The project systematically investigates the language of four generations of signers, and the ways in which each contributed to the development of the full contemporary system.