Talking Hands: A Review

Interpreter’s Resource Shelf (appeared in RID VIEWS February, 2008, reprinted with permission)
Kathy MacMillan, NIC, M.L.S.

Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind by Margalit Fox. NY: Simon and Schuster, 2007. ISBN 0-7432-4712-4. $27.00.

Journalist Margalit Fox applies her own background in linguistics to this fascinating, incisive, and highly readable journey into the heart of a young sign language. In the summer of 2003, Fox joined researchers Drs. Wendy Sandler, Irit Meir, Carol Padden, and Mark Aronoff for a trip to the Israeli village of Al-Sayyid; the book recounts the trip in chapters alternating with background information on sign and spoken language linguistics. The Bedouin community of Al-Sayyid is significant to linguists because, in the space of three generations, a fully formed sign language has arisen there. As in our own Martha's Vineyard, an isolated location, copious intermarriage (in the polygamous Bedouin society, first cousins often marry), and a high incidence of genetic deafness have combined to create a community where deaf and hearing alike use the indigenous sign language every day. Fox presents a fascinating account of the team's attempts to document and analyze Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language, but also examines what their research means to the larger scientific community. The chance to study such a young language allows cognitive scientists to explore how the human brain processes and creates language. Fox has pulled off quite an achievement, creating a book that synthesizes new information with previous research so smoothly that students of sign language linguistics won't become bored with the background information, and general readers will have enough context to understand the importance of the team's work. Fox combines the mind of a scholar with the eye of a journalist, bringing the village of Al-Sayyid to shimmering life in the reader's mind.

This column appears monthly in VIEWS. For questions, comments, or suggestions for materials to review in future issues, please contact Kathy MacMillan at info@kathymacmillan.com.