why does ASL have so many variations/similar words? And do I have to learn them all?
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ASL started in isolated schools for the Deaf. Deaf communities formed in the areas around those schools, since, well, that’s where the education was. Living there kept you close to your kids in school, which meant a larger population of Deaf people, which meant more business providing resources for Deaf people, which encouraged more to move into that area…
Deaf communities have always been pretty self sufficient, in part because they largely have to be (because it’s harder to interact with the hearing world outside) and also because of very justified fear of persecution. In any case, before the days of the internet and texting, Deaf communities were relatively isolated.
It’s also a fairly young language with not a lot of users. That means it’s going to have a more limited vocabulary, which means more people just inventing a sign for something because no one else around them has one. It also just means a lot more local variation as communities pick up certain signs and stop using others.
It’s basically a local accent or dialect.
Most ASL users will understand you just fine regardless of which “dialect” you use. But it depends on your needs. I don’t know the requirements for becoming a translator – you might need to know a lot of the different signs. It’s certainly not a bad idea to learn more, so you can understand better. But for casual conversation you don’t have to learn every different sign.
I think it depends on what your goal is! For example, being an interpreter, a conversationalist, or just communicating are very different. For something like being an interpreter, I would definitely learn them all– even when you think you have, ASL is like any other language in that new words/slang/accents come up. If you’re trying to get to the conversational level, maybe not all of them but it will definitely be more useful to learn different variations for the receptive part of the conversation.
As far as communication, ASL is great in that you can get your basic point across (even with fingerspelling). However, it’s always useful to learn more! And the more you sign with native signers, the more you’ll pick up.
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