From Signed Swedish to Swedish Sign Language in the 1970s

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• From Signed Swedish to Swedish Sign Language in the 1970s
• Brita Bergman (bio)

As hearing people with sign language skills, we are used to answering questions as to why we know sign language. We all have a story to tell, some with surprising coincidences. One of my favorite examples is the young woman who wanted to register for an evening course in guitar playing. The course was fully subscribed, and it was suggested that she take a course in sign language instead. It was the beginning of a professional career as a sign language interpreter. Here is the beginning of my story.

It is not entirely clear when it began. It probably happened back in my hometown, when I was a high school student and spent many afternoons at a café where three deaf, signing men used to meet.

An important episode in my story occurred when I was a student in linguistics and took a course in psycholinguistics (spring 1971). The course coordinator, Inger Ahlgren, arranged a study visit to the school for deaf and hard of hearing children in Stockholm, the Manilla School. We were informed by the headmistress, Rut Madebrink, that sign language was not used in communication with the students. Since I knew that deaf people used sign language, it did not make sense. I could not understand why deaf children were denied access to the language used by deaf adult people. Instead of being approached with a language they had the ability to perceive, deaf children were left to look at the mouths of people whose speech sounds they could not [End Page 474] hear. I found it unbelievably cruel and felt like being thrown back to the Middle Ages.

Later, I learned that The Swedish National Association of the Deaf (henceforth SDR) had since the early twentieth century advocated the use of sign language in deaf education. This work was intensified in the 1970s and began with a conference to which educational authorities and the parents' organization Döva barns målsmän (Guardians of Deaf Children) were invited. An important outcome of this meeting was that for the first time, the deaf organization managed to reach out to parents of deaf and hard of hearing children and that cooperation between the two organizations was initiated. This was a huge success for SDR, whose opposition to the oral policy of the National Board of Education, Skolöverstyrelsen (henceforth SÖ), was now shared with the parents' organization.

The third semester of my studies in linguistics (autumn 1971) included writing a bachelor's thesis. At the first seminar, Professor Bengt Sigurd suggested possible topics, one of which was sign language. My hand flew up in the air. I knew right away it was my topic. I was prepared to fight for it, but no one else seemed to be interested.

The fact that sign language was brought to Bengt Sigurd's attention was a coincidence that can be traced to the early 1950s when he was a student of phonetics at Lund University. One of Sigurd's fellow students was Rut Madebrink, later headmistress of the Manilla School in Stockholm. As a result of the 1970 conference, SÖ could no longer ignore the demands of the deaf community, and a committee was appointed to deal with the situation. Contrary to the tradition in matters of deaf education, medical experts were not invited this time. The committee wanted linguistic expertise. Rut Madebrink proposed her former teacher of phonetics, Professor Bertil Malmberg, now a board member of the deaf school in Lund, and her former fellow student, Bengt Sigurd, holder of the new chair in linguistics at Stockholm University. Both agreed to participate on the committee.

Bengt Sigurd soon found that there was almost no literature on sign language, but a newly published sign dictionary could be a possible beginning (Bjurgate 1968). At the class meeting where I chose my topic, Sigurd handed me a plastic bag containing two partially cut-apart books with photos of signs and a bunch of pictures of signs that [End Page 475] had been cut out of the books. The signs were arranged alphabetically in the book according to the Swedish...