MVSL

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From the late seventeenth century through the mid-twentieth century, most residents of [Martha's Vineyard] were [bilingual] in both [English] and the local [sign language].

The sign language used during that time were probably somewhat related to the sign language used in the [English] county of [Kent] in the 1600s. When the [Puritans] began moving to the [New World], the deaf members of the [community] brought their sign language with them. This developed into [Chilmark] Sign Language (named for the Martha's Vineyard town of Chilmark, which had a large deaf [population]), which was used from the late seventeenth century until the mid-to-early eighteenth century, when it began to change once more. <P> While MVSL was similar in many respects to [American Sign Language], it is more likely that [ASL] first borrowed [sign]s and structure from MVSL than the other way around. Today's ASL is partly based on [French Sign Language], which was introduced here by [Laurent Clerc] in 1817, but some of it was [creole|creolized] with existing sign languages - including, most likely, MVSL. But the island's [indigenous] sign language probably took on more characteristics of ASL after its [children] began to attend the [American School for the Deaf] around 1850; when they returned home to Martha's Vineyard they introduced more of ASL to the [isolated] island's [deaf] population. This new Martha's Vineyard Sign Language was used in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries until the number of deaf residents dwindled to virtually none. <P> Some families from the [island] moved to the [Sandy River] area in [Maine], and the sign language that was used there was probably strongly related to MVSL. <P> Source: Groce, Nora Ellen. [Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language]. Pages 73-74.