Linguistics Nicaraguan Sign Language, Idioma Term Paper

The children in Nicaragua did not simply construct a set of signs denoting objects in their environment and rudimentary verbs. ISN is a real language with structure, grammar, and syntax. Since its development in the 1980s, ISN has become complex enough to evolve its own set of slang and idioms. ISN is also classified as the world's newest language.

Moreover, language appears to evolve in and out of social settings. ISN is the product not of one master child who imposed his or her own sign language on peers. Rather, ISN is the product of the collective group of children whose individual input becomes integrated into the language. New signs are incorporated gradually as they become agreed-upon symbols. ISN also has unique linguistic features that may help linguists understand prototypical languages in early human development; variations among different world dialects; or the neurological and sociological components of language generation.