Dactylology

Dactylology (from Greek dactylos-finger and logos-word), or dactylophasia, sign language, a method of replacing verbal speech for the deaf and mute with symbolic figures depicted by the fingers of the hand. The most popular among the deaf and mute is the finger alphabet, in which vowel sounds are represented by specific fingers of the hand, and consonants by either known positions and connections of the fingers or by touching parts of the body whose names begin with the letter corresponding to the one being represented. The beginning of the use of finger language and gestures can be traced to the second half of the 15th century, when the abbess Scholastica organized religious education for deaf and mute women. The creator of the dactylological method is considered to be the Spaniard Bonet (Juan Pablo Bonet), who set forth his system in the work "Reduccion de las letras y arte de enseñar a hablar a los mudos" (Madrid, 1620). (Therefore, sign language is commonly called the Spanish method.) Further improvement of sign language was made by the French abbot de l'Épe (Abbé de l'Épée, 1712-89) and his successor Cucurron Sicard (Abbé Cucurron Sicard, 1742-1822). These systems formed the basis of the finger alphabets used in other countries, modified according to the features of different languages. With the development of the doctrine of the functions of the brain, the idea of teaching the deaf and mute to speak orally also arose and strengthened. The first energetic advocate for the new method was Heinicke (Samuel Heinicke, 1727-90), founder of the first institute for the deaf and mute in Leipzig. Modern surdopedagogy (the science of the education of the deaf and mute) in all cultural countries exclusively uses the method of teaching verbal speech, rejecting sign language as hindering the intellectual development of the deaf and mute (for details, see Deaf-mutism).