ABSL is not the name of a professional sports league. Rather it’s Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL), the language of Deaf Arab villagers. According to a linguist, it’s an exciting discovery because it’s the first documented case of a language that came about with no outside influence.
After previously reporting on the Nicaraguan Deaf and reading this one, I wonder if other cultures have created their own sign language that we have yet to discover?
Ah, I just found another one. “The case of Bobby Suwarak, a deaf man from Baker Lake who communicates with gestures not related to standard sign language, has raised the possibility of an indigenous sign language known to Inuit for centuries.”