As you know, I am here to work with the sign language interpreters of Phnom Penh. These 7 men and women are pioneers since they are the first and only sign language interpreters in the country. The sign language itself is only 12 years old since the first visitor from Finland invited the Deaf people she met in the markets and on the streets to come together in a social setting. Prior to her coming to Phnom Penh in 1996 Deaf people had never known each other, and certainly never conversed. Many had seen each other in public but had not dared to talk with each other. If there is no social need for language, it is not created in the community. It was only after Deaf people began to gather that a need for a common language, and not just gestures to work household tasks with family became apparent.




Language in Cambodia is an amazing thing. It fits social needs very neatly. For example, in Khmer culture it is considered very impolite to refer to one's self too often. So in spoken Khmer, when using a pronoun for example, khnyom or I, it is used only once in a text followed by a verb. There after in the conversation or text the pronoun is left completely out until there is a need to talk about someone else then that pronoun is used once and left out until the next change. In Cambodian sign language the same thing is accomplished in a different fashion. At the beginning of a conversation one can refer to him or herself by using the pronoun, me [pointing to one's self] followed by a verb. Thereafter in a conversation, one uses his or her own sign name and refers to him or herself in the third person. Hence, "Khnyom [pointing to one's self] go to lunch at 12 noon. Martin [using the sign name "eh, what's a matter you?"] likes to sleep for a while at lunch so he comes back to work at 2." In that last dialogue bit the pronoun "I" or "me" is used only once.

BTW, Cambodian Sign Language is unique in the world in that it may one of the world's few languages that has an S-O-V structure. In other words, the subject of a sentence is immediately followed by the object and then the verb. So, " MARTIN, BALL HE-THROWS [TOWARDS THE LISTENER.]"