Washington (AFP)

"English is not my mother tongue," writes in her TikTok biography Nakia Smith, who grew up in Texas.

At 22, the young black woman who was deaf from birth uses her popularity on the video social network to promote her little-known sign language: black American Sign Language.

In her videos, she describes to her 400,000 subscribers the differences with Standard American Sign Language (ASL).

Among other things, she "speaks" with two hands rather than one, uses more space and makes more use of facial expressions.

For the "paper" sign in ASL, we mimic a sheet by typing the left hand with the right hand, while moving the latter outwards.

In black American Sign Language, we wave both thumbs outwards at shoulder level, Nakia describes to its Internet users.

"Black American Sign Language comes from ASL, but has more spice. It is more emotionally involved," she told AFP, her brother acting as the interpreter.

“I learned to + sign + by watching members of my family,” explains Nakia, the fourth deaf generation in her family.

"But when I went to school, my deaf friends didn't understand me. Then I understood that black sign language was unique, and I wanted to talk about it online."

-Wide variety-

These differences, Carolyn McCaskill, a professor at Gallaudet University in Washington, one of the largest institutions for the deaf and hard of hearing in the world, noticed them decades ago.

As a child in Alabama, she first learned sign language at a school for the deaf black, before going to study at the school for white children when segregation ended.

"The signs they were using were completely different, even though our schools were 10 minutes apart," she recalls.

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The earliest schools for the deaf and hard of hearing in the United States date from the early 1800s, but in 17 southern states and Washington, separate schools for black students were established towards the turn of the century.

In these 18 establishments, a distinct way of communicating by signs developed naturally, starting from ASL.

These schools existed on average 70 years, until desegregation, long enough to allow the emergence of a dialect with its own characteristics.

For her book, "The Hidden Treasures of Black American Sign Language," Ms. McCaskill interviewed dozens of deaf African Americans to catalog the specifics of this dialect.

Due to the geographic remoteness of the communities, the American Black Sign Language is of a great variety, and some signs differ from one part of the American South to another.

Some remember a cruel lack of resources for their schools, and poor or untrained teachers who did not teach them the full diversity of Standard American Sign Language.

“We black students were repetitive, we lacked variety, our sign language was limited,” recalls Pamela Baldwin, who was educated in Arkansas during and after segregation, in an interview with Ms. McCaskill.

This lack of means explains the informal aspect of a dialect whose understanding relies on a range of communication elements rather than on the sole use of pre-established signs.

- Emotion or ... robotism -

"Black people + sign + with more rhythm, more style, with words that reveal our emotions and in a freer way. I don't want to offend white people, but their signs lack affect, they are robotic and don't show emotions, "a deaf black student from Texas told Ms. McCaskill.

Today, American Black Sign Language survives primarily through intergenerational transmission, as in the case of Ms. Smith, who learned it from her grandfather.

This makes estimating its speaker count nearly impossible, according to Professor McCaskill.

"The oldest speakers are disappearing, but it is still very much alive, the younger generation wants to preserve this language", explains the expert.

She herself launched the country's first black deafness studies center in 2020 with colleagues at Gallaudet, which offers a course on the history and culture of deaf African Americans.

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She hopes her center will serve as a base for the preservation of the dialect, but recognizes the importance of figures like Nakia Smith and her popularity on social media.

"His videos are viral and have reached different parts of the black community, and that's great."

Nakia, she wants more visibility for sign language, standard or black, and would like to work in the cinema to contribute to it.

"I want to see her in popular culture, in books, in series, wherever it is."

© 2021 AFP