The tipping point: On the use of signs from American Sign Language in International Sign

This paper approaches International Sign (IS) as both a translingual practice and a contact language which is subject to language contact with American Sign Language (ASL). The perceived overuse of ASL in IS is often judged as counterproductive for IS to flourish independently from ASL. The desire for IS and ASL to be sufficiently different leads to a desire for setting and maintaining linguistic boundaries between both. Therefore, discourses about the maintenance and vitality of IS as a collaborative translingual practice can take the form of linguistic prescriptivism aiming to curtail ASL use in IS.