Imagine a community where being Deaf was no more remarkable than being left-handed, because nearly everyone around you signed. For more than two centuries, that was daily life on Martha’s Vineyard, a small island off the coast of Massachusetts.
How an Island Became a Signing Community
Hereditary deafness had appeared on Martha’s Vineyard by 1714. Many of the island’s Deaf residents trace their ancestry to a small region in southern England, the Weald in the county of Kent, and migration to the island had virtually ceased by 1710. That created a close-knit community in which the same hereditary trait persisted for more than 200 years.
The numbers are striking. Across the island, roughly 1 in 155 children was born Deaf, but in the town of Chilmark the concentration was far higher. By the mid-1800s, about 1 in 25 Chilmark residents was Deaf, and in some neighborhoods the figure was closer to 1 in 4.
A Language Shared by Everyone
Out of this setting grew Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL), used by Deaf and hearing islanders alike from the early 18th century until 1952. Because deafness often appeared in some siblings but not others within the same family, hearing children grew up bilingual in sign from the start. Researchers who documented the community describe hearing islanders signing to one another even when no Deaf person was present, such as across fishing boats, during church services, or when sharing a private joke.
Historian Nora Ellen Groce captured this world in her 1985 book, Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language, which remains the best-known study of the community and its language.
The Link to American Sign Language
MVSL did not stay on the island. When the American School for the Deaf opened in Hartford, Connecticut, many Deaf children from Martha’s Vineyard enrolled there. At the school, their signing mixed with French Sign Language, brought to America by Laurent Clerc, and with other signing in the student body. Out of that blend, American Sign Language took shape, and MVSL is widely credited as one of its contributing sources.
Why the Language Faded
Several factors brought MVSL to an end. As more Deaf islanders spent time on the mainland, they married Deaf spouses whose deafness was not hereditary, which weakened the island’s hereditary line. Easier transportation in the 19th century also brought new residents and more genetic diversity. The last person born into the island’s hereditary tradition, Katie West, died in 1952. Because there is little detailed record of the language, no fluent MVSL signers remain today.
Why It Still Matters
MVSL is one of the best-known examples of a village sign language, a language that emerges when Deaf and hearing people live closely together in a small community. It sits alongside other village signing communities studied around the world, including Kata Kolok in Bali, and it offers a powerful reminder that communication barriers are often a matter of social setting rather than hearing. In a place where everyone signed, deafness simply was not treated as a handicap.
The Takeaway
Martha’s Vineyard shows what an inclusive linguistic community can look like. Although MVSL itself is gone, its legacy lives on in ASL and in the research that continues to shape how we understand sign language, community, and inclusion.
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