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Birth of a new language

Deaf children in Nicaragua invented a completely new sign language of their own in the early 1980s.

In the early 1980s deaf children in Nicaragua invented a completely new sign language of their own.

It was a remarkable achievement, which allowed experts a unique insight into how human communication develops.

In 2020, Mike Lanchin spoke to an American linguist Judy Shepard-Kegl, who documented this process.

(Photo: Sign language class in Nicaragua. Credit: INTI OCON/AFP via Getty Images)

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