Jean Massieu (; 1772 – July 21, 1846) was a pioneering
deaf educator. One of six
deaf
Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...
siblings, he was denied schooling until age thirteen when he met
Abbé Sicard, who enrolled him in the Institute national des jeunes sourds de Bordeaux-Gradignan, the Bordeaux School for Deaf Children. There he learned to read and write
French, and later helped develop the first formalized
French Sign Language
French Sign Language (french: langue des signes française, LSF) is the sign language of the deaf in France and French-speaking parts of Switzerland. According to ''Ethnologue'', it has 100,000 native signers.
French Sign Language is relate ...
. This
French Sign Language
French Sign Language (french: langue des signes française, LSF) is the sign language of the deaf in France and French-speaking parts of Switzerland. According to ''Ethnologue'', it has 100,000 native signers.
French Sign Language is relate ...
was later adapted into
American Sign Language. He taught at
the famous school for the deaf in Paris where
Laurent Clerc
Louis Laurent Marie Clerc (; 26 December 1785 – 18 July 1869) was a French teacher called "The Apostle of the Deaf in America" and was regarded as the most renowned deaf person in American Deaf History. He was taught by Abbé Sicard and dea ...
was one of his students. He began work after a scandal in Paris in Rodez and dedicated his life to educating deaf children. Later he founded a deaf school in
Lille, France
Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord ...
.
Film
Jean Massieu is portrayed in the fictional film ''
Sign Gene'', the superhero film about deaf mutants who have
superpowers through the use of
sign language
Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...
, as the fourth great-grandfather of Kate Massieu (played by
Carola Insolera) the girlfriend of the leading character Tom Clerc, descendant of
Laurent Clerc
Louis Laurent Marie Clerc (; 26 December 1785 – 18 July 1869) was a French teacher called "The Apostle of the Deaf in America" and was regarded as the most renowned deaf person in American Deaf History. He was taught by Abbé Sicard and dea ...
. The film is written and produced by
Emilio Insolera and was screened in cinemas in September 2017.
Quotes attributed to him
* "Let the Englishman have his coffee, and let me have my ham."—Jean Massieu
* "Gratitude is the memory of the heart", which has become a proverb in the French language.
See also
*
Ferdinand Berthier
*
Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian
References
External links
* Massieu, Jean; Laurent Clerc; and Roch Ambroise Cucurron Sicard. 1815
A collection of the most remarkable definitions and answers of Massieu and Clerc, deaf and dumb, to the various questions put to them, at the public lectures of the Abbé Sicard, in London.London: Printed for Massieu and Clerc, by Cox and Baylis, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields
"Jean Massieu," 1849 article written by Laurent ClercMassieu, Jean (Gallaudet University Library web page)Date of the death of Jean Massieu, in ''Journal de Toulouse'', 28 July 1846 "Jean Massieu, ancien professeur à l'Institut royal des sourds-muets de Paris, fondateur et directeur honoraire de l'institution des sourds-muets de Lille, est mort dans cette ville le 21 juillet, à l'àge de soixante-quinze ans. M. Massieu avait été l'élève, l'ami et le successeur de l'illustre abbé Sicard."
1772 births
1846 deaths
Deaf activists
Deaf people from France
Educators of the deaf
French educators
French Sign Language
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