Henniker Sign Language was a village sign language of 19th-century

Henniker, New Hampshire Henniker is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 census, the reported total population of the town was 6,185, although the figure, 27.9% greater than the 2010 population, has been questioned by local officials. ...

and surrounding villages in the US. It was one of three local languages which formed the basis of American Sign Language. Although the number of students from Henniker were fewer than speakers of the more famous

Martha's Vineyard Sign Language Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) was a village sign-language that was once widely used on the island of Martha's Vineyard from the early 18th century to 1952. It was used by both Deaf and hearing people in the community; consequently, dea ...

, deafness in Henniker was genetically dominant, and Henniker SL was therefore likely to have been better developed than MVSL.

References

*Lane, Pillard, & French, "Origins of the American Deaf-World: Assimilating and Differentiating Societies and Their Relation to Genetic Patterning". In Emmorey & Lane, eds, ''The Signs of Language Revisited'', 2000 {{Sign language Village sign languages Sign languages of the United States Extinct languages of North America Extinct sign languages

See also

References