Juan Pablo Bonet (–1633) was a Spanish priest and pioneer of

education for the deaf Deaf education is the education of students with any degree of hearing loss or deafness. This may involve, but does not always, individually-planned, systematically-monitored teaching methods, adaptive materials, accessible settings, and othe ...

. He published the first book on deaf education in 1620 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. Juan Pablo Bonet was born in Torres de Berrellén (

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to s ...

), and became secretary to

Juan Fernández de Velasco, 5th Duke of Frías ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...

, Condestable of Castile. While serving in the Condestable's household, Bonet observed the methods of a tutor hired to teach Luis, the Condestable's second son, who was deaf from birth. In this wealthy and titled family as well as in others related by marriage or birth were a number of deaf sons and daughters whose parents wanted them educated in addition to their hearing siblings. Some of the deaf sons were in line to inherit the family's properties, and literacy was a requirement for legal recognition as an heir. The modern recorded history 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 ...

began in the 17th century in Spain, in part with Bonet. In 1620, Juan Pablo Bonet published ''Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos'' ("Summary of the letters and the art of teaching speech to the mute") in Madrid. The book is considered the first modern treatise of

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

. Also, it depicts the first documented manual alphabet for the purpose of deaf education. His intent was to further the oral and manual education of deaf people in Spain. Bonet's manual alphabet has influenced many sign languages, such as Spanish Sign Language, French Sign Language, and American Sign Language. Diego de Astor of ''Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos'' (Bonet, 1620): "> File:Lengua de Signos (Juan Pablo Bonet, 1620) A.jpg, A. File:Lengua de Signos (Bonet, 1620) B, C, D.jpg, B, C, D. File:Lengua de Signos (Bonet, 1620) E, F, G.jpg, E, F, G. File:Lengua de Signos (Bonet, 1620) H, I, J.jpg, H, I, L. File:Lengua de Signos (Bonet, 1620) M, N.jpg, M, N. File:Lengua de Signos (Bonet, 1620) O, P, Q.jpg, O, P, Q. File:Lengua de Signos (Bonet, 1620) R, S, T.jpg, R, S, T. File:Lengua de Signos (Bonet, 1620) V, X, Y, Z.jpg, V, X, Y, Z.

External links

* *Pablo Bonet, J. de (1620)
Reduction de las letras y Arte para enseñar á ablar los Mudos
', Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonet, Juan Pablo 17th-century Spanish Roman Catholic priests Spanish educational theorists Deafness Phoneticians 1573 births 1633 deaths People involved with sign language