Judy Shepard-Kegl (born June 20, 1953) is an American linguist and full professor, best known for her research on the

Nicaraguan sign language Nicaraguan Sign Language (ISN; es, Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua) is a form of sign language which developed spontaneously among deaf children in a number of schools in Nicaragua in the 1980s. It is of particular interest to linguists as it off ...

Education and career

She received her Ph.D. in

linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT) in 1985, with a dissertation entitled ''Locative Relations in American Sign Language Word Formation, Syntax and Discourse.'' Shepard-Kegl is currently a tenured professor of Linguistics and coordinator of the ASL/English Interpreting Program at the

University of Southern Maine The University of Southern Maine (USM) is a public university with campuses in Portland, Gorham and Lewiston in the U.S. state of Maine. It is the southernmost of the University of Maine System. It was founded as two separate state universit ...

. She has worked and written extensively within her field and is best known for her work and multiple academic publishings on the

Nicaraguan Sign Language Nicaraguan Sign Language (ISN; es, Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua) is a form of sign language which developed spontaneously among deaf children in a number of schools in Nicaragua in the 1980s. It is of particular interest to linguists as it off ...

(or ISN, ''Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua'' or ''Idioma de Signos Nicaragüense''), a sign language spontaneously developed by

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 ...

children in a number of schools in western

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

in the 1970s and 1980s.

Selected publications

* Carol Neidle, Judy Kegl, Dawn MacLaughlin, Benjamin Bahan and Robert G. Lee. 1999. The syntax of American Sign Language. The MIT Press. ISBN * J Kegl, A Senghas, M Coppola. 1999. Creation through contact: Sign language emergence and sign language change in Nicaragua. In: Language Creation and Language Change, ed. by Michael de Graff. The MIT Press. * Gary Morgan, Judy Kegl. 2006. Nicaraguan Sign Language and Theory of Mind: the issue of critical periods and abilities. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 47: 811-819. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01621.x

References

External links

Comprehensive Kegl background
�� Official webpage at University of Southern Maine

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shepard-Kegl, Judy 1953 births Linguists from the United States Living people MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni University of Southern Maine faculty Women linguists