Dorothy Chiyoko Sueoka Casterline (April 27, 1928 – August 8, 2023) was an American

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 ...

linguist known for her contribution to '' A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles'', considered a foundational work 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 elements, no ...

linguistics.

Life and career

Casterline was born Dorothy Sueoka on April 27, 1928, to parents of Japanese descent, and she grew up in

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. She became deaf at age 14. After graduating from the Hawaii School for the Deaf and the Blind, then known as the Diamond Head School for the Deaf, she obtained a bachelor's degree in English from

Gallaudet University Gallaudet University ( ) is a private federally chartered university in Washington, D.C., for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first school ...

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in 1958. She was the first deaf Hawaiian student to graduate from Gallaudet. She married fellow alumnus Jim Casterline, and they remained married until his death in 2012. While at Gallaudet, she and her colleague Carl Croneberg were recruited by the linguist

William Stokoe William Clarence “Bill” Stokoe Jr. ( ; July 21, 1919 – April 4, 2000) was an American linguist and a long-time professor at Gallaudet University. His research on American Sign Language (ASL) revolutionized the understanding of ASL in the Un ...

to contribute to their joint work ''A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles''. Published in 1965, the dictionary is considered a seminal text in the study of ASL, which promoted greater interest in and respect for the language. It was innovative in treating ASL as a real and natural language, rather than a variant of English. Casterline played an important role as a deaf collaborator with the hearing professor Stokoe over the several years it took to produce the dictionary. Stokoe also valued the multicultural makeup of his team, with Casterline's Asian Pacific Islander background and Croneberg's Swedish one. As part of this project, she collaborated with Stokoe and Croneberg beginning in 1960 on a study of the syntax and dialects of American Sign Language under funding provided by the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

. Casterline was living in

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, as of 1994. In 2022, She was given an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Gallaudet, in recognition of her contributions to ASL linguistics and

deaf studies Deaf studies are academic disciplines concerned with the study of the deaf social life of human groups and individuals. These constitute an interdisciplinary field that integrates contents, critiques, and methodologies from anthropology, cultural ...

. She died on August 8, 2023, at age 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Casterline, Dorothy 1928 births 2023 deaths People from Honolulu Linguists from the United States Gallaudet University faculty Gallaudet University alumni American deaf people Hawaii people of Japanese descent Linguists of sign languages People involved with sign language Deaf scholars and academics 21st-century American academics 21st-century American women academics 20th-century American academics 20th-century American women academics