1363: Antony Davies – Spontaneous Order

In Nicaragua where sign language didn’t exist, in 1981, a new school for the deaf opened. Fifty deaf students enrolled during the school’s first year, and a curious thing happened: they developed their own version of sign language. No one taught them this; they simply began assigning signs and gestures to the things in their environment, and slowly a language emerged, complete with verb tenses and the like, to rival any other language. Spontaneous orders are systems that develop organically. They aren’t designed by a coercive authority. They emerge through countless human interactions undertaken over time. —Antony Davies, James R. HarriganDownload Print Quality (7680×4020) 222KB  |  Normal Quality (3840×2010) 122KB
In Nicaragua where sign language didn’t exist, in 1981, a new school for the deaf opened. Fifty deaf students enrolled during the school’s first year, and a curious thing happened: they developed their own version of sign language. No one taught them this; they simply began assigning signs and gestures to the things in their environment, and slowly a language emerged, complete with verb tenses and the like, to rival any other language. Spontaneous orders are systems that develop organically. They aren’t designed by a coercive authority. They emerge through countless human interactions undertaken over time. —Antony Davies, James R. HarriganDownload Print Quality (7680×7680) 363KB  |  Normal Quality (3840×3840) 182KB

In Nicaragua where sign language didn’t exist, in 1981, a new school for the deaf opened. Fifty deaf students enrolled during the school’s first year, and a curious thing happened: they developed their own version of sign language. No one taught them this; they simply began assigning signs and gestures to the things in their environment, and slowly a language emerged, complete with verb tenses and the like, to rival any other language. Spontaneous orders are systems that develop organically. They aren’t designed by a coercive authority. They emerge through countless human interactions undertaken over time. —Antony Davies, James R. Harrigan