Birth of a new language

In the early 1980s deaf children in Nicaragua invented a completely new sign language of their own.

It was a remarkable achievement, which allowed experts a unique insight into how human communication develops.

In 2020, Mike Lanchin spoke to an American linguist Judy Shepard-Kegl, who documented this process.

(Photo: Sign language class in Nicaragua. Credit: INTI OCON/AFP via Getty Images)