"International" Sign Language
There is no "universal sign language" or real "international sign language." There is a sign form called Gestuno that was developed by a committee of the World Federation of the Deaf. It's not really a language, more a vocabulary of signs that they all agree to use at international meetings. But no one really signs Gestuno as a native language, just as no one really uses Esperanto as their native spoken language*. In Europe, because of the increasing trade and mobility, there is a lingua franca being developed, a creole sign language that some have taken to calling International Sign Language. But neither Gestuno or the new European creole are true natural languages from the linguistic perspective. Perhaps as a new generation of Deaf Euro-kids grows up, they will develop a new, natural Euro-sign language.
