> I had read recently that ASL sign language can be thought of as a different language Yes, it is a different language. I've heard that ASL is rather similar t

> I had read recently that ASL sign language can be thought of as a different language Yes, it is a different language. I've heard that ASL is rather similar to French Sign Language and quite different from BSL (British Sign Language). If someone were to translate something from English into ASL, and someone else were to translate the ASL back into English, I'd expect the result to be as different from the original as if they'd gone via some other language, like Italian, for example.