homesigner

Etymology

From home sign + -er.

Why this word is great

HOMESIGNER — [Noun] A deaf person who has not acquired a formal signed or spoken language and instead communicates through a self-developed gesture system called home sign. Derived from home sign (a self-generated gesture system) + -er (agent noun suffix). Unlike "signer" (who operates within the grammar of an established language) or "nonverbal communicator" (a category too broad to capture this particular isolation), a homesigner builds a bridge alone, without blueprints. It is the child pointing to the sky to mean "bird," the teenager miming hunger with hands pressed to their stomach, the adult inventing a gesture for "love" by clutching their chest—a private language born of necessity, a solitary lighthouse flickering in the dark.

noun

A deaf person who has not properly acquired a signed or spoken language, due to lack of instruction and isolation from an established signing community, who instead uses a self-generated gesture system called a home sign.“Because Julio is a child homesigner, we have the unique opportunity to track the changes in his homesign system as it acquires more linguistic structure, from its roots in the non-linguistic gestures produced by the hearing individuals around him.”