Deaf people in Cambodia are often represented in the media as lacking language but in reality, deaf people’s repertoires and communicative practices challenge essentialisms regarding modalities and conventional understandings of “language.” Drawing on fieldwork in Cambodia, this article examines how notions of an urban/rural dichotomy devalue the communicative practices of rural deaf people. These ideologies marginalize the creative deployment of various modalities by deaf people in everyday languaging that are not commonly indexed as parts of a linguistic repertoire. Communicative practices such as drawing a picture to communicate, gestures, the use of physical objects such as city maps are devalued because academics and lay people tend to have rigid conceptualizations of language. This article calls for closer attention to modalities such as gestures, the drawing of pictures and the use of physical objects in everyday languaging to interrogate how the “invention” of languages results in distinctions between groups and individuals, especially in terms of access to linguistic resources such as a national signed language and perceptions about the use of modalities other than signing or speaking. In NGO narratives, often echoed by deaf Cambodians themselves, deaf people acquire a signed language only after rural-urban migration, which misrepresents their communicative competencies and creative use of linguistic resources. In reality, deaf people’s linguistic repertoires are constantly expanding as they enter new spaces, resulting in the flexible accumulation of languaging practices and modalities.

中文翻译：

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“没有语言”的聋人：柬埔寨聋人语言实践的流动性和灵活积累

柬埔寨的聋人经常在媒体中表示为缺乏语言，但实际上，聋人的曲目和交际方式挑战了关于方式和对“语言”的传统理解的本质主义。本文利用柬埔寨的实地考察，研究了城乡二分法的观念如何贬低农村聋人的交流方式。这些意识形态使聋哑人在日常语言中的各种方式的创造性部署处于边缘地位，这些语言通常不被索引为语言库的一部分。由于学者和非专业人士倾向于对语言进行严格的概念化，因此交流实践（如绘制图片进行交流，手势，使用诸如城市地图之类的物理对象）的价值被贬值。本文呼吁人们更加关注诸如手势，图片绘制以及在日常语言中使用物理对象之类的方式，以询问语言的“发明”如何导致群体与个人之间的区别，特别是在获得语言资源方面例如国家手语和对使用方式（除了手语或口语）的理解。在非政府组织的叙述中，聋人柬埔寨人经常回声，聋人只有在从农村向城市迁移后才获得手语，这歪曲了他们的交流能力和创造性地使用语言资源的能力。实际上，聋人的语言库在进入新的空间时会不断扩大，从而导致语言实践和方式的灵活积累。在日常语言中绘制图片和使用实物来询问语言的“发明”如何导致群体和个人之间的区别，特别是在获得语言资源（例如国家手语和对使用语言的理解）方面除签名或讲话外的其他方式。在非政府组织的叙述中，聋人柬埔寨人经常回声，聋人只有在从农村向城市迁移后才获得手语，这歪曲了他们的交流能力和创造性地使用语言资源的能力。实际上，聋人的语言库在进入新的空间时会不断扩大，从而导致语言实践和方式的灵活积累。在日常语言中绘制图片和使用实物来询问语言的“发明”如何导致群体和个人之间的区别，特别是在获得语言资源（例如国家手语和对使用语言的理解）方面除签名或讲话外的其他方式。在非政府组织的叙述中，聋人柬埔寨人经常回声，聋人只有在从农村向城市迁移后才获得手语，这歪曲了他们的交流能力和创造性地使用语言资源的能力。实际上，聋人的语言库在进入新的空间时会不断扩大，从而导致语言实践和方式的灵活积累。