gesture language

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Primitive man depended largely upon gesture language, and the placing of the hand over the heart is universally understood to signify love and fidelity.

From The Brain and the Voice in Speech and Song by Mott, F. W. (Frederick Walker)

This is no imputation against the missionaries, as in October, 1880, five intelligent Ojibwas from Petoskey, Mich., told the writer that they had never heard of gesture language.

From Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples And Deaf-Mutes First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-1880, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 263-552 by Mallery, Garrick

Many arguments have been advanced to prove that gesture language preceded articulate speech and formed the earliest attempt at communication, resulting from the interacting subjective and objective conditions to which primitive man was exposed.

From Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples And Deaf-Mutes First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-1880, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 263-552 by Mallery, Garrick

Ercole only answered by raising his head and throwing out his chin, which means "no" in gesture language.

From Whosoever Shall Offend by Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)

In gesture language, the gesture has to remain fairly imitative or expressive to be intelligible.

From Human Traits and their Social Significance by Edman, Irwin