ISRAELI TOWN OF THE DEAF

Signs and Wonders: An Israeli town where people talk with their hands--literally. (WSJ)

In the southern Israeli desert of Negev lies a community called Al-Sayyid. Inhabited by approximately 3,500 Bedouin, an Arab nomadic tribe that settled the area about 200 years ago, the village may seem rather humdrum at first glance. That is, until you see the villagers interacting--by making signs with their hands.

In Al-Sayyid, at least 150 residents are deaf, a rate 50 times greater than that of Israel's general population. As it happens, a recessive gene for profound deafness--traced back to sons of the "founding" couple--has made its way, through large families and genetic probabilities, into an ever-widening gene pool. Thus over three generations an extraordinarily high number of deaf children have been born to Al-Sayyid's villagers.

Of necessity, a special means of communication has sprung up: Nearly all the village's residents, hearing and deaf alike, are fluent in a sign language unique to Al-Sayyid. Margalit Fox's "Talking Hands," in part, describes this language and chronicles the work of a group of linguists who were allowed by townspeople to study it.