HIRN’S FAMILY & "DE DÖVSTUMMAS ÅTBÖRDSPRÅK I FINLAND / KUUROMYKKÄIN VIITTOMAKIELI SUOMESSA" (1910-1916)
The first lexicographic work on Finnish Sign Language, was carried out in 1910-1916 by a Deaf family, including the father David Fitz Hirn, the mother Maria Hirn and the hearing son Julius Hirn. David Fredrik (Fitz) Hirn Fitz Hirn was the first author of the dictionary and modeled all the signs for the booklets. Fitz was one of Deaf teacher C.O. Malm’s first pupils at Porvoo. He later became a teacher in the Turku Deaf School. Fitz was a pioneering leader of the Finnish Deaf community and the founder of the first Deaf Clubs in Turku and Helsinki. Fitz was elected as the first chairman of the Deaf-and-Dumb Association in Turku. For further information, see these links: Written in English: Written in Finnish: Maria Lovisa Hirn (born Klingenberg) Maria Hirn was Fitz’s wife and she photographed all signs modeled by her husband and organized the photographs. Before the Deaf-and-Dumb Association in Turku was established, Maria often welcomed members of the Turku Deaf community to socialize in the Hirn family living room on Sundays. For further information, see these links: Written in English: Written in Finnish: Julius Hirn Julius Hirn, the hearing son of Fitz and Maria Hirn, wrote all the text in the dictionary. As a hearing child of deaf parents, Julius was a strong ally of the Finnish Deaf Community and advocated for their needs. He was also an active member of the community, serving as chairman of the Helsinki Deaf Club, and actively cooperating with the Turku Deaf Club, led by his father. As a professional journalist, he used his position to write about Deaf-related issues for public audiences. Julius shared with his father, Fitz the concern about the declining status of sign language under the new focus upon oral-auditory training in Deaf Education in Finland. In the First Nordic Congress of Deaf Mutes Julius proposed the idea of standardizing the Scandanavian sign languages, leading to the work of the first committee for Nordic Deaf Mutes. In the first Nordic Congress of Deaf Mutes Julius proposed the idea of standardizing the Scandanavian sign languages, leading to the work of the first commitee for Nordic Deaf Mutes. For further information, see these links: Written in English: Written in Finnish: The contribution of the Hirn Family to the stewardship of Finnish Sign Language: The historial FinSL lexicographic work arose from the work of the Nordic Committee for Deaf Mutes established during the first Nordic Congress of Deaf Mutes in Copenhagen in 1907. The committee was assigned to photograph and compile signs and to take measures to further the standardization of the sign languages of Nordic Deaf Mutes. Fitz and Julius Hirn and Pastor Hj. Vesenterä were selected as Finnish members for this committee. The Finnish Association for the Deaf funded and published Hirn’s dictionary work, but due to deaths in Hirn’s family, the collection was never finished and publication was limited to three booklets, released in 1910, 1911 and 1916. |
