New study shows American Sign Language is shaped by the people who use it to make communication easier

The way we speak today isn't the way that people talked thousands—or even hundreds—of years ago. William Shakespeare's line, "to thine own self be true," is today's "be yourself." New speakers, ideas, and technologies all seem to play a role in shifting the ways we communicate with each other, but linguists don't always agree on how and why languages change. Now, a new study of American Sign Language adds support to one potential reason: Sometimes, we just want to make our lives a little easier.