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jbWolf writes:

Science Daily has an article about intonations in sign language.

Like the intonation of individual spoken languages, sign languages also have their own unique "sound," and, as with spoken languages, the intonation of one community's language is different from that of another community, according to a new study at the University of Haifa. "Our discovery that sign languages also have unique intonation patterns once again demonstrates that sign languages share many central properties with spoken languages. It turns out that intonation is an essential component of any human language, including languages without sound," explained Prof. Wendy Sandler, who led the study.

On a personal note, I find it interesting to compare this to emoticons and acronyms like LOL or ROFL in an email setting as well.