I should note that Shannon at one point says there are “14,000” languages in the world, because people when saying there are “7,000” languages in the world are forgetting that sign languages exist — however it is a bit presumptive to assume that there is a roughly equal number of signed languages as spoken languages.
Still, I think this is an intriguing perspective that makes me want to know more about the language dynamics and language politics of Deaf people around the world.
Sorry, are you implying that sign languages are just engineered representations of spoken languages? Because if you are, those are called MCLs (manually coded languages), and are completely different from sign languages.
I’ve always heard that different sign language have different signs for the same significant.
Yes, they do, but I’m just confused about why you think different sign languages should have the same sign.