American Sign Language
Spoken in	North America, West Africa
Native speakers	(unknown)
Language family	French FSL-based creole[1] American Sign Language
Dialects	Black American Sign Language Puerto Rican Sign Language Bolivian Sign Ghanaian Sign Nigerian Sign
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ase
300px   Areas where ASL or a dialect/derivative of ASL is the national sign language   Areas where ASL is in significant use alongside another sign language

American Sign Language (ASL) is a sign language, a language in which the hands, arms, head, facial expression and body language are used to speak without sound. ASL is not related to English, and features an entirely different grammar and vocabulary.^[2] In the 1960s, ASL was sometimes referred to as "Ameslan"^[3] but this term is now obsolete.

ASL is the dominant sign language of deaf communities in the United States and English-speaking parts of Canada.^[4] Although the United Kingdom and the United States / Canada share English as a common oral and written language, British Sign Language (BSL) is a completely different language from ASL, and they are not mutually intelligible. ASL is instead related to French Sign Language.

Besides North America, dialects of ASL or ASL-based creoles are used, sometimes alongside indigenous sign languages, in the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Chad, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Mauritania, Kenya, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Barbados, Bolivia, China, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica. Like other sign languages, its grammar and syntax are distinct from any spoken language, including English.

Population[link]

The number of ASL speakers is unknown. Determining the number of people who use ASL is difficult because, unlike most oral languages, ASL use is not associated with a specific ethnicity, location, or even household. Rather, people learn ASL because they are deaf, hearing impaired or, less commonly, speech impaired, or because they have family or friends who sign. Further, most deaf children are born to hearing adults and thus learn ASL mainly at school, rather than from their parents, so it is often not the language of the home.^[5][6]

ASL is frequently, though incorrectly, cited as the fourth- or fifth-most-spoken language in the United States.^[7] These figures misquote a 1972 survey that actually concluded that ASL speakers constituted the fourth-largest population requiring an interpreter in court. Several other languages were more widely spoken, but many of their speakers were bilingual in English.^[8] The survey only questioned deaf people on whether they signed "well", it did not distinguish ASL from other sign languages, and it did not investigate how many hearing people among their friends and family, such as their children, might also sign.

From that incomplete 1972 data, it was extrapolated that there were at most 500,000 home signers, both deaf and hearing, in the United States at the time, with an unknown percentage being ASL signers. There has been no reliable estimate since the 1972 study. The US population has also grown by 50% in the roughly 40 years since 1972, and education for the deaf, including access to ASL, has greatly improved. In addition, the number of profoundly deaf people in the country (approx. 2.5 million in the year 2000), a figure commonly given as the upper bound in ASL estimates, cannot be used, as the majority (roughly 75%) of these people became deaf after age 65 and are unlikely to use ASL well, if at all.^[8][5]

Variations in signed English[link]

ASL words are also used with English grammar and word order plus, in some systems such as Signing Exact English ("SEE"), invented or modified signs for English inflections such as "-ing" and function words such as "the". These forms of signing, generically called Manually Coded English (MCE), are not ASL, but manually coded forms of English. See Manually Coded English for more information on these and other non-vocal language systems.^[2]

SEE and similar language codes are often used to teach English, its structure, grammar and syntax, to native ASL speakers. In addition, many hearing people, interpreters, and Deaf people when signing to a hearing person use what is commonly called Pidgin Sign English (PSE), or 'Contact Sign', a blend of English and ASL grammar and syntax using sign vocabulary. PSE can range from very English-like PSE (more like sign-supported English) to a very ASL-like PSE, which uses mostly ASL grammar and words, but may not use the finer ASL grammatical points.^[2]

History[link]

A sign language interpreter at a presentation

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In the United States, as elsewhere in the world, hearing families with deaf children have historically employed ad-hoc home sign, idiosyncratic systems of hand gesture that do not amount to full language, for rudimentary communication. There were however exceptions, such as the community of Martha's Vineyard, where a large percentage of the population was deaf and the entire hearing population was able to sign a true sign language. Elsewhere the development of sign language required the emergence of deaf schools, which brought large numbers of deaf children together. The story of ASL begins with deaf education, Martha's Vineyard, and a minister, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who was enlisted by a father to educate his deaf daughter, Alice Cogswell in 1814.

Prior sign languages[link]

France[link]

The French had a natural sign language, which is often referred to as Old French Sign Language (OFSL). OFSL was the language of a large community of Deaf people living in Paris. This language was passed down from deaf person to deaf person, and may be the oldest sign language of Europe. The Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée was the first to acknowledge that signed language could be used to educate the deaf.

An oft-repeated deaf folk tale explains Épée's role in the origin of LSF (and later, ASL): While visiting a parishioner, Épee met two deaf daughters conversing with each other using OFSL. The mother explained that her daughters were being educated privately by means of pictures. Épée was inspired by these deaf children and in 1771 established the first educational institution for the deaf.^[9] He created a series of grammatical signs to represent French grammatical markers (called "methodical signs") and taught those to his students so that they might learn grammatical French. At Épée's school, a large group of Deaf children lived together for the first time in France and it is this generation of native speakers which most likely developed OFSL into a full language. The combination of OFSL, methodical signs, and possibly other influences came together and evolved into French Sign Language, LSF, or langue des signes française.

United States[link]

Little is known of sign languages in the United States before 1817. In most communities there were few deaf people, and home sign was used. However, there were several communities with a high incidence of congenital deafness (30× the national average) where village sign language was used, and from where students attended the first schools for the deaf. The most famous of these was on Martha’s Vineyard. (See Martha's Vineyard Sign Language.)

Plains Indians[link]

In 1541, 1688, 1740, 1805, and 1828, there were reports that the Plains Indians developed a sign language to communicate between tribes of different languages. This sign language is believed to have developed in the lower Rio Grande prior to the Europeans settling and to have spread northward and become what is known as Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL). There is no evidence to show that it influenced the development of American Sign Language. By 1885, PISL had an estimated 110,000 users of various tribal dialects, but today it has only a small fraction of that number. It was not a language strictly for deaf people but an integral part of the language along with spoken components. It was also a common language between tribes who had different spoken elements.^[10]

Birth of American Sign Language and the American School for the Deaf[link]

In 1815, a Protestant minister, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, left his home in Hartford, Connecticut to visit Europe. Dr. Mason Cogswell had asked Gallaudet to investigate methods of teaching his deaf daughter, Alice Cogswell. While in England, Gallaudet hit a roadblock when directors of the Braidwood Schools, who taught the oral method, refused to share their methods of teaching. Nevertheless, while in London, Gallaudet met with Abbé Sicard, director of the Royal Institution for the Deaf in Paris, and two of his students, one of whom was Laurent Clerc. Sicard invited Gallaudet to visit the school in Paris. He did not go immediately, but instead traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland where he again met the directors of Braidwood. They again refused to teach him their methods. Gallaudet then traveled to Paris and learned the educational methods of the Royal Institution for the Deaf with sign language, a combination of Old French Sign Language and the signs developed by Abbé de l’Épée. Gallaudet persuaded Clerc to return with him to Connecticut and become a teacher for the deaf. Gallaudet and Clerc opened the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons (now called American School for the Deaf) in April 1817. Clerc used French Sign as the language of instruction. The largest group of students during the first seven decades of the school were from Martha’s Vineyard, and they brought their sign language with them. There were also 44 students from around Henniker, New Hampshire, and 27 from a settlement in southeastern Maine, each of which had their own sign language. Because these languages were not documented, it is unclear how much influence they had in the emerging ASL. Many of the students did not come from such areas, however, and arrived with nothing more than home sign. Nonetheless, Clerc reported that he often learned the students' signs rather than conveying FSL:^[1]

I see, however, and I say it with regret, that any efforts that we have made or may still be making, to do better than, we have inadvertently fallen somewhat back of Abbé de l’Épée. Some of us have learned and still learn signs from uneducated pupils, instead of learning them from well instructed and experienced teachers.

(Clerc, 1852, from Woodward 1978:336)

On the other hand, it is clear that the new language was not simply MVSL: Students returning to Martha's Vineyard from Hartford used signs that the islanders did not recognize.

Clerc also directed the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf for a year beginning in 1819, and one of his hearing students, Ronald MacDonald, established the first Canadian school for the deaf in Quebec in 1831. Canadian students attended the school in Hartford. Clerc spent the rest of his life in the US, providing a continuous influence of FSL. Nonetheless, the percentage of FSL signs in ASL is only moderate, at about 58%. ASL is thus not a dialect of FSL. Woodward (1978:339) characterized the result of this contact—between the FSL of Clerc and the village sign of many of the students—as a "massive abrupt change due to creolization".^[1]

Growth and standardization[link]

American Sign Language Convention of March 2008 in Austin, Texas

From its synthesis at this first public school for the deaf in North America, the language grew in an unbroken chain to the rest of the US and Canada. Graduates went on to found schools of their own. The only competing Deaf-community sign language was Quebec Sign, which was primarily restricted to francophone areas. Within the US, Deaf associations were formed, such as the National Association of the Deaf in 1880. Members from across the country met at national conventions, which helped stabilize the language, though each school tended to have a recognizable accent, with some distinct vocabulary; due to segregation a notably distinct dialect emerged in black schools.

Oralism versus Manualism[link]

After being strongly established in the United States there was a bitter fight between those who supported oralism over manualism in the late 19th century. Many notable individuals of high standing contributed to this debate, such as Alexander Graham Bell. The oralists won many battles and for a long time the use of sign was suppressed: socially and pedagogically. ASL was discouraged in schools for the deaf in many parts of the country at this time. Deaf teachers often were forced out of teaching to prevent deaf students from being exposed to sign language. Deaf children who did not progress adequately in oral programs were labeled "oral failures".^[11] Many did not consider sign language to be a legitimate language. This was changed by William Stokoe, a professor of English at Gallaudet University hired in 1955. He immediately became fascinated by ASL and began serious study of it. Eventually, through publication in linguistics journals of articles containing detailed linguistic analysis of ASL, he was able to convince the scientific mainstream that ASL was indeed a "language" on a par with any other.^{[citation needed]}

The modern language[link]

The language continues to grow, adding new signs for changes in culture and technology. For example, there is a sign for INTERNET and a one for Video blog (the L hands, touching at thumb tips, rotate up from palm down to palm forward). Hip-hop has been signed on YouTube.^[12]

Linguistics[link]

Two men and a woman signing.

ASL is a natural language, as proven to the satisfaction of the linguistic community by William Stokoe, and contains phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax and pragmatics just like spoken languages. Like other sign languages, it is a manual language and a visual language: information is encoded not in sounds but with the shape and movement of the hands and other parts of the body, and with facial expressions, including mouthing. Sign languages are commonly misunderstood as being gestural, but while gesture is used in sign languages just as it is in spoken languages (and indeed home sign is largely gestural), a sign language is fundamentally different from gesture in what it conveys and how it conveys it.

Iconicity[link]

The topic of iconicity in signed languages is a sensitive one. According to Saussure, one of the most important tenets of a real language is that the mapping between form and meaning (sign and signifier) must be completely arbitrary. As a result, linguists have tried to downplay the role of iconicity in signed languages. Since the onset of the Cognitive Revolution more research has emerged showing that all languages, including spoken languages, have iconic tendencies. As a result, linguists are taking a second look at iconicity in signed languages.

A common misconception is that signs are iconically self-explanatory, that they are a transparent imitation of what they mean, or even that they are pantomime. Signed languages typically have a higher degree of morphophonological iconicity than do spoken languages (called mimesis or onomatopoeia), and pantomime does play a much more extended role in signed languages compared to spoken language.

However, in some aspects of signed languages, iconicity does not seem to play a significant role. Research on acquisition of pronouns in ASL (Petitto, 1987) ^[13] has shown that children do not always take advantage of the iconic properties of signs when interpreting their meaning. Petitto showed that when children were acquiring the pronoun ‘you’ the iconicity of the point (at the child) was often confused, and treated more like a name. This is a similar finding to research in spoken languages on pronoun acquisition.

Klima and Bellugi^[14] devised three categories of explicitness in signs:

• Transparent: Non-signers can usually correctly guess the meaning
• Translucent: Meaning makes sense to non-signers once it is explained
• Opaque: Meaning has no apparent relation to the sign itself

There are differences in degrees of iconicity across sign types. Classifiers are very iconic. There is a need for more research on this, since this is not a topic that researchers easily agree on.

Grammar[link]

ASL grammar is completely unrelated to that of English. It lacks the inflections of English, such as tense and number, and does not use articles such as "the", but its spatial mode of expression has enabled it to develop an elaborate system of grammatical aspect that is absent from English. ASL grammar was obscured for much of its history by the practice of glossing it rather than transcribing it (see Writing systems below), a practice which conveyed little of its grammar apart from word order.

Variation[link]

When looking at variations it needs to be kept in mind that different groups of people do not always sign one way and not the other, rather they prefer and use a particular form of a sign more often.^[15] Furthermore, each individual signer has their own style of signing depending on various factors, such as where they went to school, if they were mainstreamed (see Mainstreaming (education)), who taught them ASL, at what age they learned ASL, and how active they are in the Deaf Community.^[16]

The American Sign Language used in different regions across North America reflects the spoken language around them.^[17] This may include the speed of their signing and names for local places.^[16]

Regional variation in Canada[link]

According to The Canadian Dictionary of ASL ^[18] there are five broad regions of ASL variation in Canada, the Pacific, Prairie, Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic regions.

Regional lexical variation[link]

Throughout these regions only lexical variations have been explored. For example the word learn can be signed two different ways. There is the standard way to sign the word learn that seems to be used by most signers of ASL in Canada, and there is also an Atlantic regional variation. Another example is about, which has three different ways of signing it; these are the standard way and two regional variations (Atlantic and Ontario). The videos on the right hand side of the page highlight the different ways to sign the word about.^[18]

About – General sign

About – Atlantic Variation

About – Ontario Variation

Regional variation in the United States[link]

ASL has many regional and subcultural varieties and accents. "Just as there are accents in speech, there are regional accents in sign. People from the South sign slower than people in the North—even people from northern and southern Indiana have different styles."^[19]

Lexical variation[link]

The most obvious regional difference is in local signs. For example, there are more than six signs for birthday in ASL, just as in English one can say couch and sofa, or soda and pop, to mean the same thing.^[15]

Phonological variation[link]

According to Lucas, Bayley, and Valli, each sign has a handshape (see handshape section in American Sign Language grammar) and these handshapes can resemble signs of numbers or letters. Some signs that are created with a 1 handshape can also be made using an L or a 5 handshape (open handshape). There is a variation among regions in the United States when it comes to which handshape signers prefer to use. Signers from California, Missouri, Massachusetts and Louisiana favor the 1 handshape over the L handshape and open handshape, while signers from Maryland, Washington and Virginia prefer the L handshape and open handshape over the 1 handshape.^[20]

Black American Sign Language[link]

Black sign language is influenced by African American English (AAE). This is especially evident in the younger Black deaf community, with use of signs for AAE words like my bad and whassup.^[21] This is a language contact feature.

History[link]

Black ASL evolved out of racial segregation in the United States, especially in the South. While White and Black children were both instructed in ASL, only Black teachers were permitted to instruct Black deaf children.^[20] Black sign language was born out of this isolation. This isolation, as well as minimal adult input, contributed to the fact that Black Sign Language displays traditional sign language elements as well as the adoption of words used by younger hearing Black people.^[22]

Phonological variation[link]

Black sign language speakers prefer to use two hands opposed to one, for example: remember.^[21] Black sign language speakers are also more likely to sign higher on the body. A sign that may be lowered to the cheek level by an ASL speaker is more likely to be produced by a Black Sign Language speaker on the forehead, for example: teacher.^[20]

Lexical variation[link]

The sign for rabbit provides a good example of variation between Black and White Signers. While both communities use the forehead location and neutral space location with the H handshape, Black signers also have a separate sign for rabbit, with a bent V handshape and different hand movement.^[15]

Varieties outside North America[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

ASL is perhaps the most widespread of the world's sign languages, though BANZSL is also spoken around the world. As a language of deaf education, ASL has been introduced to numerous countries, where it has often diverged into a separate dialect. Bolivian Sign Language, for example, is essentially ASL, apart from changes in initialized signs to make them match the spelling of Spanish. A similar French influence is seen in classroom ASL in francophone West Africa, where ASL was introduced along with formal education for the deaf by the deaf American missionary Andrew Foster. Local variants such as Ghanaian Sign Language and Nigerian Sign Language arose in anglophone countries as well.

Other languages, such as Thai Sign Language, developed as a creole of ASL and indigenous sign; a similar situation may have occurred with Malaysian Sign Language, which in turn was the base of Indonesian Sign Language. Cyprus Sign Language is reported to be a blend of ASL and Greek Sign Language, which may itself have developed from a combination of ASL and FSL. Moroccan Sign Language was developed by the American Peace Corps on a base of ASL along with incorporating local signs.

In the Philippines, ASL is widely understood by the Deaf community, though it is not the ancestor of Philippine Sign Language as sometimes thought. In some countries, such as Zimbabwe, it is widely used alongside a national sign language. Countries where ASL or a derivative of ASL is the national or a widespread language include Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana (with BSL), Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, the Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya (minority use), Liberia, Madagascar (minority use), Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Philippines (L2 use), Puerto Rico, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Trinidad and Tobago, Togo, and Zimbabwe (with ZSL). See American Sign Language family for an incomplete list of ASL varieties used outside North America.

Classifiers[link]

Sign languages exhibit the use of polymorphemic constructions referred to as classifiers (not all researchers term these constructions classifiers). These constructions can convey shape, size, motion, location, movement, stative-descriptive, and/or handling information. These constructions are highly inflectable.^[23] There have been few studies on how frequent classifiers are used in ASL. Ranging from 4.2% to 7.68% in a corpus study. The nature of classifiers and their constructions allows the signer to use them more frequently in narratives; one study found this to be 17.7%.^[24][25] Classifiers are highly iconic.

Fingerspelling[link]

The American manual alphabet. Most of the letters are shown as the viewer would see them, but some (C, D, G, H, K, P, Q, and to a lesser extent F, O, X) are shown from the side for clarity.

Fingerspelling as the main form of communication is known as the Rochester Method, also known as Visible English. The Rochester Method focuses on oral language and speech, spelling spoken words. It was the primary form of instruction at Rochester School for the Deaf.

Writing systems[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The phrase "American Sign Language" in ASL, transcribed in Stokoe notation

The phrase "American Sign Language" in ASL, transcribed in Sutton SignWriting

For much of its history, ASL was not written. It was instead glossed with English words written in all capital letters. However, there is no one-to-one correspondence between words in ASL and English, and the inflectional modulation of ASL signs—a dominant part of the grammar—is lost.

Since in spoken languages the elements of sound are for the most part produced linearly in time (that is, in a word like cat the a sound comes after the c sound, and the t sound comes after that), they can generally be easily written in a linear (one-dimensional) writing system such as an alphabet. There are only a few aspects which are produced simultaneously, such as tone in some languages, or vowel and consonant harmony, and which are therefore not straightforward to write with an alphabet. In sign languages, however, several channels operate simultaneously—hand shape, often with the two hands operating independently, hand location, hand motion, facial expression, mouthing—making an alphabetic script more complicated than just stringing letters together in the order sounds are produced.

In the 1960s linguist William Stokoe created the first writing system for a sign language, the so-called Stokoe notation, which he designed specifically for ASL. It is alphabetic, with a letter or diacritic for every phonemic (distinctive) hand shape, orientation, motion, and position, though it lacks any representation of facial expression, and is better suited for individual words than for extended passages of text. Stokoe used it for his 1965 A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles, the first dictionary with entries in ASL—that is, the first dictionary which one could use to look up a sign without first knowing its conventional gloss in English.

The usage of Stokoe's system is currently restricted to academic circles. Several additional candidates for written ASL have appeared in over the years, including Sutton SignWriting, Sign Script, ASL-phabet, and Si5s. Of these, only SignWriting has much following, being used for example in college newsletters.

ASL and baby sign[link]

In recent years, researchers have shown that exposure to sign language has a positive impact on the socialization of hearing children. When infants are taught to sign, parents are able to converse with them at a developmental stage when they are not yet capable of producing vocal speech, which requires fine control of both breathing and the vocal tract.^{[citation needed]} The ability of a child to actively communicate earlier than would otherwise be possible appears to accelerate language development and to decrease the frustrations of communication.^{[citation needed]} In a study, more than 140 families were randomly assigned to two groups: signing and non-signing. Babies using sign language showed a three-month developmental advancement at 24-months, speaking like 27-month olds. At 36-months, they were developing like a 47-month old, showing a whole year's advancement. By age 8, those who were signing as babies scored an average of twelve points higher on the WISC-III IQ test.^[26]

Many parents use a collection of simplified or ad hoc signs called "baby sign." However, parents can learn to recognize their baby's approximations of adult ASL signs, just as they will later learn to recognize their approximations of oral language, so teaching an infant ASL is also possible. Typically, young children will make an ASL sign in the correct location and use the correct hand motion, but may be able only to approximate the hand shape, for example, using one finger instead of three in signing water. Deaf children from deaf families will often "babble" in sign, just as their hearing counterparts babble in speech, making nonsensical hand gestures.

ASL has come a long way from its condemned days of banned use to being viewed as a grammatical language, which is the main form of communication in American Deaf culture. Many parents today purchase “Baby Signs” DVDs and books which incorporate ASL signs for infant and toddler communication. “Baby Signs” was developed by Dr. Linda Acredolo and Dr. Susan Goodwyn in the early 1980s, and has become a persistent trend in child development.

However, there is an interesting contrast between the belief that exposure of signs to a hearing infant will aid them in language development, whereas a deaf infant at times must show the inability to learn a spoken language before they are taught sign language. This thought had originated due to the idea that sign language hinders the development of a spoken language in deaf children (Mayberry, 2008).

See also[link]

• American Sign Language grammar
• American Sign Language literature
• ASL Idioms
• Association of Visual Language Interpreters of Canada
• Bimodal Bilingualism in the American Deaf Community
• Child of deaf adult
• Cued Speech
• Philippine Sign Language
• Florida Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf
• Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf
• Sign Name
• Signing Exact English

References[link]

Additional Reading

• Bailey, C. S. & Dolby, K. (2002). The Canadian dictionary of ASL. Edmonton, AB: The University of Alberta Press.
• Barnard, Henry (1852), "Tribute to Gallaudet—A Discourse in Commemoration of the Life, Character and Services, of the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, LL.D.—Delivered Before the Citizens of Hartford, January 7, 1852. With an Appendix, Containing History of Deaf-Mute Instruction and Institutions, and other Documents." (Download book: PDF Saveourdeafschools.org)
• Groce, Nora Ellen (1988). Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-27041-X. 
• Lane, Harlan L. (1984). When the mind hears: A history of the deaf. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-50878-5.
• Hill, J. & Lucas, C. (2009). A Presence Ignored: The Case of the Black Deaf Community in the US [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from blackaslproject.gallaudet.edu
• Lucas, C., Bayley, B., & Valli, C. (2003). What’s your sign for pizza?: An introduction to variation in American Sign Language. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
• Mayberry, Rachel I. (2007). “When Timing is Everything: Age of First-Language Acquisition Effects on Second-Language Learning.” Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, pp 537–549 doi:10.1017/S0142716407070294.
• McCaskill, C., Lucas, C., Hill, J. & Bayley, R. (2010). The Intersection of African-American English and Black ASL [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from blackaslproject.gallaudet.edu
• Solomon, A. (2010). Cultural and Sociolinguistic Features of the Black Deaf Community. (Honors Thesis). Retrieved from repository.cmu.edu
• Padden, Carol; & Humphries, Tom. (1988). Deaf in America: Voices from a culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-19423-3.
• Sacks, Oliver W. (1989). Seeing voices: A journey into the world of the deaf. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-06083-0.
• Stokoe, William C. (1976). Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles. Linstok Press. ISBN 0-932130-01-1. 
• Stokoe, William C. (1960). Sign language structure: An outline of the visual communication systems of the American deaf. Studies in linguistics: Occasional papers (No. 8). Buffalo: Dept. of Anthropology and Linguistics, University at Buffalo. 

External links[link]

• "What is American Sign Language?" presentation by Leo M. Jacobs, 1980.
• Culinan.net – Dictionary development & Sign Language Network
• Mains Diamant – Blog, News, Culture

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of American Sign Language

Look up Category:American Sign Language in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: American Sign Language

• List of every ASL online dictionary (English) – (French)
• American Sign Language (ASL) resource site. Free online lessons, ASL dictionary, and resources for teachers, students, and parents.
• The American Sign Language Linguistics Research Project
  • Publications of the ASLLRP
  • The Syntactic Organization of American Sign Language: A Synopsis (.pdf)
• About ASL – article at deaflibrary.org
• Ethnologue entry on ASL
• Video Dictionary of ASL
• Some Cultural Info about ASL
• Athabaskan Satellites & ASL Ion-Morphs
• American Sign Language is a Foreign Language – a research/argumentative paper for the consideration of ASL to fulfill University foreign language requirements.
• ASL Helper Type an English word, links to vocabulary sites. Vocabulary only; no syntax or grammar; some inaccuracies.

This Awards and achievements succession box's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be additional information on the talk page. (April 2012)

Miley Cyrus
Cyrus at the 2012 People's Choice Awards
Background information
Birth name	Destiny Hope Cyrus
Born	(1992-11-23) November 23, 1992 (age 19) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.[1]
Genres	Pop,[2] country pop, dance, electropop, teen pop
Occupations	Actress, musician
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Walt Disney, Hollywood
Associated acts	Hannah Montana, Billy Ray Cyrus, Demi Lovato
Website	MileyCyrus.com Signature of Miley Cyrus.

Miley Ray Cyrus (born Destiny Hope Cyrus; November 23, 1992) is an American actress and pop singer-songwriter. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana.

Cyrus recorded music for the soundtracks, Hannah Montana (2006) and Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus (2007), released by Walt Disney Records. With the success of the Hannah Montana franchise she established herself as a teen idol. In 2007, Cyrus signed to Hollywood Records to pursue a solo career. She embarked upon the Best of Both Worlds Tour the same year, in which she performed as both herself and in character as Hannah Montana. The tour was eventually turned into a high-grossing concert film titled Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert (2008). In July 2008, Cyrus released her first solo album, Breakout (2008), which was commercially successful.

She began her foray into film by providing the voice of "Penny" in the animated film Bolt (2008). Cyrus earned a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for her performance of Bolt's theme song, "I Thought I Lost You". She also reprised her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana in Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009). The Hannah Montana: The Movie' soundtrack introduced her to new audiences within country and adult contemporary markets.

She began to cultivate an adult image in 2009 with the release of The Time of Our Lives (2009), an extended play which presented a more mainstream pop sound, and by filming The Last Song (2010), a coming-of-age drama film. The former included Cyrus's best-selling single, "Party in the U.S.A." (2009). A studio album titled Can't Be Tamed was released in 2010 and presents a new dance-pop sound. The music video and lyrics of the album's lead single, "Can't Be Tamed", portrays a more sexualized image for the entertainer. Cyrus ranked number thirteen on Forbes' 2010 Celebrity 100.^[3] For the 2011 Guinness World Records, she was named the “Most Charted Teenager” following her 29th US Billboard Hot 100 chart entry on November 7, 2009 with “Party in the USA”.^[4]

Early life[link]

Cyrus at the 2010 Academy Awards.

Cyrus was born on November 23, 1992, in Nashville, Tennessee, to Letitia Jean "Tish"^[5] (née Finley) and country singer Billy Ray Cyrus.^[6][7] Her parents named her Destiny Hope because they believed that she would accomplish great things with her life. They gave her the nickname "Smiley", which was later shortened to "Miley", because she smiled so often as a baby.^[8] Cyrus suffers from a mild heart condition causing tachycardia which, though not dangerous, is often bothersome.^[9]

Against the wishes of her father's record company,^[10] Cyrus's parents secretly married a year after Cyrus's birth on December 28, 1993.^[7][11] Tish had two children from a previous relationship: Trace and Brandi. Billy Ray adopted Trace and Brandi when they were young.^[12] She has a half-brother, Christopher Cody, Billy Ray's son from a brief relationship, born the same year as Miley; he grew up with his mother in South Carolina.^[10] Tish and Billy Ray had two more children, Braison and Noah. Cyrus's godmother is entertainer Dolly Parton.^[13] Cyrus was very close to her paternal grandfather, Democratic politician Ronald Ray Cyrus.^[14] Cyrus has paid her grandfather several tributes since his death in 2006, including eventually changing her middle name to "Ray".^[15] According to Cyrus's father, "A lot of people say Miley changed her name to Miley Ray because of Billy Ray, but that's not true. She did that in honor of my dad, because the two of them just loved each other to pieces."^[9]

Cyrus grew up on a 500-acre (2.0 km²) farm in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville,^[16] and attended Heritage Elementary School.^[17] She was raised Christian and was baptized in a Southern Baptist church prior to moving to Hollywood in 2005. She attended church regularly while growing up and wore a purity ring.^[18] Several of Cyrus's siblings also eventually entered the entertainment business: Trace became a vocalist and guitarist for the electronic pop band Metro Station,^[19] Noah became an actress, and Brandi became a guitarist.^[20]

Career[link]

2001–05: Career beginnings[link]

In 2001, when Cyrus was eight, she and her family moved to Toronto, Canada while her father filmed the television series Doc.^[21] Cyrus said watching her father film the show inspired her to pursue acting. After Billy Ray took her to see a 2001 Mirvish production of Mamma Mia! at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Cyrus grabbed his arm and told him, "This is what I want to do, daddy. I want to be an actress."^[22] She began taking singing and acting classes at the Armstrong Acting Studio in Toronto.^[23] In her first role, Cyrus played a girl named Kylie on Doc.^[8] In 2003, Cyrus was credited under her birth name for her role as "Young Ruthie" in Tim Burton's Big Fish.^[24]

At age 11, Cyrus learned about the casting for what became Hannah Montana, a Disney Channel children's television series about a school girl with a secret double life as a teen pop star. Cyrus sent in a tape auditioning for the show's best friend role, but received a call asking her to audition for the lead, "Chloe Stewart".^[1] After sending in a new tape and flying to Hollywood for further auditions,^[25] Cyrus was told that she was too young and too small for the part.^[25][26] However, her persistence and ability to sing in addition to act led the show's producers to invite her back for further auditions. Cyrus eventually received the lead, renamed "Miley Stewart" after herself, at the age of twelve.^[25] During this time, she also auditioned with Taylor Lautner for the feature film The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D and it came down to her and another actress, but Cyrus started doing Hannah Montana instead.^[27]

As Cyrus's career took off, Tish Cyrus made several critical decisions regarding her daughter's representation. She signed Cyrus with Mitchell Gossett, director of the youth division at Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty. Gossett, who specializes in creating child stars, had arranged for Cyrus's auditions for Hannah Montana and is credited with "discovering" her.^[28][29] For Cyrus's music career, Tish followed the advice of Dolly Parton, Cyrus's godmother and a singer herself, and signed Cyrus with Jason Morey of Morey Management Group. "Dolly said the Moreys are people you can trust around your daughter," Tish Cyrus recalls, "and she said they have good morals, which is not always the case in this business."^[30] According to trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter, Parton's advice was "the best advice [Tish] could [have gotten] on who should rep her daughter."^[30] Tish also recruited Billy Ray's business manager to manage her daughter's finances. Tish herself continues to co-manage or produce many of Cyrus's career decisions.^[30] For her education, Cyrus enrolled at Options for Youth Charter Schools^[31] and studied with a private tutor on the set of her television show.^[32]

[edit] 2006–07: Hannah Montana and Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus

Cyrus performing on the Best of Both Worlds Tour

Hannah Montana became an instant hit and propelled Cyrus to teen idol status, according to The Daily Telegraph.^[24] The series premiered on March 26, 2006, to the largest audience ever for a Disney Channel show^[33] and soon became one of the highest-rated series on basic cable, elevating Cyrus's wealth and fame along with it.^[34] Time magazine reports that Cyrus's "phenom[enal]" success is due partially to her talent and partially to "Disney learning to use its vast, multimedia holdings" and market Cyrus and Hannah Montana appropriately.^[35] Cyrus eventually became the first artist to have deals in television, film, consumer products, and music within The Walt Disney Company.^[28]

The first single was "The Best of Both Worlds", the theme song to Hannah Montana, which was released on March 28, 2006.^[36] "The Best of Both Worlds" is credited to "Hannah Montana", the pop star Cyrus portrays on the series by the same name. As with other songs credited to Montana, Cyrus typically dressed as the character when performing the song live.^[37] Cyrus's first release under her own name was a cover of James Baskett's "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", released on April 4, 2006, on the fourth edition of DisneyMania.^[38] Dressed as Hannah Montana, Cyrus opened for The Cheetah Girls on twenty dates of their The Party's Just Begun Tour, beginning on September 15, 2006.^[39] On October 24 of same year, Walt Disney Records released the first Hannah Montana soundtrack. Of the nine tracks on the soundtrack performed by Cyrus, eight were credited to "Hannah Montana" and one, a duet with her father titled "I Learned from You", was credited to Cyrus as herself. The album peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.^[40]

Cyrus and her father, Billy Ray, performing "Ready, Set, Don't Go" at the Kids' Inaugural: "We Are the Future." – January 19, 2009; Washington D.C.

The second season of Hannah Montana premiered on April 23, 2007, and ran until October 12, 2008.^[41] Cyrus signed a four-album deal with Disney-owned Hollywood Records and, on June 26, 2007, released a double-disc album. The first disc was the soundtrack to the second season of Hannah Montana, while the second, titled Meet Miley Cyrus, was Cyrus's debut album credited to her own name. The double-disc album peaked at number one on the Billboard 200^[42] and was later certified three times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).^[43] Meet Miley Cyrus generated "See You Again", Cyrus's first single to be released under her own name and her first top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100.^[44] In fall 2007, Cyrus launched her first tour, the Best of Both Worlds Tour, to promote Meet Miley Cyrus and the Hannah Montana soundtracks. With the Jonas Brothers, Aly & AJ, and Everlife as her opening acts, Cyrus toured from October 17, 2007, to January 31, 2008, with stops in the U.S. and Canada.^[45] Tickets sold out in minutes and were scalped for up to $2,500 and an average of $214, well above their $26–$65 face value.^[46] A Ticketmaster official commented, "Hell hath no fury like the parent of a child throwing a tantrum. People who have been in this business for a long time are watching what's happening, and they say there hasn't been a demand of this level or intensity since The Beatles or Elvis."^[47]

[edit] 2008–09: Breakout, transitions and film career launch

Cyrus at 2008 MTV Video Music Awards

After the end of the Best of Both Worlds Tour in January 2008, Walt Disney Pictures released Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, a 3D concert film of the tour, on February 1, 2008, for what was expected to be a one-week run. The film earned over $31 million^[48] at the box-office and an average of $42,000 per theater, twice the expected total, convincing Disney executives to extend the release for an indefinite run. "We don't want to turn away kids from the theaters who couldn't get into the concerts," said Chuck Viane, Disney's chief of distribution.^[49] The film's soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records/Hollywood Records on March 11, 2008, and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200.^[50]

On July 22, 2008, Cyrus released her second studio album under her own name, titled Breakout. Cyrus said Breakout was inspired by "what's been going on in my life in the past year."^[51] Cyrus co-wrote eight out of twelve songs on the album.^[51] "Songwriting is what I really want to do with my life forever, [...] I just hope this record showcases that, more than anything, I'm a writer."^[52] The album debuted at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart^[53] and its lead single, "7 Things", peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[54][55] She hosted the 2008 CMT Music Awards with her father in April^[56] and the 2008 Teen Choice Awards by herself in August.^[57] Cyrus provided the voice of Penny in the 2008 computer-animated film Bolt, which was released on November 21, 2008, to critical acclaim.^[58] Cyrus also co-wrote and recorded the song "I Thought I Lost You" as a duet with John Travolta for the film, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.^[59] In September 2009, she participated in the charity single "Just Stand Up!" in support of the anti-cancer campaign Stand Up to Cancer^[60] and in the City of Hope Benefit Concert in support of cancer research and training programs.^[61] She also became involved in Disney's Friends for Change, an environmentalist group, for which she recorded the charity single "Send It On" along with several other Disney Channel stars.^[62]

Cyrus performing on the Wonder World Tour

Cyrus had already begun transitioning to a more grown-up image in late 2008, when her representatives negotiated a deal for novelist Nicholas Sparks to write the screenplay and novel basis for a film that would serve as a star vehicle for Cyrus by introducing her to audiences older than the young fans she had gained through Hannah Montana.^[63] Sparks and co-writer Jeff Van Wie developed The Last Song.^[63] It was important to Cyrus that she not be type cast as a singer: "I didn't want to be a singer in another film. I don't want to do that anymore. You have no idea how many musicals show up on my door. I want to do something a little more serious."^[64] In March 2009, Cyrus published Miles to Go, a memoir co-written by Hilary Liftin chronicling her life through age sixteen.^[65] Cyrus starred as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana in Hannah Montana: The Movie, released April 10, 2009. Both the film and its soundtrack, which contained twelve songs performed by Cyrus,^[66] achieved commercial success.^[67][68] The soundtrack's lead single, "The Climb", became a Top 40 hit in twelve countries^[69] and introduced Cyrus to listeners outside her typical teen pop audience.^[70] Cyrus had considered ending Hannah Montana after its third season, which finished production on June 5, 2009,^[71] but Disney retained and exercised its option for a fourth season.^[72]

Production on The Last Song lasted from June 15, 2009, to August 18, 2009.^[73] In between, Cyrus launched the third Hannah Montana soundtrack, recorded the extended play The Time of Our Lives (EP), and released the EP's lead single, "Party in the U.S.A."^[74] Cyrus said The Time of Our Lives "is a transitioning album. [...] really to introduce people to what I want my next record to sound like and with time I will be able to do that a little more."^[75] "Party in the U.S.A." debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for her best-ever ranking on the chart.^[76] The Time of Our Lives was released in conjunction with a clothing line co-designed by Cyrus and Max Azria for Walmart.^[77]

From September 14, 2009, to December 29, 2010, Cyrus toured on her Wonder World Tour to promote Breakout and The Time of Our Lives.^{[citation needed]} On December 7, 2009, Cyrus performed for Queen Elizabeth II and numerous other members of the British Royal Family at the Royal Variety Performance in Blackpool, North West England.^[78]

[edit] 2010–2011: Can't Be Tamed, focus on film career, and Gypsy Heart Tour

Cyrus at 2010 MuchMusic Video Awards soundcheck.

Production on the fourth and final season of Hannah Montana began on January 18, 2010.^[79] In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Cyrus appeared on the charity singles "We Are the World: 25 for Haiti" and "Everybody Hurts".^[80][81] Her third studio album, Can't Be Tamed, was released on June 21, 2010. The album's first single is the title track, "Can't Be Tamed". The single was released for sale on May 18, 2010, and entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number eight.^[82] Cyrus's costumes and dances while promoting Can't Be Tamed were also considerably more provocative than previous performances, arousing media criticism.^[83] After releasing the album, Cyrus intends to take a break from the music industry in order to focus on her film career.^[84] She commented, "I've not taken, like, acting lessons or anything, but it doesn't mean I don't need to because I'm sure I do [...] I'm probably going to go book an acting coach."^[85] Cyrus has also decided to opt out of college for the same reason, saying "I'm a firm believer that you can go back at any age you want, because my Grandma went back to college at 62 [...] For right now, I really want to focus on my career. I've worked hard to get to where I am now, and I want to enjoy it while it lasts."^[86][87][88]

Cyrus starred in The Last Song, which was released on March 31, 2010, and received generally poor reviews, as did Cyrus's performance.^[89] Nonetheless, the film was commercially successful, grossing more than $88 million at the worldwide box office.^[90] According to box-office analyst Exhibitor Relations, the film marked "a successful transition to adult roles for Miley Cyrus."^[91] The fourth and final season of Hannah Montana began airing on Disney Channel on July 11, 2010, and was ended on January 16, 2011.^[92] Cyrus filmed two more films, LOL: Laughing Out Loud and So Undercover in 2010. In LOL, a remake of a 2008 French teen film of the same name, Cyrus plays "a daughter who is involved with all the wrong kids, doing drugs, failing school, but [...whose] mother has her on this perfect pedestal" and says "[She] just fell in love with the story."^[93] Cyrus' character loses her virginity, smokes cannabis, gets wasted and kisses two girlfriends on the lips.^[94] She will also star in So Undercover, an action comedy film. Cyrus will play the part of "a tough, street-smart private eye hired by the FBI to go undercover in a college sorority."^[95] She learned street fighting for the role.^[95]

Despite her earlier announcement that she'd be focusing more on acting in the future, in February 2011, Cyrus confirmed she had no films lineup and was going to go on tour.^[96] On April 29, 2011, Cyrus embarked on her international Gypsy Heart Tour in South America and ended the tour on July 2, 2011, in Australia. Cyrus hosted Saturday Night Live on March 5, 2011, where she performed in several sketches. She also sang a brief song about her several controversies, such as the bong incident, the photo of her friend and she eating a Twizzler, and the "pole dance" on a hotel pole at the Teen Choice Awards, stating "I'm sorry that I'm not perfect."^[97][98] In March 2011, father Billy Ray Cyrus confirmed on talk show, The View, that Cyrus had been in talks with producer Dr. Luke on a new album.^[99] In July 2011, it was announced that she would record her fourth studio album and she has no plans to sign onto any other film projects.^[100] However, it was reported on August 2, 2011, by Contact Music that Cyrus has signed on to star in a comedy in which she plays a woman who broke a promise to God.^[101]

Cyrus released on YouTube a remix of her song "Liberty Walk" in November 2011, dedicated to the Occupy movement, which she referred to as, "the thousands of people who are standing up for what they believe in."^[102]

[edit] 2012–present: LOL, So Undercover, and focus on music career

LOL came out on May 4th

In January 2012, it was announced that Cyrus would be on Punk'd. Cyrus would be on the show alongside friend and co-star in her new film So Undercover, Kelly Osbourne. Cyrus and Osbourne on an episode of the show would punk reality star and TV personality Khloé Kardashian Odom. They punk Khloe by having a young food delivery man pretends to get his family jewels caught in his zipper while using Miley's bathroom.^[103][104]

On January 24, the album Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International was released in honor of Bob Dylan, Cyrus covered Dylan's song "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" from his 15th studio album Blood on the Tracks, in which she also made a music video.^[105] Cyrus's version of the song earned positive reviews from music critics.^{[106][107][108]}

In February, Cyrus dropped out of the animated comedy Hotel Transylvania, in which she was meant to play the role of Mavis, the daughter of Dracula who is voiced by Adam Sandler, the movie also stars Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, and David Spade.^[109] It was later announced that she will be replaced by fellow Disney star and friend Selena Gomez.^[110] She later announced that she dropped out of the film because she wanted to work on her music this year.^[111][112]

Earnings[link]

In 2008, Cyrus earned $25 million, up from her earnings of $18 million in 2007, and was ranked number 35 on Forbes magazine's "Celebrity 100" list.^[113] Parade magazine reported she was the richest teenage celebrity and that her franchise would be worth approximately $1 billion by the end of the year.^[114] In 2009, Forbes ranked her #29 on the Celebrity 100 and reported she had earned a total of $25 million.^[115] Then Cyrus got ranked number thirteen on Forbes' 2010 Celebrity 100 ranking $48 million.^[3] From the $48 million she made between June 2009 to June 2010 made her the no. 4 highest earners under 30 and the youngest on the list.^[116] between June 2010 and June 2011, Cyrus earned $54 million.^[117]

From working on Hannah Montana, Cyrus got paid $15,000 per episode she did on the hit show, making her the 6th highest paid child star on television behind fellow Disney stars Dylan and Cole Sprouse and Keke Palmer with $20,000 for their shows. Also, she is behind friend and Disney star Selena Gomez that makes $25,000 per episode of her show, Nick star Miranda Cosgrove with $180,000 per episode of her show, and one time co-star Angus T. Jones that got paid $250,000 for each episode of his show.^[118] Though she had not got paid as much as other Disney stars,when she was 17 she was named #19 on the "Top 20 World's Richest Female Singers Of All Time" list with over $100 million in 5 years active throughout her career, which made her the youngest female artist on the list.^[119] In 2011, she was named #1 on the "Top 10 Richest Teens in Hollywood" with $120 million.^[120]

Personal life and image[link]

Cyrus on the Red Carpet at VH1 Divas 2009

A Christian, she was baptized in a Southern Baptist church in 2005.^[121]

In February 2008, Cyrus and her friend Mandy Jiroux opened a YouTube account and began posting videos of what they called The Miley and Mandy Show. The show, described as a "YouTube hit," is said to be filmed for fun by Cyrus and Jiroux and to be entirely their work, with Cyrus and Jiroux editing the footage together.^[122]

With Cyrus's increased success came increased media attention. In a May 2008 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Francois Navarre, the proprietor of the X17 photo agency, said Cyrus's market value had picked up considerably after the Vanity Fair photo controversy: "She's started to sell more. [...] It used to be $300, and now it's $2,000 for a picture."^[123] Estimates for a picture of the then-15 year old's first kiss ranged from $30,000 to $150,000.^[123] Navarre noted that Cyrus rarely behaved against her wholesome image or went out without a parent and stated, "She has people waiting for the moment she starts to be less traditional. [...] It's natural. Any teenager. But it's going to come very fast. [...] As soon as her mom lets her go out by herself. It's going to start to be interesting."^[123] Time magazine included her on the 2008 Time 100, the magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Her write-up was written by former child star Donny Osmond, who warned, "As an idol to tweens the world over, singer-actress Miley Cyrus, 15, is riding a huge tidal wave at the pinnacle of her career; this is as it should be. I hope she enjoys it. [...] Within three to five years, Miley will have to face adulthood. [...] As she does, she'll want to change her image, and that change will be met with adversity."^[124]

Cyrus celebrated her 16th birthday at Disneyland with a charity fundraiser for Youth Service America, a youth volunteer service organization.^{[125][126][127]}

In June 2009, Cyrus ended her nine-month relationship with model Justin Gaston shortly before flying to Georgia to film The Last Song.^[128] While filming later that month, Cyrus began dating her co-star in The Last Song, Australian actor Liam Hemsworth.^[129] She later called him her "first serious boyfriend".^[130] In August 2010, it was confirmed that her relationship with Hemsworth had ended.^[131][132] Cyrus and Hemsworth were seen together a month later, and were reportedly back together.^[133] It was announced in early November that the couple had split again.^[134] They have since rekindled their relationship.^[135]

At the end of 2009, Billboard magazine ranked Cyrus the fourth best-selling female artist^[136] and the fifth best-selling singer overall.^[137] Also in 2009, at the age of sixteen, she became the youngest artist to have four number one albums on the charts.^[138]

Controversies[link]

Cyrus performing at the Kids Inaugural: We Are the Future concert in 2009.

In December 2007, a brief controversy emerged when photos Cyrus had posted on her private MySpace account, depicting her and a female friend sharing a piece of licorice and "almost kissing", were spread across the internet, prompting rumors of lesbianism. Cyrus comments, "For me, I was like, That's two girls—it's not a big deal. But they got spread around. Like someone copied and pasted and said, Omigod, look at this, and blah blah blah."^[139]

In April 2008, several provocative images of Cyrus in her underwear and swimsuit were leaked onto the web by a teenager who hacked Cyrus's Gmail account.^{[140][141][142][143]} Cyrus described the images as "silly, inappropriate shots" and stated, "I am going to make mistakes and I am not perfect. I never intended for any of this to happen and I am truly sorry if I have disappointed anyone."^[144][145] On April 25, 2008, the televised entertainment program Entertainment Tonight reported that Cyrus, then 15, had posed topless for a photoshoot taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair.^[146] On April 29, 2008, The New York Times clarified that though the pictures left an impression that she was bare-breasted, Cyrus was wrapped in a bedsheet and was actually not topless.^[147] Some parents expressed outrage at the nature of the photograph, which a Disney spokesperson described as "a situation [that] was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines." Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide, was quoted by Portfolio magazine to have said, "For Miley Cyrus to be a 'good girl' is now a business decision for her. Parents have invested in her a godliness. If she violates that trust, she won't get it back."^[147] In response to the Internet circulation of the photo and ensuing media attention, Cyrus released a statement of apology on April 27, 2008: "I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about."^[147] Leibovitz also released a statement: "I'm sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted. The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful."^[147][148]

In May 2008, Gossett, Cyrus's longtime acting agent, left Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty for United Talent Agency, partially with the hope of "giving Cyrus the major-agency backing that would support a widening career", according to The Hollywood Reporter.^[30][149] About a year later in June 2009, Cyrus left both Gossett and UTA, which had recently negotiated her deals for The Last Song and the fourth season of Hannah Montana, and joined the Creative Artists Agency, which had already represented her for music.^[150] Nikki Finke, who broke the news, reported, "Is this fair to UTA? Of course not. But I hear the decision was made by Miley's mother Trish [sic] Cyrus".^[151]

Cyrus performing during the Wonder World Tour, in 2009.

Cyrus's performance of "Party in the U.S.A." at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards incited a media uproar, with some viewers criticizing Cyrus's provocative outfit and inclusion of a brief pole dance as inappropriate for her age, then sixteen, and for her young fans.^[152][153] Conversely, Newsday reported that her sexualization "has been coming for some time."^[154] Ian Drew, senior editor of US Weekly, said, "She already has this risque image, so it really wasn't much of a stretch. That's how Britney [Spears] took off. She was the good girl gone bad, and it looks to be working for Miley as well."^[154] Cyrus was also criticized that year for dating Gaston, five years her senior,^[155] and for a photo displaying Cyrus and friends making "slant-eyed" expressions, which the Organization of Chinese Americans claimed was offensive to the Asian community.^[156] Cyrus apologized for the photo on her website, defending her actions and saying, "In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity! I was simply making a goofy face."^[157]

Later in 2010, TMZ released a video of Cyrus, then 16, giving Adam Shankman, producer of The Last Song, a lap dance at the film's wrap party.^{[158][159][160]} Cyrus's father defended her actions, saying Miley was just "having fun" and that "it's what people her age do".^[161] Later that year in December, TMZ released a video of Cyrus, which took place five days after her 18th birthday at her Los Angeles home, in which she is seen smoking from a bong. She claimed she was smoking the psychoactive plant salvia divinorum, although this has not been confirmed by anybody but Cyrus herself.^{[162][163][164]} Salvia is legal in the state of California, and Cyrus was of legal age at the time the video was shot.^[165] Cyrus's father expressed his sadness regarding the matter on Twitter, saying, "Sorry guys. I had no idea. Just saw this stuff for the first time myself. I'm so sad. There is much beyond my control right now".^[166][167]

In a video obtained by The Daily, taking place at Cyrus' 19th birthday party at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, Cyrus went to the microphone and addressed the crowd. Immediately after her Bob Marley-themed birthday cake had been brought out, Cyrus said, "You know you're a stoner when your friends make you a Bob Marley cake. You know you smoke way too much f****n' weed."^[168] One week later, Cyrus' representative stated that Cyrus was just being a "smart-ass" and that the Bob Marley cake had just been an "inside joke" with Cyrus and her friends, as Cyrus' friend, Kelly Osbourne had been calling her "Bob Miley" since Cyrus' 2010 salvia incident.^[169]

Filmography[link]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• Meet Miley Cyrus (2007)
• Breakout (2008)
• Can't Be Tamed (2010)

Extended plays[link]

• The Time of Our Lives (2009)
• iTunes Live from London (2009)

Live albums[link]

• Best of Both Worlds Concert (2008)

Soundtracks[link]

• Hannah Montana (2006)
• Hannah Montana 2 (2007)
• Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009)
• Hannah Montana 3 (2009)
• Hannah Montana Forever (2010)

Tours[link]

• Best of Both Worlds Tour (2007–08)
• Wonder World Tour (2009)
• Gypsy Heart Tour (2011)

Awards and nominations[link]

See also[link]

	Book: Miley Cyrus
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]