I’d like to go on, that when I was a teenager me and friends split off into pairs as a sniper and spotter, and played war games with each other. Eye pro, tac-vests that held stuff and were just another layer against a pellet, sometimes heavier clothes (winter), but in the summers it was usually dark colored shorts and tees, and a little bush craft (I picked up a surplus army sniper manual).

Dangerous? 110%

Painful? Only if you get spotted.

Dumber than we allowed ourselves to feel at the time? You betcha.

Cutting to the chase, each pair came up with their own sign language that was useful in the dark, in the quiet, etc.

One of our buddies knew ASL (hearing impaired, deaf parents) so they used that.

Me and my partner decided on NATO hand signals, as we were both the most of ware of that format.

The others? Not entirely sure.

I know a lot was just made up on the fly through gesturing and combining the few signals we remembered, and that was all of us except our hearing impaired buddy.

So yes, some sort of sign language is often created on the fly based on cultural parameters. ASL, NATO, etc… just standardizing the symbols helps, but a lot of families, especially without access to resources use “home-sign” as I’ve heard it called. Basically, they standardized within their family unit over time based on mutual understanding.

So, there are cultural elements, but it expands past that.

I’m older, spent my 20s in a mosh pit fighting to the front, have ND related APD, at least I think, but sound is still HUGELY important for me in the world. Just don’t talk to me, lol.