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Sign languages are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign languages are full-fledged natural languages with their own grammar and lexicon. Sign languages are not universal and are usually not mutually intelligible, although there are also similarities among different sign languages.
Taiwan Sign Language is the sign language most commonly used by the deaf and hard of hearing in Taiwan.
Northern Ireland Sign language (NISL) is a sign language used mainly by deaf people in Northern Ireland.
Ka'apor Sign Language was a village sign language used by the small community of Ka'apor people in the Brazilian state of Maranhão. Linguist Jim Kakumasu observed in 1968 that the number of deaf people in the community was 7 out of a population of about 500. This relatively high ratio of deafness led to both hearing and deaf members of the community using the language, and most hearing children grow up bilingual in the spoken and signed languages. The current state of the language is unknown. Other Indigenous tribes in the region have also been reported to use sign languages, and to communicate between themselves using sign language pidgins.
Spanish Sign Language is a sign language used mainly by deaf people in Spain and the people who live with them. Although there are not many reliable statistics, it is estimated that there are over 100,000 speakers, 20-30% of whom use it as a second language.
Around seven Tanzanian sign languages were developed independently among deaf students in separate Tanzanian schools for the deaf starting in 1963, though use of several are forbidden by their schools. In 1984, a standardized Tanzanian Sign Language was proposed by the Tanzania Association for the Deaf, using common or similar signs where these exist in the schools which allowed research, but it has not been officially implemented, and there remains little influence between the languages. A dictionary has been produced. Lexically, the variety that developed in the oralist deaf school in Tabora is significantly different from the dictionary, and is under investigation.
Armenian Sign Language is the deaf sign language of Armenia.
The Swedish Sign Language family is a language family of sign languages, including Swedish Sign Language, Portuguese Sign Language, and Finnish Sign Language.
Plateau Sign Language, or Old Plateau Sign Language, is a poorly attested, extinct sign language historically used across the Columbian Plateau. The Crow Nation introduced Plains Sign Talk, which replaced Plateau Sign Language among the eastern nations that used it, with western nations shifting instead to Chinook Jargon.
Algerian Jewish Sign Language (AJSL), also known as Ghardaia Sign Language, is a moribund village sign language originally of Ghardaïa, Algeria that is now used in Israel and possibly also in France.
Bulgarian Sign Language is the language, or perhaps languages, of the deaf community in Bulgaria.
Uruguayan Sign Language, or Lengua de señas uruguaya (LSU), is the deaf sign language of Uruguay, used since 1910. It is not intelligible with neighboring languages, though it may have historical connections with Paraguayan Sign Language.
Gambian Sign Language is a national sign language used in Gambia by the deaf community there. The only school for deaf children in the Gambia, St John's School for the Deaf, was set up by a Catholic priest from Ireland. Dutch Sign Language was introduced to the school along with British Sign Language which developed into Gambian Sign Language, incorporating some indigenous gestures used by the general population. Unlike much of West Africa, American Sign Language was not introduced to the Gambia until much later so the deaf community is not familiar with American Sign Language.
Enga Sign Language is an apparent village sign language among the Tato Enga people in Enga province, Papua New Guinea. It was reported in 1980 in three articles by Adam Kendon, based on ethnographic films of three signers in the upper valley of the Lagaip River, but with reports of wider use in the surrounding region. Its current status is unknown, as no more recent information is available.
Mehek Sign Language is either home sign or a possible incipient village sign language of the Mehek people of northwestern Papua New Guinea. It is used by at least two deaf people – one in each of two different communities – and their family and friends, but not by the community as a whole. There are reported to be about 100 signers, but statements of numbers this high are not likely to be accurate.
Mount Avejaha Sign Language is a village sign language of Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in a remote village with many deaf children in the foothills of Mount Avejaha, in Oro Province. It is dissimilar from other village sign languages in New Guinea. The deaf are well integrated into the community.
Kailge Sign Language is a well-developed village sign language of Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. It is spoken over a wide region of small hamlets around the town of Kailge, as well as in Kailge itself, in a Ku Waru–speaking region. It might be characterized as a network of homesign rather than as a single coherent language. Its use of signing space is more similar to that of deaf-community sign languages than that of many village sign languages shared with the hearing community.
Sinasian Sign Language (SSSL) is a village sign language of the Sinasina valley in Chimbu Province, Papua New Guinea. This language is used by approximately 3 deaf and 50 hearing individuals, including members of the Kere community. SSSL was first encountered and reported by linguists in 2016. Documentation efforts are ongoing.
Rossel Island Sign Language is a village sign language of Rossel Island, Papua New Guinea reported by Stephen Levinson. He reports that,
Wanib Sign Language is a reported sign language, possibly a village sign language, in a Heyo-speaking community of Papua New Guinea. It's spoken just to the west of Mehek Sign Language, but the two languages reflect the very different spoken languages of their communities: Wanib SL follows the SVO word order of Heyo, whereas Mehek SL follows the SOV word order of Mehek.
References
- ↑ Brenda Clark, A Grammatical Sketch of Sivia Sign Language
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