List of sign languages by number of native signers

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The following are sign languages reported to be used by at least 10,000 people. Additional languages, such as Chinese Sign Language, are likely to have more signers, but no data is available. Estimates for sign language use are very crude, and definitions of what counts as proficiency are varied. For most sign languages, there are no concrete estimates. For instance, it has been reported there are a million signers in Ethiopia, but there are only a fifth that number of deaf people, less than half of whom are fluent in sign, and in addition it is unknown how many different sign languages they use.

According to many highly educated members of the ASL dDeaf community, the number of fluent ASL native signers is closer to the tens of millions. Therefore, the statistics listed below, while taken from varying published sources, should be carefully vetted before being disseminated or cited elsewhere.

LanguageFamily or originLegal recognition and where spoken natively by significant population Ethnologue estimate
Indo-Pakistani Sign Language Related to Nepalese Sign Language and possibly others in south AsiaNo legal recognition. Native to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh 6,300,000 (2019)
Chinese Sign Language Independent language family; not related to other sign language familiesLegally recognized by China4,000,000 (2021)
Indonesian Sign Language Based on French Sign Language family Native to Indonesia 810,000 (2021) [1]
Russian Sign Language French Sign Language family Native to Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania 715,000 (2014) [2]
Brazilian Sign Language French Sign Language family Legally recognized by law (10.436) in Brazil, on April 24, 2002 [3] 600,000 (2019)
Spanish Sign Language possibly French Sign Language family,
according to others Language isolate 		Officially recognized by Spanish Government. Native to Spain except Catalonia and Valencia 523,000 (2017)
Egyptian Sign Language Arab sign-language family Native to Egypt 474,000 (2014) [4]
American Sign Language Old French Sign Language and Martha's Vineyard Sign Language Native to the United States and Anglophone Canada459,850 [5]
Persian Sign Language Language isolate Native to Iran 325,000 (2019) [6]
Turkish Sign Language from Ottoman Sign Language Native to Turkey 300,000 (2019) [7]
Japanese Sign Language JSL Family Native to Japan.126,000 (2019)
Mexican Sign Language French Sign Language family Native to Urban Mexico.130,000 (2010 projection)
French Sign Language French Sign Language family. Descended from Old French Sign Language Native to France. Spoken in Switzerland, Mali, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Togo, Vietnam 100,000 (2019)
German Sign Language German Sign Language family Native to Germany 80,000 (2014)
British Sign Language BANZSL Native to United Kingdom.80,000 (2014)
Malaysian Sign Language French: ASLNative to Malaysia60,000 (2013)
Polish Sign Language German Sign Language family Native to Poland.38,000 to 50,000 (2014)
Italian Sign Language French Sign Language family Officially Recognized language in Sicily. Native to Italy40,000 (2014)
New Zealand Sign Language BANZSL An official language of New Zealand since 200623,000 (2018 census) [8]
Yugoslav Sign Language French: Austro-HungarianNative to Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia 22,000 (2010-2014)
Uruguayan Sign Language French Sign Language family Legally recognized in Uruguay since 2001 under Law 17.378. [9] [10] 20,000 (2019) [11]
Hong Kong Sign Language ChineseNative to Hong Kong20,000 (2007)
Dutch Sign Language FrenchNative to Netherlands15,000 (2019)
Auslan BANZSL Native to Australia 10,000 (2016 census)

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Sign Language</span> Sign language used predominately in the US

American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is expressed by employing both manual and nonmanual features. Besides North America, dialects of ASL and ASL-based creoles are used in many countries around the world, including much of West Africa and parts of Southeast Asia. ASL is also widely learned as a second language, serving as a lingua franca. ASL is most closely related to French Sign Language (LSF). It has been proposed that ASL is a creole language of LSF, although ASL shows features atypical of creole languages, such as agglutinative morphology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sign language</span> Language that uses manual communication and body language to convey meaning

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 similarities among different sign languages.

Auslan is the sign language used by the majority of the Australian Deaf community. Auslan is related to British Sign Language (BSL) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL); the three have descended from the same parent language, and together comprise the BANZSL language family. As with other sign languages, Auslan's grammar and vocabulary is quite different from spoken English. Its origin cannot be attributed to any individual; rather, it is a natural language that emerged spontaneously and has changed over time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French Sign Language</span> Sign language used predominately in France and French-speaking Switzerland

French Sign Language is the sign language of the deaf in France and French-speaking parts of Switzerland. According to Ethnologue, it has 100,000 native signers.

The American Manual Alphabet (AMA) is a manual alphabet that augments the vocabulary of American Sign Language.

Hawaiʻi Sign Language or Hawaiian Sign Language, also known as Hoailona ʻŌlelo, Old Hawaiʻi Sign Language and Hawaiʻi Pidgin Sign Language, is an indigenous sign language native to Hawaiʻi. Historical records document its presence on the islands as early as the 1820s, but HSL was not formally recognized by linguists until 2013.

Manually Coded English (MCE) is an umbrella term referring to a number of invented manual codes intended to visually represent the exact grammar and morphology of spoken English. Different codes of MCE vary in the levels of adherence to spoken English grammar, morphology, and syntax. MCE is typically used in conjunction with direct spoken English.

Indo-Pakistani Sign Language (IPSL) is the predominant sign language in the subcontinent of South Asia, used by at least 15 million deaf signers. As with many sign languages, it is difficult to estimate numbers with any certainty, as the Census of India does not list sign languages and most studies have focused on the north and urban areas. As of 2024, it is the most used sign language in the world, and Ethnologue ranks it as the 149th most "spoken" language in the world.

A contact sign language, or contact sign, is a variety or style of language that arises from contact between deaf individuals using a sign language and hearing individuals using an oral language. Contact languages also arise between different sign languages, although the term pidgin rather than contact sign is used to describe such phenomena.

The legal recognition of signed languages differs widely. In some jurisdictions, a signed language is recognised as an official language; in others, it has a protected status in certain areas. Although a government may stipulate in its constitution that a "signed language" is recognised, it may fail to specify which signed language; several different signed languages may be commonly used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexican Sign Language</span> Language of deaf community in Mexico

Mexican Sign Language, is a natural language that serves as the predominant language of the Deaf community in Mexico. LSM is a complete and organized visual language, which is expressed with the hands, face, and body, with its own distinct history, community, and culture. There are several dialects based on regional variation and LSM may be learned as a second language by hearing and Deaf signers. LSM is closely related to French Sign Language (LSF) and American Sign Language (ASL), although it is mutually unintelligible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thai Sign Language</span> National sign language of Thailand

Thai Sign Language, or Modern Standard Thai Sign Language (MSTSL), is the national sign language of Thailand's deaf community and is used in most parts of the country by the 20 percent of the estimated 56,000 pre-linguistically deaf people who go to school.

In the United States, deaf culture was born in Connecticut in 1817 at the American School for the Deaf, when a deaf teacher from France, Laurent Clerc, was recruited by Thomas Gallaudet to help found the new institution. Under the guidance and instruction of Clerc in language and ways of living, deaf American students began to evolve their own strategies for communication and for living, which became the kernel for the development of American Deaf culture.

Guatemalan Sign Language or Lensegua is the proposed national deaf sign language of Guatemala, formerly equated by most users and most literature equates with the sign language known by the acronymic abbreviations LENSEGUA, Lensegua, and LenSeGua. Recent legal initiatives have sought to define the term more inclusively, so that it encompasses all the distinctive sign languages and sign systems native to the country.

Hausa Sign Language is the indigenous sign language of the Deaf community in northern Nigeria.

Jamaican Country Sign Language, also Country Sign, or Konchri Sain (KS) in Jamaican Patois, is an indigenous village sign language of Jamaica. It is used by a small number of Deaf and hearing Jamaicans, spread over several communities in the rural south-western parish of St. Elizabeth.

Uruguayan Sign Language 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black American Sign Language</span> Dialect of American Sign Language

Black American Sign Language (BASL) or Black Sign Variation (BSV) is a dialect of American Sign Language (ASL) used most commonly by deaf African Americans in the United States. The divergence from ASL was influenced largely by the segregation of schools in the American South. Like other schools at the time, schools for the deaf were segregated based upon race, creating two language communities among deaf signers: black deaf signers at black schools and white deaf signers at white schools. As of the mid 2010s, BASL is still used by signers in the South despite public schools having been legally desegregated since 1954.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Varieties of American Sign Language</span> Dialects and descendants of American Sign Language

American Sign Language (ASL) developed in the United States, starting as a blend of local sign languages and French Sign Language (FSL). Local varieties have developed in many countries, but there is little research on which should be considered dialects of ASL and which have diverged to the point of being distinct languages.

References

  1. ↑ "Indonesian Sign Language". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  2. ↑ "Russian Sign Language". Ethnologue. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  3. ↑ Lei 10.436 de 24 de abril de 2002 Archived 2010-09-10 at the Wayback Machine (in Portuguese)
  4. ↑ "Egyptian Sign Language". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  5. ↑ "American Sign Language". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  6. ↑ "Iranian Sign Language". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  7. ↑ "Turkish Sign Language". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  8. ↑ "2018 Census totals by topic – national highlights (updated)". Stats NZ. 30 April 2020. Archived from the original on 6 July 2022. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  9. ↑ Meyers, Stephen; Lockwood, Elizabeth (2014-12-06). "The Tale of Two Civil Societies: Comparing disability rights movements in Nicaragua and Uruguay". Disability Studies Quarterly. 34 (4). doi: 10.18061/dsq.v34i4.3845 . ISSN   2159-8371. Archived from the original on 2022-06-27. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  10. ↑ "Ley N° 17378". www.impo.com.uy. Archived from the original on 2022-05-20. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  11. ↑ Observador, El. "Lengua de señas en Uruguay: cómo es, dónde se estudia y en qué programas se incluirá". El Observador. Archived from the original on 2024-05-26. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
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