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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.
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the east and south. Although it does not border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres of the Botswanan right bank of the Zambezi River separates the two countries. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek.
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.
The history of Namibia has passed through several distinct stages from being colonised in the late nineteenth century to Namibia's independence on 21 March 1990.
Nicaraguan Sign Language is a form of sign language developed by deaf children in a number of schools in Nicaragua in the 1980s. It is of particular interest to linguists as they view it as a unique opportunity to study what many view to be the birth of a new language.
Ohangwena is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Eenhana. Major settlements in the region are the towns Eenhana and Helao Nafidi as well as the self-governed village of Okongo and the proclaimed settlements Ongenga and Omungwelume. As of 2020, Ohangwena had 150,724 registered voters.
Kunene is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its capital is Opuwo, its governor is Marius Sheya. The region's name comes from the Kunene River which forms the northern border with Angola. Besides the capital Opuwo, the region contains the municipality of Outjo, the town Khorixas and the self-governed village Kamanjab. Kunene is home to the Himba people, a subtribe of the Herero, as well as to Damara people and Nama people. As of 2020, Kunene had 58,548 registered voters.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana.
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 2021, it is the most used sign language in the world, and Ethnologue ranks it as the 151st most "spoken" language in the world.
Italian Sign Language is the visual language used by deaf people in Italy. Deep analysis of it began in the 1980s, along the lines of William Stokoe's research on American Sign Language in the 1960s. Until the beginning of the 21st century, most studies of Italian Sign Language dealt with its phonology and vocabulary. According to the European Union for the Deaf, the majority of the 60,000–90,000 Deaf people in Italy use LIS.
Singapore Sign Language, or SgSL, is the native sign language used by the deaf and hard of hearing in Singapore, developed over six decades since the setting up of the first school for the Deaf in 1954. Since Singapore's independence in 1965, the Singapore deaf community has had to adapt to many linguistic changes. Today, the local deaf community recognises Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) as a reflection of Singapore's diverse culture. SgSL is influenced by Shanghainese Sign Language (SSL), American Sign Language (ASL), Signing Exact English (SEE-II) and locally developed signs.
Deaf education is the education of students with any degree of hearing loss or deafness. This may involve, but does not always, individually-planned, systematically-monitored teaching methods, adaptive materials, accessible settings, and other interventions designed to help students achieve a higher level of self-sufficiency and success in the school and community than they would achieve with a typical classroom education. There are different language modalities used in educational setting where students get varied communication methods. A number of countries focus on training teachers to teach deaf students with a variety of approaches and have organizations to aid deaf students.
Israel–Namibia relations refers to the current and historical relationship between Israel and Namibia. Governmental relations were established in 1994, four years after Namibia gained independence from South Africa. Israel's ambassador to Namibia, Dov Segev-Steinberg, resides in South Africa. While Namibia does not have an embassy in Israel, it has an honorary consul, Gil Dankner, based in Atlit, Haifa.
Helao Nafidi is a town in Ohangwena Region in northern Namibia at the border to Angola. It has been established in 2004 as an amalgamation of several villages and settlements along the main road between Oshikango and Ohangwena which are both also part of the town. Helao Nafidi has 19,375 inhabitants. The town is separated into three urban areas, Oshikango in the north, bisected by the Namibian–Angolan border, and Omafo and Ohangwena south of it, with settlements and villages in the agricultural area between them.
Nepalese Sign Language or Nepali Sign Language (Nepali: नेपाली साङ्केतिक भाषा, romanized: Nēpālī Sāṅkētika Bhāṣā is the main sign language of Nepal. It is a partially standardized language based informally on the variety used in Kathmandu, with some input from varieties from Pokhara and elsewhere. As an indigenous sign language, it is not related to oral Nepali. The Nepali Constitution of 2015 specifically mentions the right to have education in Sign Language for the deaf. Likewise, the newly passed Disability Rights Act of 2072 BS defined language to include "spoken and sign languages and other forms of speechless language." in practice it is recognized by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, and is used in all schools for the deaf. In addition, there is legislation underway in Nepal which, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which Nepal has ratified, should give Nepalese Sign Language equal status with the oral languages of the country.
The Swedish Sign Language family is a language family of sign languages, including Swedish Sign Language, Portuguese Sign Language, Cape Verdian Sign Language, Finnish Sign Language and Eritrean Sign.
The Deaf community over time has worked to improve the educational system for those who are Deaf and hard of hearing. The history of Deaf education dates back to Ancient Egypt where the deaf were respected and revered. In contrast, those who were deaf in Ancient Greece were considered a burden to society and put to death. The educational aspects of the deaf community has evolved tremendously and still continues to grow as the science of linguistics, educational research, new technologies, and laws, on local, national, and international levels are steadily being introduced. Strategies, however, remain controversial.
Deaf Education in Kenya is a constantly changing section of the Kenyan education system that is focused on educating deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing-impaired Kenyan students. There are many organizations in Kenya made to protect the rights of Deaf Kenyans and promote progress in deaf education. The state of Kenyan deaf education is constantly changing and improving.
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.
Nicaragua's total population is 6,000,000, but a reliable count of the number of deaf people in Nicaragua is difficult to obtain. In 2009, a law was passed in which Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL) was named as the official language of deaf people in Nicaragua. NSL is a newer sign language that emerged less than 50 years ago when deaf children started attending school. Due to the country's lack of early childhood hearing screenings, hearing loss is often undetected and left untreated. Deaf and hard-of-hearing children often face language deprivation due to the lack of language input they experience until they enter school. There are many schools in different cities in Nicaragua; however, the majority of deaf children throughout the country are not attending school. Deaf and hard-of-hearing people also face struggles when finding employment opportunities. NSL isn't an endangered sign language, but the total number of people who use the language are under 10,000.
References
- ↑ Namibian Sign Language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ↑ "Human Rights in Human Development Co-operation:A Review on Whether the Icelandic International Development Agency Improves Human Rights in Namibia - Skemman" (PDF). Skemman . May 8, 2008.
- ↑ "Republic of Namibia". African Sign Languages Resource Center. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
- Ashipala et al., "The development of a dictionary of Namibian Sign Language", in Erting, 1994, The Deaf Way: Perspectives from the International Conference on Deaf Culture
