There are perhaps three hundred sign languages in use around the world today. The number is not known with any confidence; new sign languages emerge frequently through creolization and '' de novo'' (and occasionally through language planning). In some countries, such as Sri Lanka and Tanzania, each school for the deaf may have a separate language, known only to its students and sometimes denied by the school; on the other hand, countries may share sign languages, although sometimes under different names (Croatian and Serbian, Indian and Pakistani). Deaf sign languages also arise outside educational institutions, especially in village communities with high levels of congenital deafness, but there are significant sign languages developed for the hearing as well, such as the speech-taboo languages used in aboriginal Australia. Scholars are doing

field surveys Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...

to identify the world's sign languages. The following list is grouped into three sections : * Deaf sign languages, which are the preferred languages of Deaf communities around the world; these include village sign languages, shared with the hearing community, and Deaf-community sign languages * Auxiliary sign languages, which are not native languages but sign systems of varying complexity, used alongside spoken languages. Simple

gesture A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication or non-vocal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of, or in conjunction with, speech. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or ot ...

s are not included, as they do not constitute language. * Signed modes of spoken languages, also known as manually coded languages, which are bridges between signed and spoken languages The list of deaf sign languages is sorted regionally and alphabetically, and such groupings should not be taken to imply any genetic relationships between these languages (see List of language families).

Sign language list

Contemporary deaf sign languages

Africa

There are at least 25 sign languages in Africa, according to researcher Nobutaka Kamei. Some have distributions that are completely independent of those of African spoken languages. At least 13 foreign sign languages, mainly from Europe and America, have been introduced to at least 27 African nations; some of the 23 sign languages documented by Kamei have originated with or been influenced by them.

Americas

Asia-Pacific

Europe

Middle East

Historical deaf sign languages

* Martha's Vineyard Sign Language * Old French Sign Language – ancestral to the French family * Old Kent Sign Language

Auxiliary sign languages

* Baby Sign – using signs to assist early language development in young children. * Contact Sign – a

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...

or contact language between a spoken language and a sign language, e.g. Pidgin Sign English (PSE). * Curwin Hand Signs – a technique which allows musical notes to be communicated through hand signs. * International Sign (previously known as Gestuno) – an auxiliary language used by deaf people in international settings. * Makaton – a system of signed communication used by and with people who have speech, language or learning difficulties. * Mofu-Gudur Sign Language * Monastic sign language * Signalong – international sign assisted communication techniques used to support children and adults with communication or learning difficulties

Manual modes of spoken languages

Manual modes of spoken languages include: * General ** Cued Speech – a hand/mouth system (HMS) to render spoken language phonemes visually intelligible. ** Fingerspelling – alphabetic signs to represent the written form of a spoken language. * English ** Manually Coded English ** Signing Exact English (SEE2) ** Makaton *Malay ** Bahasa Malaysia Kod Tangan (BMKT) *Speech-taboo languages ** Caucasian Sign Language ** Australian Aboriginal sign languages (though

Yolŋu Sign Language Yolŋu (Yolngu) or Murngin Sign Language is a ritual sign language used by the Yolngu, an Aboriginal community in the Arnhem Land region of Australia. As with other Australian Aboriginal sign languages, YSL was developed by the hearing for us ...

does not correspond to any one language, and doubles as a language of the deaf)

Genetic classification of sign languages

Languages are assigned families (implying a genetic relationships between these languages) as British,

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

(perhaps a branch of BSL),

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

(with branches ASL (American), Austro-Hungarian, Danish, Italian), German, Japanese, and

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...

References

External links

''Ethnologue'' – Deaf sign languagesMultiple accessible sign languages dictionariesSignes du Monde
directory for all online Sign Languages dictionaries {{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Sign Languages *

Sign A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or me ...

Deaf education