Ban Khor Sign Language (BKSL) is a
village sign language A village sign language, or village sign, also known as a shared sign language, is a local indigenous sign language used by both deaf and hearing in an area with a high incidence of congenital deafness. Meir ''et al.'' define a village sign languag ...
used by at least 400 people of a rice-farming community in the village of
Ban Khor in a remote area of
Isan
Northeast Thailand or Isan (Isan/ th, อีสาน, ; lo, ອີສານ; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issarn, Issan, Esan, or Esarn; from Pali ''īsānna'' or Sanskrit ईशान्य ''īśānya'' "northeast") consists of 20 provin ...
(northeastern
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
).
Known locally as ''pasa kidd'' ('language of the mute'), it developed in the 1930s due to a high number of
deaf
Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an Audiology, audiological condition. In this context it ...
people. Estimated number of users in 2009 was 16 deaf and approximately 400 hearing out of 2741 villagers.
It is a
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 ...
, independent of the other sign languages of Thailand such as
Old Bangkok Sign Language
Bangkok Sign Language (also known as Old or Original Bangkok Sign Language) is a deaf-community sign language of Thailand that arose among deaf people who migrated to Bangkok for work or family.
The language is moribund, with all speakers born b ...
and the national
Thai Sign Language
Thai Sign Language (TSL), 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 ...
.
Thai Sign Language is increasingly exerting an influence on BKSL. Younger Deaf attend distant residential Deaf schools where they learn Thai Sign Language. Even middle-aged hearing people are using Thai SL vocabulary mixed with BKSL. Attitudes favoring Thai SL over BKSL are beginning to be expressed.
Other local sign languages
Other village sign languages have been reported from the Ban Khor area, in the villages of
Plaa Pag,
Huay Hai and
Na Sai. They have not been documented, so it is not known if they are dialects of BKSL or if they are distinct languages.
References
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Village sign languages
Endangered sign language isolates
Sign languages of Thailand