Maritime Sign Language (MSL; ) is a

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed 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 elements, no ...

used in Canada's Atlantic provinces. Maritime Sign Language is descended from British Sign Language through the convergence of deaf communities from the

Northeastern United States The Northeastern United States (also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. Located on the East Coast of the United States, ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

who immigrated to Canada during the 18th and 19th centuries. As late as the mid-20th century, it was the dominant form of sign language in The Maritimes and the language of instruction at the Halifax School for the Deaf (1857–1961) and the Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority in Amherst, Nova Scotia (1961–1995). MSL is being supplanted by

American Sign Language 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 Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that i ...

(ASL), so that by 2020, MSL has been largely restricted to older Deaf people in the Maritimes. Younger generations are educated in ASL and have less knowledge of and less regard for MSL, while some of the older generation remain loyal to MSL. The number of MSL speakers is unknown and was estimated to have been fewer than 100 in 2009; most were concentrated in Nova Scotia, some in New Brunswick, while almost none were thought to remain in Newfoundland and Labrador (only three were said to exist) or Prince Edward Island. ASL and MSL have 'blended' in the region. ASL has been demonstrated to influence the vocabulary and grammar of MSL; for example, because the original BANZSL two-handed manual alphabet is no longer used in the Maritimes and has been replaced by the one-handed American manual alphabet, lexicalized signs are developed from one-handed

fingerspelling Fingerspelling (or dactylology) is the representation of the letter (alphabet), letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands. These manual alphabets (also known as finger alphabets or hand alphabets) have often ...

. Resources (education, interpretation, etc.) for MSL speakers are largely lacking, but a grant to the Nova Scotia Cultural Society of the Deaf produced VHS tapes documenting the language, and in the 2010s a project was started to document placenames in Atlantic Canada in both MSL and ASL, resulting in interactive online maps. The language is recorded in a 2017 documentary film, ''Halifax Explosion: The Deaf Experience'', and was contrasted with ASL to comic effect in a piece performed at the 2019 Sound Off Theatre Festival in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

about a Nova Scotian and an American travelling in Eastern Canada.

References

{{Portal bar, Canada, Nova Scotia, Language BANZSL Sign Language family Endangered sign languages Sign languages of Canada Village sign languages