Mexican Sign Language
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Mexican Sign Language (''"Lengua de Señas Mexicana"'' or LSM, also previously known by several other names), is a
natural language In neuropsychology, linguistics, and philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages ...
that serves as the predominant language of the
Deaf community 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 audiological condition. In this context it is written ...
in
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. 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 A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...
by hearing and Deaf signers. LSM is closely related to
French Sign Language French Sign Language (french: langue des signes française, LSF) is the sign language of the deaf in France and French-speaking parts of Switzerland. According to ''Ethnologue'', it has 100,000 native signers. French Sign Language is related ...
(LSF) and
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 of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...
(ASL), although it is
mutually unintelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
. LSM originated in the mid-19th century following the establishment of the first school for the Deaf in Mexico City, Escuela Nacional de Sordomudos (ENS), in 1869. Deaf students at the school were instructed by educators using Old LSF, but also brought with them their own
home sign Home sign (or kitchen sign) is a gestural communication system, often invented spontaneously by a deaf child who lacks accessible linguistic input. Home sign systems often arise in families where a deaf child is raised by hearing parents and is iso ...
s and signing systems, which led to the formation of LSM. The number of native LSM signers is estimated to be between 49,000 and 195,000 people. LSM is classified as vulnerable.


Geographic distribution and variation

Core signing populations are found in
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
,
Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...
and
Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...
, with a number of smaller cities containing signing communities. There is also a growing number of LSM signers in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, particularly in areas along the US-Mexico border and in Washington, D.C due to educational and economic opportunities. Some members of the Deaf latino community in the United States also use LSM. Some regional variation is found (80%-90% lexical similarity across the country according to Faurot et al. 2001) and there is lexical variation based on age and gender in the
numeral system A numeral system (or system of numeration) is a writing system for expressing numbers; that is, a mathematical notation for representing numbers of a given set, using Numerical digit, digits or other symbols in a consistent manner. The same s ...
.


Relationship of LSM to Spanish

LSM is quite distinct from
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
, with completely different verb inflections, different discourse structure and preferences for
word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
, and little use of the verb
to be In linguistics, a copula (plural: copulas or copulae; abbreviated ) is a word or phrase that links the subject of a sentence to a subject complement, such as the word ''is'' in the sentence "The sky is blue" or the phrase ''was not being'' i ...
. However, there is extensive use of
initialised signs In sign language, an initialized sign is one that is produced with a handshape(s) that corresponds to the fingerspelling of its equivalent in the locally dominant oral language, based on the respective manual alphabet representing that oral language ...
with one study finding 37% of a 100-word list are initialised, compared to 14% for American Sign Language (Faurot et al. 2001). The same authors suggest that the Deaf community's comprehension of the Spanish language is very low. The term "
Signed Spanish Signed Spanish and Signed Exact Spanish are any of several manually coded forms of Spanish that apply the words (signs) of a national sign language to Spanish word order or grammar. In Mexico, Signed Spanish uses the signs of Mexican Sign Langua ...
" refers to signing that uses LSM signs (
lexicon A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Koine Greek language, Greek word (), neuter of () ...
) in a Spanish word order, with some representations of Spanish morphology. There is a group of suffixes that signed Spanish uses in a way similar to that of
signed English Manually-Coded English (MCE) is a type of sign system that follows direct spoken English. The different codes of MCE vary in the levels of directness in following spoken English grammar. There may also be a combination with other visual clues, suc ...
, e.g. signed symbols for -dor and -ción (for nouns). Articles and pronouns are fingerspelled. Signed Spanish (or Pidgin Signed Spanish) is often used by interpreters and during public reading or song-leading. Signed Spanish is also used by some hard of hearing and late deafened people.


Relationship to other sign languages

LSM is widely believed by the deaf community to have derived from
Old French Sign Language Old French Sign Language (french: Vieille langue des signes française, often abbreviated as VLSF) was the language of the deaf community in 18th-century Paris at the time of the establishment of the first deaf schools. The earliest records of ...
(OFSL), which combined with pre-existing local sign languages and
home sign Home sign (or kitchen sign) is a gestural communication system, often invented spontaneously by a deaf child who lacks accessible linguistic input. Home sign systems often arise in families where a deaf child is raised by hearing parents and is iso ...
systems when deaf schools were first established in 1869. However, it is mutually unintelligible with American Sign Language, which emerged from OFSL 50 years earlier in the US, although the
American manual alphabet The American Manual Alphabet (AMA) is a manual alphabet that augments the vocabulary of American Sign Language. Letters and digits The letters and digits are signed as follows. In informal contexts, the handshapes are not made as distinctly as the ...
is almost identical to the Mexican one.
Spanish Sign Language Spanish Sign Language ( es, Lengua de Signos Española, LSE) is a sign language used mainly by deaf people in Spain and the people who live with them. Although there are not many reliable statistics, it is estimated that there are over 100,000 s ...
used in Spain is different from Mexican Sign Language, though LSM may have been influenced by it.


Status

In 2005, Mexican Sign Language was officially declared a "national language" in Mexico, along with Spanish and indigenous languages, to be used in the national education system for the deaf. Before 2005, the major educational philosophy in the country focused on
oralism Oralism is the education of deaf students through oral language by using lip reading, speech, and mimicking the mouth shapes and breathing patterns of speech.Through Deaf Eyes. Diane Garey, Lawrence R. Hott. DVD, PBS (Direct), 2007. Oralism ca ...
(speech and lipreading) and with few schools that conducted classes in LSM.The identity of Mexican sign as a language
p.4
A 5-minute signed segment of a nightly television news program was broadcast in
Signed Spanish Signed Spanish and Signed Exact Spanish are any of several manually coded forms of Spanish that apply the words (signs) of a national sign language to Spanish word order or grammar. In Mexico, Signed Spanish uses the signs of Mexican Sign Langua ...
in the mid-1980s, then again in the early 1990s, discontinued in 1992, and resumed as a 2-minute summary of headlines in 1997.


Alternate names

* SEÑAS ESPAÑOL ("Spanish Sign" - LSM is widely known by this name among the Deaf Community in Mexico, although the language is unrelated to Spanish or to Spanish Sign Language) * Lenguaje de señas mexicano (no longer used) * Lenguaje de las Manos (no longer used) * Lenguaje Manual Mexicano (no longer used)


See also

*
Mayan sign languages Mayan Sign Language is a sign language used in Mexico and Guatemala by Mayan communities with unusually high numbers of deaf inhabitants. In some instances, both hearing and deaf members of a village may use the sign language. It is unrelated to ...


References

* * * * *


External links


SIL page on LSM

Diccionario de LSM (Spanish)

WikiSigns.org
- Diccionario collaborativo de LSM {{sign language navigation Languages of Mexico French Sign Language family Sign languages of Mexico