It is not clear what the

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 markers. Sign l ...

languages Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

are in

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

. In 2006, a

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...

project was started to standardize Rwandan Sign Language (''Amarenga y'Ikinyarwanda'' AKR "Kinyarwanda Sign Language"; also ''Amarenga yo mu Rwanda'' AMR "Sign Language of Rwanda"), published in 2009. However, the project was an incomplete effort, and an expanded dictionary, based on signs common throughout the country, was started in 2013. The latter project description implies that these are

dialects The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

of a single language, but that is uncertain. Interpreter programs are available in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

; it is unknown whether this means that Rwandan Sign Language is related to

Ugandan Sign Language Ugandan Sign Language (USL) is the deaf sign language of Uganda. Uganda was the second country in the world to recognize sign language in its constitution, in 1995. A ''Ugandan Sign Language Dictionary'' has been published. However, knowledge o ...

.Rwanda: Experts Begin Compilation of Sign Language Dictionary
''The New Times'', 2015 March 10

References

{{Rwanda-stub Languages of Rwanda Sign languages