Thai Sign Language (TSL), or Modern Standard Thai Sign Language (MSTSL), is the national

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 ...

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 b ...

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 ...

and is used in most parts of the country by the 20 percent of the estimated 56,000 pre-linguistically deaf people who go to school. Thai Sign Language is related to

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 Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is expre ...

(ASL), and belongs to the same

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in h ...

as ASL.Woodward, James C. (1996). ''Modern Standard Thai Sign Language, influence from ASL, and its relationship to original Thai sign varieties.'' ''Sign Language Studies'' 92:227–52. (see p 245) This relatedness is due to

language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for th ...

and

creolisation Creolization is the process through which creole languages and cultures emerge. Creolization was first used by linguists to explain how contact languages become creole languages, but now scholars in other social sciences use the term to describe ne ...

that has occurred between ASL, which was introduced into deaf schools in Thailand in the 1950s by American-trained Thai educators, and at least two indigenous sign languages that were in use at the time:

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 ...

and

Chiangmai Sign Language Chiangmai Sign Language (also known as Old or Original Chiangmai Sign Language) is a deaf-community sign language of Thailand that arose among deaf people who migrated to Chiang Mai for work or family. The language is moribund, with all speakers b ...

. These original sign languages probably developed in market towns and urban areas where deaf people had opportunities to meet. They are now considered

moribund language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

s, remembered by older signers but no longer used for daily conversation. These older varieties may be related to the sign languages of Vietnam and

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist s ...

. Thai Sign Language was acknowledged as "the national language of deaf people in Thailand" in August 1999, in a resolution signed by the Minister of Education on behalf of the Royal Thai Government. As with many sign languages, the means of transmission to children occurs within families with signing deaf parents and in schools for the deaf. A robust process of language teaching and acculturation among deaf children has been documented and photographed in the Thai residential schools for the deaf.Reilly, Charles and Reilly, Nipapon (2005). ''The Rising of Lotus Flowers: The Self-Education of Deaf Children in Thai Boarding Schools''. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press. There are other moribund sign languages in the country such as

Ban Khor Sign Language Ban Khor Sign Language (BKSL) is a village sign language used by at least 400 people of a rice-farming community in the village of Ban Khor in a remote area of Isan (northeastern Thailand). Known locally as ''pasa kidd'' ('language of the mute'), ...

References

External links

*Survey report of Thai sign language

{{sign language navigation Thai culture American Sign Language family Thailand Sign Language family Languages of Thailand Sign languages of Thailand

See also

References

Further reading

External links