Ugandan Sign Language (USL) is the
deaf 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 ...
of
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 ...
. 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 of USL is primarily urban, as access to education for the rural deaf remains poor. Nonetheless, USL is a highly valued element of group identity among the deaf community.
The first Ugandan schools for the deaf opened in 1962, and several sign languages are reported to have merged in 1988, when sign was allowed in the classroom. This suggests that USL may be a
creole of the local languages that the deaf students created informally in the different schools. There were also influences from
ASL
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 express ...
,
BSL, and
Kenyan Sign Language
Kenyan Sign Language ( English: KSL, Swahili: LAK) is a sign language used by the deaf community in Kenya and Somalia. It is used by over half of Kenya's estimated 600,000 deaf population. There are some dialect differences between Kisumu (wes ...
, the first two from the language of instruction in early classrooms, and the latter from deaf Ugandans who went to Kenya for higher education.
Both the British
two-handed manual alphabet Several manual alphabets in use around the world employ two hands to represent some or all of the letters of an alphabet, usually as a part of a deaf sign language. Two-handed alphabets are less widespread than one-handed manual alphabets. They may ...
and 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 ...
are used, with minor modifications. Finger-spelling and
initialized sign 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 ...
s using both alphabets are common among people who learned USL formally as children.
Mouthing
In sign language, mouthing is the production of visual syllables with the mouth while signing. That is, signers sometimes say or mouth a word in a spoken language at the same time as producing the sign for it. Mouthing is one of the many ways in w ...
is also common with abbreviated syllables from both English and
Luganda
The Ganda language or Luganda (, , ) is a Bantu language spoken in the African Great Lakes region. It is one of the major languages in Uganda and is spoken by more than 10 million Baganda and other people principally in central Uganda including ...
.
It is unclear if USL is related to
Rwandan Sign Language
It is not clear what the sign language or languages are in Rwanda. In 2006, a dictionary project was started to standardize Rwandan Sign Language (''Amarenga y'Ikinyarwanda'' AKR "Kinyarwanda Sign Language"; also ''Amarenga yo mu Rwanda'' AMR ...
.
References
*Dorothy Lule and Lars Wallin, 2010, "Transmission of Sign Languages in Africa". In Brentari, ed, ''Sign Languages''. Cambridge University Press.
External links
Signs for family relationships in USLCommon signs in USL
{{sign language navigation
Sign language isolates
Languages of Uganda