Indigenous Sign Language (ISL) is an emerging

contact language 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 the ...

used by aboriginal deaf people in urban centers of

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf C ...

(

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación ...

) such as

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

.Suzannah Jackson, 2015
'Indigenous Sign Language of Far North Queensland'
''Learning Communities'' 16:92–99 With the decline of aboriginal oral and signed languages, an increase in communication between aboriginal communities and migration of people to the cities, aboriginal deaf people have developed ISL as a common contact language in preference to using the

Auslan Auslan () is the majority sign language of the Australian Deaf community. The term ''Auslan'' is a portmanteau of "Australian Sign Language", coined by Trevor Johnston in the 1980s, although the language itself is much older. Auslan is relate ...

taught in schools, both due to the comfort of using the auxiliary sign language many of them were raised with in their communities, and to preserve their cultural heritage. The best developed auxiliary sign languages in the area include

Umpila Sign Language Umpila is an Aboriginal Australian language, or dialect cluster, of the Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. It is spoken by about 100 Aboriginal people, many of them elderly. Geographic distribution The land territory associated wit ...

of the Ombila and Pakadji people, and these are presumably the main component of ISL, but there also appear to be influences of less-developed sign languages of the region such as those of the Guugu Yimidhirr and

Kuuk Thaayorre Kuuk Thaayorre (Thayore) is a Paman language spoken in the settlement Pormpuraaw on the western part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia by the Thaayorre people. As of 2006, 250 of the 350 ethnic Thaayorre speak the language. It ...

, as well as Torres Strait sign languages. Indeed, it is possible that ISL comprises several contact languages, though many of the aboriginal communities of the northern Cape use very similar sign systems to begin with – many sign systems on the mainland differ more in the number of signs and the number of people proficient in them (especially older women) than in the signs themselves or their grammar.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Aboriginal Sign Languages Australian Aboriginal Sign Language family