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 and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that i ...

(ASL) developed in the United States, starting as a blend of local sign languages and

French Sign Language French Sign Language (, LSF) is the sign language of deaf and hard-of-hearing people in France and in French-speaking parts of Switzerland. According to ''Ethnologue'', it has 100,000 native signers. French Sign Language is related and part ...

(FSL). Local varieties have developed in many countries, but there is little research on which should be considered dialects of ASL (such as Bolivian Sign Language) and which have diverged to the point of being distinct languages (such as Malaysian Sign Language). The following are sign language varieties of ASL in countries other than the US and Canada, languages based on ASL with

substratum Substrata, plural of substratum, may refer to: *Earth's substrata, the geologic layering of the Earth *''Hypokeimenon'', sometimes translated as ''substratum'', a concept in metaphysics *Substrata (album), a 1997 ambient music album by Biosphere * ...

influence from local sign languages, and

mixed language A mixed language, also referred to as a hybrid language or fusion language, is a type of contact language that arises among a bilingual group combining aspects of two or more languages but not clearly deriving primarily from any single language. ...

s in which ASL is a component. Distinction follow political boundaries, which may not correspond to linguistic boundaries.

Bolivian Sign Language

Bolivian Sign Language (Lengua de Señas Bolivianas, LSB) is a dialect of

(ASL) used predominantly by the Deaf in Bolivia.

History

In 1973,

was brought to Bolivia by Eleanor and Lloyd Powlison, missionaries from the United States. An indigenous sign language (or perhaps sign languages) existed before the introduction and adoption of American Sign Language, though it is unknown how widespread or unified it was. The first book of LSB was published in 1992, but more than 90% of the signs were from ASL. Due to research work in the 1990s and 2000s a lot of expressions in LSB were collected by Bolivian Deaf, and education materials for learning LSB or teaching in LSB were published. The dependence on words used in ASL was reduced, but the usage of ASL words still is over 70%. Today LSB is used by more deaf Bolivians than the reported 400 in 1988 in the ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

'' report, due to the introduction of bilingual education (LSB as primary language and Spanish as secondary language) originally in Riberalta and its adoption to other schools in Bolivia with the support of the Education Ministry of Bolivia and the growing social exchange of the Deaf. In 1988, there were a total of 9 deaf institutions in the country and 46,800 deaf Bolivians. In 2002 there were approximately 25 deaf schools.

Burundian Sign Language

Burundian Sign Language (LSB) is the national sign language of Burundi's Deaf community. It dates from Andrew Foster's introduction of ASL into Burundi, but has diverged since. Mouthing and initialization are mostly based on French. ASL signers from the US are reported to have a hard time understanding videos in LSB, and LSB signers have a hard time understanding ASL videos, and Burundian Deaf consider their language to be distinct from ASL and from neighboring sign languages, such as Ugandan and Rwandan Sign.

Costa Rican Sign Language

Costa Rican Sign Language, also known New Costa Rican Sign Language or Modern Costa Rican Sign Language, 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 elements, no ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

's Deaf community. It is used primarily by people born after 1960, and is about 60% cognate with

(Woodward 1991, 1992). It is unrelated to two known village sign languages of Costa Rica, Bribri Sign Language and Brunca Sign Language.

Dominican Sign Language

Dominican Sign Language (DGS) is a local variant of American Sign Language (ASL) used in the Dominican Republic. Many deaf Dominicans use

home sign Home sign (or kitchen sign) is a gestural communication system, often invented spontaneously by a Deafness, deaf child who lacks accessible linguistic input. Home sign systems often arise in families where a deaf child is raised by hearing parent ...

, and are not fluent in Dominican Sign Language. Dominican Sign Language originated from French Sign Language (LSF), which was introduced to Dominica by French missionaries and combined with local gesture traditions. Therefore, it has many similarities with French Sign Language. There may also be some differences in grammatical structure between Dominican Sign Language and American Sign Language. For example, there may be differences in sentence structure, verb morphology, and word order.

Francophone African Sign Language

Francophone African Sign Language (', or LSAF) is the variety, or varieties, of

(ASL) used in several francophone countries of Africa. Education for the deaf in these countries is based on ASL and written French; there is therefore a French influence on the language of the classroom. With the exception of Algerian Sign Language, the sign languages of

francophone Africa African French () is the umbrella grouping of varieties of the French language spoken throughout Francophone Africa. Used mainly as a secondary language or ''lingua franca'', it is spoken by an estimated 320 million people across 34 coun ...

are unrelated to

, except indirectly through their derivation from ASL. This is because most schools for the deaf in the region were founded by the American missionary Andrew Foster or by his students, starting in 1974. Chadian Sign Language may be closest to Nigerian Sign Language. A few countries have languages unrelated to either: Madagascar Sign Language derives from Norwegian SL, and Tunisian Sign Language is apparently a language isolate. The relationship of LSAF to standard American Sign Language has not been systematically assessed. For instance, Gabonese Sign Language has diverged and may be a separate language, and Togo Sign Language is not mutually intelligible with standard American Sign Language.

Characteristics

As in other African derivations of ASL, the language has been affected by local gestures and conventions. This is especially true of taboo topics such as sex (Dalle 1996). As an example of the French influence on francophone ASL, the word for 'she' is made by pointing with an L-shaped hand, rather than with a simple index finger, because the name of the letter el is homonymous with ''elle'' ('she') in French. It is not clear to what extent such influence continues outside the classroom.

Location

Francophone African countries which use ASL as the language of Deaf instruction are: *Senegal *Mauritania *Mali *Guinea *Ivory Coast *Burkina Faso *Togo *Benin *Niger *Chad (from Nigeria) *Central African Republic *Gabon *Republic of Congo (Brazzaville; from Nigeria) *Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa;

is also used) *Burundi *Morocco

Haitian Sign Language

While

is sometimes used in the Haitian Deaf community, it is not the most prominent in

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

. The local variant, Haitian Sign Language, or LSH (''Langue des Signes Haïtienne''), is the sign language variant most often used. There are five government-run schools for Deaf children, and LSH is used and spread through these schools and other social areas for the Deaf community. Historically, LSH has not been widely documented or recognized, leading to the creation of the LSHDoP, the Haitian Sign Language Documentation Project. This project is run by the Haitian Deaf Community, in collaboration with

Gallaudet University Gallaudet University ( ) is a private federally chartered university in Washington, D.C., for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first school ...

Ghanaian Sign Language

Ghanaian Sign Language is the national sign language of deaf people in

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

, descended from

. It was introduced in 1957 by Andrew Foster, a deaf African-American missionary, as there had been no education or organizations for the deaf previously. Foster went on to establish the first school for the deaf in Nigeria a few years later, and Nigerian Sign Language shows influence from GSL. GSL is unrelated to indigenous Ghanaian sign languages such as Adamorobe Sign Language and Nanabin Sign Language. There are currently fourteen schools for the deaf in Ghana, thirteen primary schools and two secondary schools in Ghana, one at Akuapim-Mampong, the other at Navrongo. GSL is supported by the Ghana National Association of the Deaf which has their headquarters in

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

. The Bible Society of Ghana has started translation of the Bible into Ghanaian sign language.

Greek Sign Language

Indonesian sign languages

Jamaican Sign Language

Jamaican Sign Language (JSL) is a local variant of

used in Jamaica. It is supplanting the indigenous Jamaican Country Sign Language.

Malaysian Sign Language

Moroccan Sign Language

Moroccan Sign Language (MSL) is the language of the deaf community of Tetouan and some other cities of Morocco. American Peace Corps volunteers created Moroccan Sign Language in 1987 in Tetouan from American Sign Language (ASL) and the existing signs; there is less than a 50% lexical similarity with ASL. It is not clear if the 'existing signs' were

or an established

village sign language A village sign language, or village sign, also known as a shared sign language, is a local indigenous sign language used by both deaf and hearing in an area with a high incidence of congenital deafness. Meir ''et al.'' define a village sign langu ...

. The language is used in three programs for the deaf, but not throughout the country: It is not used in the large cities of Rabat, Tangier, or Casablanca, for example. In

Oujda Oujda (, ) is a major city in northeast Morocco near the Algeria–Morocco border, border with Algeria. Oujda is the capital city of the Oriental (Morocco), Oriental region of northeastern Morocco and has a population of 506,224 people (2024 censu ...

, near the Algerian border, Algerian Sign Language is used, or at least the local sign language has been strongly influenced by it.

Nigerian Sign Language

Nigerian Sign Language (NSL) is the national

of deaf people in

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

, however, Nigeria does not have a national sign language yet. ASL (with a possible mix of Signed English) was introduced in 1960, a few years after Ghanaian Sign Language, by Andrew Foster, a deaf African-American missionary, thereby raising a signing system some scholars have referred to as a dialect of ASL. Deaf education in Nigeria was based on oral method and existing indigenous sign languages were generally regarded as gestural communication prior to Andrew Foster's arrival. The conventional "Nigerian Sign Language" today has been described as the "School Sign Language" and is coded as nsi on the repository of languages of the world by

SIL International SIL Global (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics International) is an evangelical Christian nonprofit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, to expan ...

. There is a Ghanaian influence in NSL; both are based on

. The School Sign Language has little relationship with the various Indigenous Nigerian sign languages such as Hausa Sign Language, Yoruba Sign Language, and Bura Sign Language. The Save the Deaf and Endangered Languages Initiative and Nigerian National Association of the Deaf have been working to document indigenous and national varieties of NSL both for research and reference for the Nigerian deaf population. Chadian and Congolese teachers for the deaf are trained in Nigeria. There are deaf schools in Chad in N’Djamena, Sarh, and Moundou.

Panamanian Sign Language

Panamanian Sign Language ''(Lengua de señas panameñas,'' LSP) is one of two deaf sign languages of

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

. It derived from

and influenced by Salvadoran Sign Language. See also Chiriqui Sign Language.

Philippine Sign Language

Puerto Rican Sign Language

Puerto Rican Sign Language (PRSL) is a variety or descendant of

, which was introduced to Puerto Rico in 1907. It is not clear how far PRSL may have diverged from ASL, but ''Ethnologue'' speaks of bilingualism in ASL as well as speakers who know only PRSL.

Sierra Leonean Sign Language

Sierra Leonean Sign Language is a variety or descendant of

(ASL) used in schools for the deaf in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

, or at least in the capital

Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...

. As in much of West Africa, the first schools for the deaf were founded by the American missionary Andrew Foster or his students.

Selangor Sign Language

Selangor Sign Language (SSL), also known as Kuala Lumpur Sign Language (KLSL), is a sign language used in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. It was originally based on

(ASL) but has diverged significantly enough to now be considered a language in its own right. Kuala Lumpur was formerly located in the state of

Selangor Selangor ( ; ), also known by the Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the e ...

before it became a federal territory in 1974. Like Penang Sign Language (PSL), it now mainly used by older people, although many younger people can understand it.

Singapore Sign Language

Thai Sign Language

Bibliography

*Kamei, Nobutaka ed. 2008. ''Langue des Signes d'Afrique Francophone (LSAF)'' (DVD). Fuchu: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. *Tamomo, Serge. 1994. ''Le language des signes du sourd Africain Francophone.'' Cotonou, Bénin: PEFISS. *Garay, S. (2004). ''Understanding the Panama Deaf Community & Sign Language: Lengua de Señas Panameñas.'' (Instructional CD) Asociación Nacional de Sordos de Panamá. *—— (1990). ''Panama's sign language dictionary: Lengua de señas panameñas.'' Asociación Nacional de Sordos de Panamá.

References

External links

*Sophie Dalle, 1996–1997
''Rapport de Stage: La language de signes au Congo''
(in French) {{French Sign Language languages French Sign Language family American Sign Language family Languages of Bolivia Languages of Ghana Languages of Nigeria Languages of Chad Languages of the Republic of the Congo Languages of Ivory Coast Languages of Benin Languages of Cameroon Languages of Guinea Languages of Togo Languages of Gabon Languages of Senegal Languages of Mali Languages of Burkina Faso Languages of Niger Languages of the Central African Republic Languages of Mauritania Languages of Costa Rica