Tibetan Sign Language is the recently established
deaf sign language of
Tibet.
Tibetan Sign is the first recognized sign language for a minority in China. The Tibetan Sign Language Project, staffed by members of the local deaf club, was set up under the supervision of
Handicap International in 2001 to create a standardized language, based primarily on the existing sign language of Lhasa, as a replacement for the regional sign languages of Tibet.
For example, the deaf of
Nagqu have a well developed vocabulary for livestock, while those of Lhasa have more specialized vocabulary for urban life.
The standard was announced by the Chinese government in 2004.
The Chinese government press agency
Xinhua said that
Chinese Sign Language was not practical because deaf Tibetans do not know
Chinese characters, and that club members will introduce the new standard throughout Tibet.
A
Tibetan manual alphabet was created by club members from the
Tibetan alphabet without exposure to foreign forms of
fingerspelling
Fingerspelling (or dactylology) is the representation of the letter (alphabet), letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands. These manual alphabets (also known as finger alphabets or hand alphabets) have often ...
.
References
Relevant literature
* Hofer, Theresia (2023). "Tibetan Writing from the Socio-linguistic Margins of Tibet: Deaf Students, Tibetan Literacy and WeChat at the Lhasa Special School. ''HIMALAYA'' 43(1): 42-70.
The Tibetan Sign Language Projectof the Tibetan Deaf Association (archived 2009)
{{sign language navigation
Sign language isolates
Languages of Tibet
Sign languages of China
Language isolates of Asia
Endangered languages of China
Endangered sign language isolates
Indigenous languages of Asia