Sign language is not universal. Like spoken languages, sign languages emerge naturally in communities and change through time. The following list is grouped into three sections: Two sign language Intepreters working as a team for a school. ...

• Deaf sign languages, which are the preferred languages of Deaf communities around the world;
• Signed modes of spoken languages, also known as Manually Coded Languages;
• Auxiliary sign systems, which are not "native" languages, but are signed systems of varying complexity used in addition to native languages. Simple gestures are not considered auxiliary sign systems for the purposes of this page.

The list is sorted alphabetically and regionally, and such groupings should not be taken to imply any genetic relationships between the languages (see List of language families#Sign languages). Manually Coded Languages (MCLs) are representations of spoken languages in a gestural-visual form; that is, sign language versions of spoken languages. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... // [edit] Some major language families Examples of language families (see image summary [1]) Afro-Asiatic Altaic (disputed) Austro-Asiatic Austronesian Dravidian Eskimo-Aleut Indo-European Khoisan Na-Dené Niger-Congo Nilo-Saharan (disputed) Pama-Nyungan Sino-Tibetan Tai-Kadai Uralic [edit] Largest families According to the numbers in Ethnologue[2...

Deaf sign languages

Contemporary

Africa

There are at least 25 sign languages in Africa, according to researcher Nobutaka Kamei.^[1][2][3] Some have distributions that are completely independent of those of African spoken languages. At least 13 foreign sign languages, mainly from Europe and America, have been introduced to at least 27 African nations; some of the 23 sign languages documented by Kamei have originated with or been influenced by them.

• Adamorobe Sign Language (ADS) (Ghana)
• Algerian Sign Language
• Bamako Sign Language (in a school in Mali)
• Bura Sign Language — Nigeria (PDF link)
• Chadian Sign Language
• Congolesian Sign Language
• Egypt Sign Language
• Ethiopian Sign Language
• Franco-American Sign Language — a pidgin observed in Cameroon and elsewhere in West and Central Africa.
• Gambian Sign Language
• Ghana Sign Language (or "Ghanaian Sign Language") (GSE)
• Guinean Sign Language
• Hausa Sign Language "Maganar Hannu" (HSL) — Northern Nigeria (Kano State)
• Kenyan Sign Language (KSL or LAK)
• Libyan Sign Language
• Malagasy Sign Language (or "Madagascan Sign Language")
• Morroccan Sign Language
• Mozambican Sign Language
• Mbour Sign Language — Senegal
• Namibian Sign Language
• Nigerian Sign Language
• Sierra Leone Sign Language
• South African Sign Language (SASL)
• Tanzanian Sign Language (seven independent languages, one for each deaf school in Tanzania)
• Tunisian Sign Language
• Uganda Sign Language (USL)
• Zambian Sign Language (ZASL)
• Zimbabwe Sign Language

Adamorobe Sign Language is an indigenous sign language used in Adamorobe, an Akan village in eastern Ghana. ... Hausa Sign Language is the sign language of the Deaf community in Hausa-speaking areas of Northern Nigeria. ... Kano State is a state located in north-central Nigeria. ... Kenyan Sign Language is the language of the Deaf community in Kenya, used throughout the country by a large number of the countrys estimated Deaf population of 600,000. ... hi This page is a candidate for speedy deletion, because: it is patent nonsense. ...

The Americas

• American Sign Language (ASL)
• Argentine Sign Language (LSA)
• Bolivian Sign Language
• Brazilian Sign Language "Lingua Brasileira de Sinais" (LIBRAS)
• Chilean Sign Language "Lenguaje de Señas Chileno" (LSCH)
• Colombian Sign Language (CSN)
• Costa Rican Sign Language (LESCO)
• Cuba Sign Language
• Ecuadorian Sign Language
• Guatemalan Sign Language
• Honduras Sign Language "Lengua de Señas Hondureñas" (LESHO)
• Maritime Sign Language
• Mayan sign languages
• Mexican Sign Language "Lenguaje de signos mexicano" (LSM)
• Nicaraguan Sign Language "Idioma de Signos Nicaragüense" (ISN)
• Quebec Sign Language "Langue des Signes Québécoise" (LSQ)
• Peruvian Sign Language
• Providence Island Sign Language
• Uruguayan Sign Language
• Urubú Sign Language
• Venezuelan Sign Language "Lengua de Señas Venezolana" (LSV)
• Yucatec Maya Sign Language

It has been suggested that ASL Grammar be merged into this article or section. ... Argentine Sign Language (ISO/DIS 639-3: aed) is used in Argentina where there are around two million deaf people. ... Bolivian Sign Language is a modified form of American Sign Language used by approximately 400 deaf Bolivians (1988 E. Powlison). ... Brazilian Sign Language, also known as Libras (from Língua de Sinais Brasileira), previously known as LSB or LGB, is the language of the Deaf communities of Brazil. ... Chilean Sign Language is a language used by Chiles 845,849 deaf people and 7 deaf institutions. ... Guatelmalan Sign Language is a deaf sign language used in Guatemala. ... Honduras has its own sign language. ... Maritime Sign Language (MSL), also known as Nova Scotian Sign Language, is a sign language, derived from British Sign Language, formerly used in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, Canada. ... Mayan sign languages are used in Mexico and Guatemala by Maya communities with unusally high numbers of deaf inhabitants. ... Mexican Sign Language (“lenguaje de signos mexicano” or LSM, also known by several other names), is the langauge of the Deaf community in the urban regions of Mexico. ... Nicaraguan Sign Language (or ISN, Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua or Idioma de Signos Nicaragüense) is a signed language spontaneously developed by deaf children in a number of schools in western Nicaragua in the 1970s and 1980s. ... Quebec Sign Language, known in French as Langue des Signes Québécoise and typically abbreviated LSQ, is a sign language used in Canada. ... Providence Island Sign Language (also known as Providencia Sign Language) is the sign language used by the deaf community on the small island community of Providence Island in the Western Caribbean, off the coast of Nicaragua but belonging to Colombia. ... Urubú Sign Language (also known as Urubú-Kaapor Sign Language) is a sign language used by a small community of Indigenous Brazilians in the state of Maranhão. ... Yucatec Maya Sign Language is used in the Yucatán region in Mexico by both hearing and deaf members of a traditional Mayan community, where there there is an unusually high number of deaf inhabitants. ...

Asia/Pacific

• Auslan (Australian Sign Language)
• Ban Khor Sign Language — used in the Isan region of Thailand.
• Bengali Sign language
• Chinese Sign Language "中国手语" (ZGS)
• Filipino Sign Language "Philippine Sign Language" (PSL)
• Hawaii Pidgin Sign Language
• Hong Kong Sign Language "香港手語" (HKSL)
• Huay Hai Sign Language (Thailand)
• Indo-Pakistani Sign Language or Indian Sign Language
• Indonesian Sign Language Bahasa Isyarat Indonesia (BII)
• Japanese Sign Language "日本手話" (Nihon shuwa), (NS)
• Kata Kolok — used in Bali
• Laos Sign Language
• Korean Sign Language
• Malaysian Sign Language "Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia" (BIM)
• Mongolian Sign Language
• Na Sai Sign Language (Thailand)
• Nepal Sign Language
• New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL)
• Old Bangkok Sign Language
• Old Chiangmai Sign Language
• Plaa Pag Sign Language
• Penang Sign Language (used in Malaysia)
• Selangor Sign Language (used in Malaysia)
• Singapore Sign Language
• Sri Lankan Sign Language
• Taiwanese Sign Language
• Tibetan Sign Language
• Thai Sign Language
• Vietnamese sign languages (Hanoi Sign Language, Ho Chi Minh Sign Language, Haiphong Sign Language)

Auslan is the sign language used by the Australian Deaf community. ... Ban Khor Sign Language (BKSL) is a sign language used by about 1,000 people of a rice-farming community in remote areas of Isan (northeastern Thailand). ... For other articles with similar names, see Isan (disambiguation). ... Modern Chinese Sign Language (CSL) developed around the 14th century. ... Hawaii Pidgin Sign Language is a sign language used in Hawaii. ... For the Native American sign language, see Plains Indian Sign Language. ... ... There is little knowledge about sign language and the deaf community during the Edo period and before. ... Kata Kolok (literally deaf talk) is the name given to a sign language of a village in northern Bali which has had an extraordinarily high rate of deafness for several generations. ... Bali is an Indonesian island located at , the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Malaysian Sign Language (MSL), or Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia (BIM), is the sign language in every day use in many parts of Malaysia. ... New Zealand Sign Language or NZSL is the main language of the deaf community in New Zealand. ... Penang Sign Language (PSL) was developed in Malaysia by Deaf children, outside the classroom, when oralism was predominant. ... Selangor Sign Language (SSL), also known as Kuala Lumpur Sign Language (KLSL), is a sign language used in Malaysia. ... Singapore does not really have its own original sign language just as it has no original language. ... Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL) is the sign language most commonly used in Taiwan. ... Thai Sign Language (TSL) or Modern Standard Thai Sign Language (MSTSL), is the national sign language of Thailands Deaf community and is used in most parts of the country by an estimated 56,000 deaf people. ... Sign language varieties in Ho Chi Minh city, Hanoi, and Haiphong are usually considered to be separate languages. ...

Europe

• Armenian Sign Language
• Austrian Sign Language "Österreichische Gebärdensprache" (ÖGS)
• Belgian-French Sign Language "Langue des Signes de Belgique Francophone" (LSFB)
• British Sign Language (BSL)
• Bulgarian Sign Language
• Catalan Sign Language (or "Catalonian Sign Language") "Llengua de Signes Catalana" (LSC)
• Croatian Sign Language (Croslan) "Hrvatskog Znakovnog Jezika" (HZJ)
• Czech Sign Language "Český znakový jazyk" (CZJ)
• Danish Sign Language "Tegnsprog"
• Dutch Sign Language "Nederlandse Gebarentaal" (NGT), also commonly known as "Sign Language of the Netherlands" (SLN)
• Estonian Sign Language "Eesti viipekeel"
• Finnish Sign Language "Suomalainen viittomakieli" (SVK)
• Flemish Sign Language "Vlaamse Gebarentaal" (VGT)
• French Sign Language "Langues des Signes Française" (LSF)
• German Sign Language "Deutsche Gebärdensprache" (DGS)
• Greek Sign Language "Ελληνική Νοηματική Γλώσσα" (GSL)
• Hungarian Sign Language "Magyar jelnyelv"
• Icelandic Sign Language "Táknmál"
• Irish Sign Language (ISL)
• Italian Sign Language "Lingua dei Segni Italiana" (LIS)
• Lithuanian Sign Language "Lietuvių gestų kalba"
• Maltese Sign Language "Lingwi tas-Sinjali Maltin" (LSM)
• Northern Ireland Sign Language (NISL)
• Norwegian Sign Language "Tegnspråk" (NSL)
• Polish Sign Language "Polski Język Migowy" (PJM)
• Portuguese Sign Language "Língua Gestual Portuguesa" (LGP)
• Russian Sign Language "Russkii Zhestovyi Iazyk"
• Spanish Sign Language "Lengua de signos española" (LSE)
• Swedish Sign Language "Svenskt teckenspråk" (TSP)
• Swiss-French Sign Language "Langage Gestuelle"
• Swiss-German Sign Language "Deutschschweizer Gebärdensprache" (DSGS)
• Turkish Sign Language "Türk İşaret Dili" (TİD)
• Valencian Sign Language "Llengua de Signes en la Comunitat Valenciana" (LSCV)

Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... British Sign Language (BSL) is the sign language used in the United Kingdom (UK), and is the first or preferred language of an unknown number of Deaf people in the UK (published estimates range from 30,000 to 250,000 but it is likely that the lower figures are more... Llengua de Signes Catalana in Catalan, Lengua de señas o signos catalana in Spanish, Catalan Sign Language, Catalonian Sign language or LSC is a Sign language used by 32,000 signers (7000 deaf) in Catalonia. ... Dutch Sign Language (Nederlande Gebaren Taal or NGT) is the sign language used by deaf people in the Netherlands. ... Estonian Sign Language (Eesti viipekeel) differs from other sign languages primarily in signs, as opposed to the grammatical structure (e. ... Finnish Sign Language is the sign language most commonly used in Finland. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... French Sign Language (Langue des Signes Français or LSF) is the language of the deaf in the nation of France. ... German Sign Language or Deutsche Gebärdensprache is the sign language of the Deaf community in Germany. ... Hungarian Sign Language is the sign language of Hungary. ... The icelandic sign language is the sign language of the deaf community in Iceland. ... Irish Sign Language (ISL) is the sign language of Ireland, used primarily in the Republic of Ireland. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Lithuanian Sign Language (LtSL) is used in Lithuania by appr. ... Northern Ireland Sign Language (NISL) is a sign language used in Northern Ireland, mainly Belfast. ... Norwegian Sign Language is the preferred sign language amongst deaf Norwegians. ... Polish Sign Language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Sign language interpreter on stage A sign language (also signed language) is a language which uses manual communication, body language and lip patterns instead of sound to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to express fluidly a speaker... Russian Sign Language is the sign language of the deaf community in Russia. ... Spanish Sign language (Lengua de signos o señas española)is a language used mainly by deaf-mute people in Spain and the people who live with them. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Valencian Sign Language (LSCV or LSPV) is a sign language used by people with hearing impairments in Valencia. ...

Middle East

• Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL), Southern Israel
• Israeli Sign Language
• Persian Sign Language
• Jordanian Sign Language Lughat il-Ishaarah il-Urduniah (LIU)
• Kuwaiti Sign Language
• Saudi Arabian Sign Language

The Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) is a sign language used by about 150 deaf and many hearing members of a Bedouin community in the Negev desert of southern Israel. ... Israeli Sign Language or ISL (local name: sfàt ha-simaním ha-israelít, abbriviation is pronounced shássi) is the most used sign language in the deaf community of Israel. ... Persian Sign Language is the sign language used by Deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Iran. ...

Historical sign languages

• BANZSL - Language family to which BSL, Auslan, and NZSL belong
• Martha's Vineyard Sign Language
• Old French Sign Language - Parent language of many sign languages
• Old Kent Sign Language

BANZSL, or British, Australian and New Zealand Sign Language, is the name given to the parent language which British Sign Language (BSL), Auslan and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) may be considered dialects of. ... British Sign Language (BSL) is the sign language used in the United Kingdom (UK), and is the first or preferred language of an unknown number of Deaf people in the UK (published estimates range from 30,000 to 250,000 but it is likely that the lower figures are more... Auslan is the sign language used by the Australian Deaf community. ... New Zealand Sign Language, or NZSL, is the main language of the Deaf Community in New Zealand. ... Marthas Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) is a sign language (now extinct), once widely used on the island of Marthas Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, U.S., from the early 18th century to the mid 20th century. ... Old French Sign Language is a term that loosely describes the language of the Deaf community in 18th century Paris at the time of the establishment of the first deaf schools. ... Old Kent Sign Language. ...

Auxiliary sign systems

• Australian Aboriginal sign languages
• Baby Sign - using signs to assist early language development in young children.
• Baseball Sign - a method used in baseball and softball to communicate strategic plays without the opponent knowing
• Contact Sign - a pidgin or contact language between a spoken language and a sign language, eg. Pidgin Sign English (PSE).
• International Sign (previously known as Gestuno) - an auxiliary language used by deaf people in international settings.
• Makaton - a system of signed communication used by and with people who have speech, language or learning difficulties.
• Monastic sign language
• Plains Indian Sign Language
• Tic tac - a traditional British system of communicating betting odds at racecourses.

Many Australian Aboriginal cultures have or traditionally had a sign language counterpart to their spoken language. ... Baby Sign involves using sign language to communicate with infants and toddlers. ... A view of the playing field at Busch Memorial Stadium, St. ... A view of the playing field at Busch Memorial Stadium, St. ... Softball is a team sport, in which a ball, eleven to twelve inches (or rarely, 16 inches) (28 to 30. ... -1... A pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of two or more languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues, and usually a simplified form of one of the languages. ... A Pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of a mixture of other languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues. ... Gestuno or International Sign Language of the Deaf is a constructed sign language, which the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf originally discussed in 1951. ... Gestuno or International Sign Language of the Deaf is a constructed sign language, which the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf originally discussed in 1951. ... Makaton (trademark) is a system of communication based on a combination of spoken words, sign language vocabulary (originally adapted from British Sign Language), and graphic symbols. ... Monastic sign languages have been used in Europe from at least the tenth century by christian monks, and some, such as Cistercian and Trappist sign languages, are still in use today — not only in Europe but also in Japan, China and the USA.[1] Unlike deaf sign languages, they are... Plains Indian Sign Language is a sign language formerly used as an interlanguage between Native Americans of the Great Plains of the United States of America and Canada. ... Tic-tac (also tick-tack and non-hyphenated variants) is a traditional method of sign language used by bookmakers to communicate the prices of certain horses. ...

Signed modes of spoken languages

For a more extensive list see Manually Coded Language. This page lists only those MCLs with pages on Wikipedia.

• General
  • Cued Speech - a hand/mouth system (HMS) to render spoken language phonemes visually intelligible.
  • Fingerspelling - alphabetic signs to represent the written form of a spoken language.
• English
  • Manually Coded English
  • Seeing Essential English (SEE1)
  • Signing Exact English (SEE2)
• Esperanto
  • Signuno
• Malay
  • Bahasa Malaysia Kod Tangan (BMKT)
• Warlpiri
  • Warlpiri Sign Language

Manually Coded Languages (MCL) are representations of spoken languages in a gestural-visual form; that is, sign language versions of spoken langauges. ... Cued Speech is a system of communication used with and among deaf or hard of hearing people. ... A one hand alphabet in general use, as published in the American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb, 1886. ... Manually Coded English (MCE) is a general term used to describe a variety of visual communication methods expressed through the hands which attempt to represent the English language. ... Signing Exact English (SEE) is a system of sign language that strives to be an exact representation of English. ... Signuno alphabet & numerals Signuno is signed Esperanto, derived from Gestuno roots and Esperanto morphology by an anonymous author. ... Kod Tangan Bahasa Malaysia (KTBM), or Manually Coded Malay, is the only form of sign language recognised by the government in Malaysia as the language of communication for the Deaf. ... The Warlpiri language is spoken by the Warlpiri Aboriginal community in the central desert region of Australia, and is also known as WALBIRI, ELPIRA, ILPARA, WAILBRI and WALPIRI. When in mourning, Warlpiri women often do not talk for long periods of time, and a signed mode of the language is...

See also

• Contact sign
• Intercultural competence
• Legal recognition of sign languages
• Manual alphabet
• Sign language

-1... Intercultural competence is the ability of successful communication with people of other cultures. ... The legal recognition of sign languages is one of the major concerns of the international Deaf community. ... Fingerspelling (somtimes known as dactylology) is the representation of the letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands. ... Two sign language Intepreters working as a team for a school. ...

References

1. ^ Kamei, Nobutaka. The Birth of Langue des Signes Franco-Africaine: Creole ASL in West and Central French-speaking Africa, paper presented at Languages and Education in Africa (LEA), University of Oslo, June 19-22, 2006. Article online (PDF)
2. ^ Kamei, Nobutaka (2004). The Sign Languages of Africa, "Journal of African Studies" (Japan Association for African Studies) Vol.64, March, 2004. [NOTE: Kamei lists 23 African sign languages in this article].
3. ^ History of the Deaf and sign languages in Africa, published (December 25, 2006) on Kamei's website. In Japanese.

External links

• http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90008