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:
- 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).[1]
Deaf sign languages
Contemporary
Africa
There are at least 25 sign languages in Africa, according to researcher Nobutaka Kamei.[2][3][4] 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.
The Americas
Asia/Pacific
Europe
Middle East
Historical sign languages
Auxiliary sign systems
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
- Esperanto
- Malay
- Warlpiri
See also
References
- ^ For a classification, see Wittmann, Henri (1991). "Classification linguistique des langues signées non vocalement." Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée 10:1.215-88.[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)
- ^ 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].
- ^ History of the Deaf and sign languages in Africa, published (December 25, 2006) on Kamei's website. In Japanese.
External links
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