The Arab sign-language family is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

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 markers. Sign ...

s spread across the Arab Middle East. Its extent is not yet known, because only some of the sign languages in the region have been compared. A

language planning In sociolinguistics, language planning (also known as language engineering) is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure or acquisition of languages or language varieties within a speech community.Kaplan B., Robert, and Richa ...

project for a single Arabic Sign Language is being conducted by the Council of Arab Ministers of Social Affairs (CAMSA), with much of the vocabulary voted on by regional Deaf associations. However, so far only a dictionary has been compiled; grammar has not been addressed, so the result cannot be considered a language.

Linguistics

Unlike spoken Arabic, Arabic sign languages (ArSLs) are not diglossic. This means that there is one version of an Arabic sign language used by a community, rather than two versions, i.e.

colloquial Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conve ...

and formal, as is the case with the Arabic language.

Grammar

The sentence structure of ArSLs is relatively flexible, similar to spoken and written Arabic. One sentence can be signed in different word orders, such as Verb-Subject-Object (V-S-O), Subject-Verb-Object (S-V-O), Object-Verb-Subject (O-V-S) and Verb-Object-Subject (V-O-S.) The tense (present, future or past) of a sentence is usually referred to in the beginning of that sentence, except when they need to be changed during a conversation. In this case, the tense can be shifted towards the middle or the end of the sentence.

Vocabulary

According to M.A. Abdel-Fattah, a linguistic scholar, the vocabulary of ArSLs could originate from: * Loan words from both Europe and America, * "Creations"; having existing gestures for verbal words, whether written or spoken, * "Miming" physical objects or actions, * Compounding two or more signs to create a unique sign, such as "dentist" which is a combination of "doctor" and "teeth". In ArSLs, just like other sign languages, the context of the word depends on the shape of the hand, alongside its position and movement relative to the body. To aid in the meaning of the sign, facial expressions and facial movements are also used. Most signs in ArSLs are limited to nouns and verbs, but for

prepositions Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

and

intensifier In linguistics, an intensifier ( abbreviated ) is a lexical category (but ''not'' a traditional part of speech) for a modifier that makes no contribution to the propositional meaning of a clause but serves to enhance and give additional emotional ...

s, it is the execution of the sign which indicates the two. For example, in Libyan Sign Language, the sign "every day" involves touching the nose with the index finger and repeating it three times. According to Abdel-Fatteh, certain vocabulary in ArSLs are synosigns, antosigns, homosigns and compounds. * Synosigns are two distinct signs with the same meaning. In ArSLs, these are uncommon. An example of a synosign is in Jordanian Sign Language, where the sign for 'girl' can be done in two different ways. * Antosigns are two signs corresponding to opposite words; with both signs having opposite movements. An example of antosigns are the signs for "morning" and "night", where the sign for "night" is movement-wise the reverse of the sign for "morning." * A homosign is a sign that can be used for multiple words and the interpretation of which depends on the topic of the conversation. * Compounds are signs that use two or more existing signs to convey an idea. The words for which signs need to be compounded don't typically have corresponding signs. For example, the signs for "doctor" and "teeth" would need to be compounded to sign "dentist."

Varieties

Despite having many sign language varieties in the Middle East under the broader "Arabic Sign Language", it is unlikely that any of these languages are related to each other. Among the national sign languages which may be related are the following, listed in alphabetical order:

Egyptian Sign Language

Egyptian Sign Language Egyptian Sign Language is a sign language used by members of the deaf community in Egypt. Although there are no official statistics on the number of deaf people or the number of people who use Egyptian Sign Language as their primary language, ...

is used by the deaf community in Egypt.

Emirati Sign Language

Emirati Sign Language is a unified sign language for the deaf community in the UAE.

Iraqi Sign Language

Iraqi Sign Language Iraqi Sign Language () is the deaf sign language of Iraq. It appears to be close to Levantine Arabic Sign Language the common sign language of Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Jordan. It is taught in seven schools or deaf associations in the capito ...

is used by the deaf community in Iraq.

Kuwaiti Sign Language

Kuwaiti Sign Language is the sign language used by the hearing-impaired people of Kuwait.

Levantine Arabic Sign Language

Levantine Arabic Sign Language Levantine Arabic Sign Language, also known as Syro-Palestinian Sign Language, is the sign language used by Deaf and hearing people of Jordan, Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially ...

is utilized by the people residing in the Levant region and includes Jordanian Sign Language (LIU) and Palestinian Sign Language, among others.

Libyan Sign Language

Libyan Sign Language Libyan Sign Language is the deaf sign language of Libya. It appears to belong to the Arab sign language family The Arab sign-language family is a family of sign languages spread across the Arab Middle East. Its extent is not yet known, because ...

is the sign language of the deaf community in Libya.

Omani Sign Language

Qatari Sign Language

Qatari Sign Language Qatari Unified Sign Language is a proposal by the Qatari Supreme Council for Family Affairs to unify the deaf sign language, or perhaps languages, of Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially ...

is a unified sign language for the deaf community in Qatar.

Saudi Sign Language

Saudi Sign Language Saudi Sign Language is the deaf sign language of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it t ...

is used by the deaf community in Saudi Arabia.

Yemeni Sign Language

Yemeni Sign Language Yemeni Sign Language is the (or a) deaf sign language of Yemen. It belongs to the Arab sign-language family (Hendriks 2008). It is not clear how close are the sign languages of the two former Yemeni states. References *Hendriks, Bernadet, 2008. ...

is the sign language used in Yemen. Other languages of the region appear to not be related.

Moroccan Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) developed in the United States and Canada, but has spread around the world. Local varieties have developed in many countries, but there is little research on which should be considered dialects of ASL (such as Bolivia ...

derives from

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 of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is expre ...

, and

Tunisian Sign Language Tunisian Sign Language is the sign language used by deaf people in Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 ...

from

Italian Sign Language Italian Sign Language or LIS (''Lingua dei Segni Italiana'') is the visual language used by deaf people in Italy. Deep analysis of it began in the 1980s, along the lines of William Stokoe's research on American Sign Language in the 1960s. Until ...

. There are numerous local

Sudanese sign languages Sudan and South Sudan have multiple regional sign languages, which are not mutually intelligible. A survey of just three states found 150 sign languages, though this number included instances of home sign Home sign (or kitchen sign) is a gestur ...

which are not even related to each other, and there are many other Arab

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 languag ...

s in the region, such as

Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) is a village sign language used by about 150 deaf and many hearing members of the al-Sayyid Bedouin tribe in the Negev desert of southern Israel. As deafness is so frequent (4% of the population is deaf, co ...

and

Ghardaia Sign Language Algerian Jewish Sign Language (AJSL), also known as Ghardaia Sign Language, is a moribund village sign language originally of Ghardaïa, Algeria that is now used in Israel and possibly also in France. The Jewish community of Ghardaïa immigrate ...

, which are not related to the national languages.

Accessibility

"Unified" Arabic Sign Language

To unify the Arab World with one distinct sign language that can be understood throughout the MENA region, a dictionary for a standard Arabic Sign Language (ArSL) has been produced in 2004 by the Council of Arab Ministers of Social Affairs (CAMSA). This dictionary consists of a combination of signs from a wide range of mostly unrelated Arab sign languages such as Egyptian Sign Language and Jordanian Sign Language. This "Standardized" Arabic Sign Language has been applied by interpreters in news outlets like

Al-Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

in their news broadcasting, including simultaneous interpreting. However, the introduction of ArSL has been met with backlash by the deaf community, because it is not the native sign language of any country in the region. There are also wide disparities between the vocabulary of the standardized version and the national sign languages. As a result, it is difficult for the deaf community in the Middle East to understand the Standardized version and so use it.

Access to Services

An international survey was conducted by Hilde Haualand in 2009, which investigated the accessibility of sign language interpreters, as well as the training and support the Deaf community receives. This survey included the MENA region. Regions that were investigated in the survey included Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen. A participant representing each country in the survey answered five yes/no questions, which included: # If the deaf could access government services # If there is a "Sign Language interpreting service" in their country # If Interpreters have any interpreting qualifications # if there is a Code of Ethics for Interpreters # If the government was responsible for their salaries A yes response to each of these questions yields one point, with five points being the maximum for any country. Qatar was the only country in the survey that had five points, meaning they satisfied all the aforementioned five criteria relating to accessibility. Bahrain and Kuwait satisfied the first four questions. Oman, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and UAE had three points, meaning they had answered "yes" to the first three questions. Algeria, Morocco and Lebanon had two points and Yemen had one point.