Bura Sign Language is a
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 ...
used by the
Bura people around the village of
Kukurpu, 40 km (25 miles) south-east of
Biu,
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
, an area with a high degree of
congenital deafness
Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to hear. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired at any time afterwards. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears. In children, hearing problems can affect the ability to acquire spoken la ...
. What little is known about it is due to a brief visit and a videotape by Robert Blench in 2003. It is "likely ... quite independent" from other, better-known sign languages such as
Nigerian 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 Bolivi ...
, since none of the signers have been to school and the area where it is used is rather remote.
Bura SL has the lax hand shapes and large sign space characteristic of indigenous West African sign languages. Many of the words are similar or identical to those of
Adamorobe Sign Language
Adamorobe Sign Language or Adasl is a village sign language used in Adamorobe, an Akan village in eastern Ghana. It is used by about 30 deaf and 1370 hearing people (2003).
The Adamorobe community is notable for its unusually high incidence of ...
and
Nanabin Sign Language
Nanabin Sign Language is a family sign language of the coastal Fante village of Ekumfi Nanabin in the Central Region of Ghana, ca. 8 km east of Mankessim. It is used by three generations of a single family which is mostly deaf. The seco ...
of Ghana, and appear to be based on the gestures common to the hearing population across West Africa. These involve conventionalized metaphors such as 'sweat' for "work" and 'sleep' for "next day".
See also
*
Mofu-Gudur language
Mofu-Gudur, or South Mofu, is a Chadic language spoken in northern Cameroon. Dialects are Dimeo, Gudur, Massagal, Mokong, Njeleng, and Zidim.
Mofu-Gudur is spoken in the massifs south of the Tsanaga River as far as Mayo-Louti ( Mokong and Mof ...
, spoken by a hearing population in a neighboring region of Cameroon who use an estimated 1,500 conventionalized gestures.
Footnotes
Bibliography
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Village sign languages
Sign languages of Nigeria
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