Colombian Sign Language ( es, Lengua de Señas Colombiana, LSC, ) is the

deaf 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 l ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

Classification

Clark notes that

Peruvian Peruvians ( es, peruanos) are the citizens of Peru. There were Andean and coastal ancient civilizations like Caral, which inhabited what is now Peruvian territory for several millennia before the Spanish conquest of Peru, Spanish conquest in th ...

Bolivian Bolivian may refer to: * Something of, or related to Bolivia ** Bolivian people ** Demographics of Bolivia ** Culture of Bolivia * SS ''Bolivian'', a British-built standard cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries ...

Ecuadorian Ecuadorians ( es, ecuatorianos) are people identified with the South American country of Ecuador. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Ecuadorians, several (or all) of these connections exist and are colle ...

and Colombian sign languages "have significant lexical similarities to each other" and "contain a certain degree of lexical influence from ASL" as well, at least going by the forms in national dictionaries. Chilean and

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

share these traits, though to a lesser extent.

Description

The development of the signs have influences of Spanish sign language and

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 ...

. It is reported to have signs in common with

Salvadoran Sign Language Salvadoran Sign language is a language used by the deaf community in El Salvador. Its main purpose is to communicate. There are three distinct forms of sign language. American Sign Language was brought over to El Salvador from the United States ...

Teaching

There are two sign language schools in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

(the first started in 1929), two in

Medellín Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...

and one in

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,227,642 residents according to the 2018 census. The city spans with of urban area, making Cali the second ...

. Countrywide, three different institutions of support for deaf promotes the learning of the language. The national Committee for the sign language promotes the research in the area, distributes the manual alphabet for spelling and the Grammar Dictionary and supports the organization for sign language teachers. The now defunct national central of

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that ...

TELECOM distributed a CD-ROM software for self-learning.

Relevancy

There is a growing interest for learning the sign language between the hearing people. Some schools use sign language in the classroom. Interpreters are provided at important public events, and for college students.

References and external links

National Institute for the Deaf - INSOR (In Spanish)National Federation of Deaf Colombians - FENASCOL (In Spanish)
* Colombian sign language software available in : Lengua de Señas Colombianas (software). División de Investigación ITEC–TELECOM Colombia. http://www.c5.cl/ieinvestiga/actas/tise99/html/software/lenguassenas/ * Videos of common words available in : Lengua de señas – Un lenguaje para conocer (Sign Language – A language to know). https://web.archive.org/web/20080725140522/http://mail.colombiaaprende.edu.co:8080/recursos/lengua_senas/ {{sign language navigation Sign languages of Colombia Languages of Colombia Colombian culture