A deaf-community or urban sign language is a

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 ...

that emerges when deaf people who do not have a common language come together and form a community. This may be a formal situation, such as the establishment of a school for deaf students, or informal, such as migration to cities for employment and the subsequent gathering of deaf people for social purposes. An example of the first is Nicaraguan Sign Language, which emerged when deaf children in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the coun ...

were brought together for the first time, and received only oral education; of the latter,

Bamako Sign Language Bamako Sign Language, also known as Malian Sign Language, or LaSiMa (''Langue des Signes Malienne''), is a sign language that developed outside the Malian educational system, in the urban tea-circles of Bamako where deaf men gathered after work. I ...

, which emerged among the tea circles of the uneducated deaf in the capital of

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...

. Nicaraguan SL is now a language of instruction and is recognized as the national sign language; Bamako SL is not, and is threatened by the use of

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 ...

in schools for the deaf. Deaf-community sign languages contrast with

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 ...

in that they tend to be used only by the deaf, at least at first, and most communication is between deaf people. Village sign languages, on the other hand, develop in relatively isolated areas with high incidences of

congenital A birth defect, also known as a congenital disorder, is an abnormal condition that is present at birth regardless of its cause. Birth defects may result in disabilities that may be physical, intellectual, or developmental. The disabilities can ...

deafness, where most hearing people have deaf family, so that most signers are hearing. These differences have

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

consequences. Urban deaf communities lack the common knowledge and social context that enables village signers to communicate without being verbally explicit. Deaf-community signers need to communicate with strangers, and therefore must be more explicit; it is thought this may have the effect of developing or at least speeding up the development of grammatical and other linguistic structures in the emerging language. For example, only deaf-community sign languages are known to make abstract and grammatical use of sign space. Both types of deaf sign language differ from speech-taboo languages such as the various

Aboriginal Australian sign languages Many Australian Aboriginal cultures have or traditionally had a manually coded language, a signed counterpart of their oral language. This appears to be connected with various speech taboos between certain kin or at particular times, such as ...

, which are developed by the hearing community and only used secondarily by the deaf, and are not independent languages. Deaf-community languages may develop directly from

home sign Home sign (or kitchen sign) is a gestural communication system, often invented spontaneously by a deaf child who lacks accessible linguistic input. Home sign systems often arise in families where a deaf child is raised by hearing parents and is is ...

, or perhaps from idioglossic sign (in families with more than one deaf child), as was the case with Nicaraguan SL, or they may develop from village sign languages, as appears to have been at least partially the case with American SL, which arose in a school for the deaf where

French Sign Language French Sign Language (french: langue des signes française, LSF) is the sign language of the deaf in France and French-speaking parts of Switzerland. According to ''Ethnologue'', it has 100,000 native signers. French Sign Language is relate ...

was the language of instruction, but seems to have derived largely from two or three village sign languages of the students.

Languages

Once a sign language is established, especially if it is a language of education, it may spread and spawn additional languages, such as in the French Sign Language family. The following are languages thought to have been established in new deaf communities, without the direct transmission of an existing sign language. There are presumably others; with many sign languages, we have no records of how they formed.See also *

British Sign Language British Sign Language (BSL) is a sign language used in the United Kingdom (UK), and is the first or preferred language among the Deaf community in the UK. Based on the percentage of people who reported 'using British Sign Language at home' o ...

(urban→school) * German Sign Language (urban) * Old French Sign Language (urban) *

Lyons Sign Language Spurious languages are languages that have been reported as existing in reputable works, while other research has reported that the language in question did not exist. Some spurious languages have been proven to not exist. Others have very l ...

(urban) * Japanese Sign Language (school?) *

Chinese Sign Language Chinese Sign Language (abbreviated CSL or ZGS; ) is the official sign language of the People's Republic of China. It is unrelated to Taiwanese Sign Language and is known in the Republic of China as ''Wénfǎ Shǒuyǔ'' (). History The firs ...

(school) * Tibetan Sign Language (standardization of several community languages) * Thai Sign Language (urban sign with significant input from ASL) *

Qahveh Khaneh Sign Language Qahveh Khaneh Sign Language, literally Coffee House Sign Language, is a deaf sign language of a few elderly members of the deaf community in Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Ira ...

(urban) *

Indo-Pakistani Sign Language Indo-Pakistani Sign Language (IPSL) is the predominant sign language in the subcontinent of South Asia, used by at least 15 million deaf signers. As with many sign languages, it is difficult to estimate numbers with any certainty, as the Cen ...

Sri Lankan sign languages Sri Lankan Sign Language is a visual language used by deaf people in Sri Lanka and has regional variations stemming from the 25 Deaf schools in Sri Lanka. Classification Wittmann (1991) Wittmann, Henri (1991). "Classification linguistique des l ...

(school sign, fourteen languages) * Israeli Sign Language *

(urban) * Mbour Sign Language (urban) *

Hausa Sign Language Hausa Sign Language (HSL) or ''Maganar Hannu'' is the indigenous sign language of the Deaf community Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that preclude ...

(urban) * Tanzanian sign languages (school sign, seven languages) *

(school sign; village sign with significant input from FSL) * Nicaraguan Sign Language (school sign) * Venezuelan Sign Language * Far North Queensland Indigenous Sign Language (Cairns and points north) Other locally developed sign languages which may have formed this way are: :(in Africa) Burkina Sign Language, the various

Ethiopian sign languages A number of Ethiopian sign languages have been used in various Ethiopian schools for the deaf since 1971, and at the primary level since 1956. Ethiopian Sign Language, presumably a national standard, is used in primary, secondary, and—at Addis ...

Guinea-Bissau Sign Language Guinea-Bissau Sign Language is an incipient sign language evolving from the single school for the deaf in Guinea-Bissau, which was founded in Bissau in 2003. In 2005 a linguist and Portuguese Sign Language Portuguese Sign language () is a sign ...

Kenyan Sign Language Kenyan Sign Language (English: KSL, Swahili: LAK) is a sign language used by the deaf community in Kenya and Somalia. It is used by over half of Kenya's estimated 600,000 deaf population. There are some dialect differences between Kisumu (weste ...

, Libyan Sign Language, Maroua Sign Language, the various

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 ...

, Ugandan Sign Language, Zambian Sign Language, Zimbabwean Sign Language :(in America) Brazilian Sign Language,

Colombian Sign Language Colombian Sign Language ( es, Lengua de Señas Colombiana, LSC, ) is the deaf sign language of Colombia. Classification Clark notes that Peruvian, Bolivian, Ecuadorian and Colombian sign languages "have significant lexical similarities to each ...

Ecuadorian Sign Language Ecuadorian Sign Language is the deaf sign language of Ecuador. Classification Clarkhttp://ling.hawaii.edu/wp-content/uploads/Clark_Brenda-Dissertation-Draft.pdf notes that Peruvian Peruvians ( es, peruanos) are the citizens of Peru. There ...

Jamaican Country Sign Language Jamaican Country Sign Language, also Country Sign, or Konchri Sain (KS) in Jamaican Patois, is an indigenous village sign language of Jamaica. It is used by a small number of Deaf and hearing Jamaicans, spread over several communities in the rura ...

Peruvian Sign Language Peruvian Sign Language (LSP by its acronym in Spanish: "lengua de señas peruana") (Glottocode: peru1235, ISO 639-3: prl) is a Peruvian language created and used by the Deaf community in Peru. It has been officially recognized by Peruvian law sinc ...

, Chiriqui Sign Language :(in Asia)

Old Bangkok Sign Language Bangkok Sign Language (also known as Old or Original Bangkok Sign Language) is a deaf-community sign language of Thailand that arose among deaf people who migrated to Bangkok for work or family. The language is moribund, with all speakers born ...

, Old Chiangmai Sign Language,

Penang Sign Language Penang Sign Language was developed in Malaysia by deaf children, outside the classroom, when oralism was predominant. It is now mainly used by older people, although many younger people can understand it. History Penang Sign Language began when ...

Hanoi Sign Language Hanoi Sign Language is the deaf-community sign language of the city of Hanoi in Vietnam. It is about 50% cognate with the other sign languages of Vietnam, and its vocabulary has been extensively influenced by the French Sign Language French ...

Saigon Sign Language Ho Chi Minh City Sign Language, also known as Sai Gon Sign Language, is the language of many deaf communities in a southern of Vietnam. This sign language was named Ho Chi Minh City Sign language by Prof. Dr. Woodward who is the first American ...

Haiphong Sign Language Haiphong Sign Language is the deaf-community sign language of the city of Haiphong in Vietnam. It is about 50% cognate with the other sign languages of Vietnam, and has been less influenced than them by the French Sign Language once taught in Vi ...

Yogyakarta Sign Language Indonesian Sign Language, or Bahasa Isyarat Indonesia (BISINDO), is any of several related deaf sign languages of Indonesia, at least on the island of Java. It is based on American Sign Language, with local admixture in different cities. Althoug ...

Nepalese Sign Language Nepalese Sign Language or Nepali Sign Language is the main sign language of Nepal. It is a partially standardized language based informally on the variety used in Kathmandu, with some input from varieties from Pokhara and elsewhere. As an indige ...

, Kurdish Sign Language :(in Europe)

Catalan Sign Language Catalan Sign Language ( ca, Llengua de signes catalana, LSC; ) is a sign language used by around 18,000 people in different areas of Spain including Barcelona and Catalonia. As of 2012, the Catalan Federation for the Deaf estimates 25,000 LSC ...

Spanish Sign Language Spanish Sign Language ( es, Lengua de Signos Española, LSE) is a sign language used mainly by deaf people in Spain and the people who live with them. Although there are not many reliable statistics, it is estimated that there are over 100,000 ...

, Swiss German Sign Language, Swedish Sign Language

References

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