There are perhaps three hundred

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 ...

s in use around the world today. The number is not known with any confidence; new sign languages emerge frequently through

creolization Creolization is the process through which creole languages and cultures emerge. Creolization was first used by linguists to explain how contact languages become creole languages, but now scholars in other social sciences use the term to describe ne ...

and '' de novo'' (and occasionally through language planning). In some countries, such as Sri Lanka and Tanzania, each school for the deaf may have a separate language, known only to its students and sometimes denied by the school; on the other hand, countries may share sign languages, although sometimes under different names (Croatian and Serbian, Indian and Pakistani). Deaf sign languages also arise outside educational institutions, especially in village communities with high levels of congenital deafness, but there are significant sign languages developed for the hearing as well, such as the speech-taboo languages used in aboriginal Australia. Scholars are doing field surveys to identify the world's sign languages. The following list is grouped into three sections : * Deaf sign languages, which are the preferred languages of

Deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

communities around the world; these include

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, shared with the hearing community, and

Deaf-community sign language A deaf-community or urban sign language is a sign language 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, ...

s * Auxiliary sign languages, which are not native languages but sign systems of varying complexity, used alongside spoken languages. Simple gestures are not included, as they do not constitute

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

. * Signed modes of spoken languages, also known as

manually coded language Manually coded languages (MCLs) are a family of gestural communication methods which include gestural spelling as well as constructed languages which directly interpolate the grammar and syntax of oral languages in a gestural-visual form—that ...

s, which are bridges between signed and spoken languages The list of deaf sign languages is sorted regionally and alphabetically, and such groupings should not be taken to imply any genetic relationships between these languages (see

List of language families The following is a list of language families. It also includes language isolates, unclassified languages and other types. Major language families By number of languages ''Ethnologue'' 24 (2021) lists the following families that contain at least 1 ...

Sign language list

Contemporary deaf sign languages

Africa

There are at least 25 sign languages in Africa, according to researcher Nobutaka Kamei. 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.

Americas

Asia-Pacific

Europe

Middle East

Historical deaf sign languages

Martha's Vineyard Sign Language Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) was a village sign-language that was once widely used on the island of Martha's Vineyard from the early 18th century to 1952. It was used by both Deaf and hearing people in the community; consequently, dea ...

Old French Sign Language Old French Sign Language (french: Vieille langue des signes française, often abbreviated as VLSF) was the language of the deaf community in 18th-century Paris at the time of the establishment of the first deaf schools. The earliest records of ...

– ancestral to the French family *

Old Kent Sign Language Old Kentish Sign Language (OKSL, also Old Kent Sign Language) was a village sign language of 17th-century Kent in the United Kingdom, that has been incorporated along with other village sign languages into British Sign Language. According ...

Auxiliary sign languages

* Baby Sign – using signs to assist early language development in young children. *

Contact Sign A contact sign language, or contact sign, is a variety or style of language that arises from contact between deaf individuals using a sign language and hearing individuals using an oral language (or the written or manually coded form of the oral la ...

– a pidgin or

contact language Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for the ...

between a spoken language and a sign language, e.g. Pidgin Sign English (PSE). * Curwin Hand Signs – a technique which allows musical notes to be communicated through hand signs. *

International Sign International Sign (IS) is a pidgin sign language which is used in a variety of different contexts, particularly at international meetings such as the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) congress, in some European Union settings, and at some UN ...

(previously known as

Gestuno International Sign (IS) is a pidgin sign language which is used in a variety of different contexts, particularly at international meetings such as the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) congress, in some European Union settings, and at some UN ...

) – an auxiliary language used by deaf people in international settings. *

Makaton Makaton is a communication tool together with speech and symbols, to enable people with disabilities or learning disabilities to communicate. It is not a British Sign Language (BSL) or any form of Sign Language in its own right. Makaton supports ...

– a system of signed communication used by and with people who have speech, language or learning difficulties. *

Mofu-Gudur Sign 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 ...

* Monastic sign language * Signalong – international sign assisted communication techniques used to support children and adults with communication or learning difficulties

Manual modes of spoken languages

Manual modes of spoken languages include: * General **

Cued Speech Cued speech is a visual system of communication used with and among deaf or hard-of-hearing people. It is a phonemic-based system which makes traditionally spoken languages accessible by using a small number of handshapes, known as cues (repre ...

– a hand/mouth system (HMS) to render spoken language phonemes visually intelligible. **

Fingerspelling Fingerspelling (or dactylology) is the representation of the letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands. These manual alphabets (also known as finger alphabets or hand alphabets) have often been used in deaf ...

– alphabetic signs to represent the written form of a spoken language. * English **

Manually Coded English Manually-Coded English (MCE) is a type of sign system that follows direct spoken English. The different codes of MCE vary in the levels of directness in following spoken English grammar. There may also be a combination with other visual clues, su ...

Signing Exact English Signing Exact English (''SEE-II'', sometimes Signed Exact English) is a system of manual communication that strives to be an exact representation of English vocabulary and grammar. It is one of a number of such systems in use in English-speaking co ...

(SEE2) **

*Malay ** Bahasa Malaysia Kod Tangan (BMKT) *Speech-taboo languages **

Caucasian Sign Language Armenian Woman's Sign Language, also known as Caucasian Sign Language or ''Harsneren'' (, "bride's language"), is an indigenous sign language of Armenia. It is not directly related to the sign languages of Europe, though it may have historical co ...

Australian Aboriginal 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 ...

(though Yolŋu Sign Language does not correspond to any one language, and doubles as a language of the deaf)

Genetic classification of sign languages

Languages are assigned families (implying a genetic relationships between these languages) as

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

(perhaps a branch of BSL), French (with branches ASL (American), Austro-Hungarian, Danish, Italian),

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, and language isolates.

References

External links

''Ethnologue'' – Deaf sign languagesMultiple accessible sign languages dictionariesSignes du Monde
directory for all online Sign Languages dictionaries {{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Sign Languages * Sign Deaf education