Papua New Guinean Sign Language (PNGSL) 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 ...

originating from Papua New Guinea. The standardised form of PNGSL was made an official language of Papua New Guinea in 2015.Radio Australia report
/ref> The language has been called "Melanesian Sign Language". However, this does not translate what the community calls it, and is misleading because it is not used elsewhere in Melanesia.

Location

It is unknown to what extent and where PNGSL is used in Papua New Guinea. However, tests so far have found that speakers from different areas of PNG have been able to communicate with each other, though there is great regional variation due to the influence of

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 ...

. Many children learning PNGSL were raised by hearing parents using home sign, and these children have markedly influenced the language at deaf gatherings.

History

Auslan Auslan () is the majority sign language of the Australian Deaf community. The term ''Auslan'' is a portmanteau of "Australian Sign Language", coined by Trevor Johnston in the 1980s, although the language itself is much older. Auslan is relat ...

(Australian Sign Language) was introduced to Papua New Guinea in the 1990s. There was influence from

Tok Pisin Tok Pisin (,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh ; Tok Pisin ), often referred to by English speakers as "New Guinea Pidgin" or simply Pidgin, is a creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an ...

and more importantly mixture with local or home sign, as the languages diverged to the point where, by 2015, it was estimated that they were only about 50%

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as a ...

and that native speakers of Auslan and PNGSL were not able to understand one another. By the time sign language was made official, PNGSL was being used as the language of instruction in deaf schools and deaf units within hearing schools. Books purported to be of PNGSL up to this point were actually of Auslan. The first book of actual PNGSL is expected to be published in 2016. Separate, local sign languages have been described in Enga and Chimbu provinces.Rarrick, Samantha. "Sinasina Sign Language (Chimbu, Papua New Guinea) - Language Snapshot" ''Language Documentation and Description'' Vol 19 (2020) 79-86.

References

{{Languages of Papua New Guinea BANZSL Sign Language family Languages of Papua New Guinea Sign languages of Papua New Guinea