Alipur Sign Language is a village sign language of

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. It is spoken in the town of Alipur, Karnataka, a

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the ...

Muslim enclave with a high degree of congenital deafness. There are between 150 and 250 deaf people in Alipur, and there are approximately 10,000 hearing people speaking the language on a population of 26,000 (in 2015). The language has no official status and deaf children receive no formal education. This fact plus the increasing influence of the Indian Sign Language threaten the survival of Alipur Sign Language (or APSL). Sibaji Panda was the first person to officially document the language in 2012. During his study, Panda found out that the proportion of deaf population in Alipur was of approximately 0.75%, against 0.41% on national average (data from the 2011 census). The deaf community of Alipur helped Panda in his researches, particularly Mir Fazil Raza, a 53 year old former gram panchayat chief, who helped set up the Alipur Unity Society for the Deaf. Mr. Fazil Raza helped with translation from English to the sign language, conducted survey with the help of other members of the community, and served as an informator for the documentation of the language. Endogamous marriages in the town have led to this large population of deaf, but a deaf man cannot marry a deaf woman. Since there are no public records in the town, it is difficult to establish the veracity of this information. The sign language is used by many hearing people as well, with level of fluency that greatly varies. The language has a variety of ways to express numbers, using additions and subtractions to express numbers with high complexity. Mouth movements can be added to express bigger numbers. The majority of inhabitants in the town are

Shia Muslim Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

. The Shia Muslim population descend from Bijapur after the down fall of Adil Shahi Dynasty and are proud of their culture and history. The younger generation is less interested in using the village sign language. Mobility and technology gives them access to the Internet and they travel to

Bengaluru Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

where they learn Indian 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 express ...

. The lack of formal education is nevertheless a barrier for them to be able to use script-based applications (like text messaging) and there aren't many employment opportunities. A better understanding of the situation of the language could be beneficial for the population. Nobel School (A Private School in a Village) has recently started classes for the deaf children. However, There is a hope to re-open the government school for special children.

References

{{sign language navigation, state=collapsed Village sign languages Karnataka society Sign languages of India