The Danish Sign Language family comprises three languages:
Danish Sign Language,
Norwegian Sign Language (including
Malagasy Sign Language) and
Icelandic Sign Language. It itself is a sub-
language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...
within the larger
French Sign Language family
The French Sign Language (LSF, from ) or Francosign family is a language family of sign languages which includes French Sign Language and American Sign Language.
The LSF family descends from Old French Sign Language (VLSF), which developed among ...
.
places Danish Sign in the
French Sign Language family
The French Sign Language (LSF, from ) or Francosign family is a language family of sign languages which includes French Sign Language and American Sign Language.
The LSF family descends from Old French Sign Language (VLSF), which developed among ...
, although being also influenced by local pidgin Scandinavian Sign, which also influenced
Swedish sign.
''
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...
'' reports that
Danish Sign Language is largely mutually intelligible with Swedish Sign, though Wittmann places DSL in the French Sign Language family and Swedish Sign in the
British Sign Language family.
References
External links
* Aldersson, Russell R. and Lisa J. McEntee-Atalianis. 2007. A Lexical Comparison of Icelandic Sign Language and Danish Sign Language. ''Birkbeck Studies in Applied Linguistics'' Vol 2
A Lexical Comparison of Icelandic Sign Language and Danish Sign Language*
{{French Sign Language languages
French Sign Language family