Search UCLan
University of Central Lancashire
Quick Links
Please use the box below to search the whole UCLan website.
Close
EuroBABELproject VillageSign
The project “Endangered Sign Languages in Village Communities” (short “Village Sign”) focuses on sign languages in rural communities with a high incidence of hereditary deafness, so-called village sign languages. From the 1960s, linguists have shown that on all relevant levels of linguistic structure, signed and spoken languages are equivalent. From a primary interest in western sign languages, research shifted in the 1990s to sign languages in urban areas in other parts of the world, such as Japan, Brazil, India, or Jordan. The most recent addition towards a comprehensive typology of sign languages is the documentation and description of village sign languages.Few village sign languages have been documented yet, but the first studies show that societal and linguistic structures can differ radically from urban sign languages. The rural signing communities often show special adaptations to deafness. For example, in many communities most of the hearing people use the signed language as well. Linguistic analyses have shown counterexamples to a number of supposedly universal features of sign languages, including the grammatical use of signing space and the use of entity classifiers. All known village sign languages are endangered, usually because of pressure from larger urban sign languages. Ironically, it is often the success of the larger sign language communities in urban centres, their recognition and subsequent spread, which leads to the endangerment of village sign languages. A number of village sign languages are in immediate danger of becoming extinct without ever having been documented. The Village Sign project thus aims to document and describe the following village sign languages: Adamorobe Sign Language - Ghana Algerian Jewish Sign Language - Israel Alipur Sign Language – India Ban Khor Sign Language – Thailand Country Sign- Jamaica Kata Kolok – Bali, Indonesia Mardin Sign Language -Turkey Signing varieties of Mali Sign Language – Mali Yolgnu Sign Language -Australia Yucatec Mayan Sign Language – Mexico
The project “Endangered Sign Languages in Village Communities” (short “Village Sign”) focuses on sign languages in rural communities with a high incidence of hereditary deafness, so-called village sign languages. From the 1960s, linguists have shown that on all relevant levels of linguistic structure, signed and spoken languages are equivalent. From a primary interest in western sign languages, research shifted in the 1990s to sign languages in urban areas in other parts of the world, such as Japan, Brazil, India, or Jordan. The most recent addition towards a comprehensive typology of sign languages is the documentation and description of village sign languages.Few village sign languages have been documented yet, but the first studies show that societal and linguistic structures can differ radically from urban sign languages. The rural signing communities often show special adaptations to deafness. For example, in many communities most of the hearing people use the signed language as well. Linguistic analyses have shown counterexamples to a number of supposedly universal features of sign languages, including the grammatical use of signing space and the use of entity classifiers.
All known village sign languages are endangered, usually because of pressure from larger urban sign languages. Ironically, it is often the success of the larger sign language communities in urban centres, their recognition and subsequent spread, which leads to the endangerment of village sign languages. A number of village sign languages are in immediate danger of becoming extinct without ever having been documented. The Village Sign project thus aims to document and describe the following village sign languages:
Adamorobe Sign Language - Ghana Algerian Jewish Sign Language - Israel Alipur Sign Language – India Ban Khor Sign Language – Thailand Country Sign- Jamaica Kata Kolok – Bali, Indonesia Mardin Sign Language -Turkey Signing varieties of Mali Sign Language – Mali Yolgnu Sign Language -Australia Yucatec Mayan Sign Language – Mexico
Staff Login
Student Lobby
