Swiss-German Sign Language

Swiss-German Sign Language (German: Deutschschweizer Gebärdensprache, abbreviated DSGS) is the primary deaf sign language of the German-speaking part of Switzerland and of Liechtenstein. The language was established around 1828.[3] In 2011 it was estimated that 7,500 deaf and 13,000 hearing people use DSGS.[1] There are six dialects which developed in boarding schools for the deaf in Zürich, Bern, Basel, Lucerne, and St. Gallen, as well as in Liechtenstein.[1]

Swiss-German Sign Language
DSGS
Schweizerdeutsche Gebärdensprache
Langue des Signes Suisse-Allemande
Lingua dei Segni Svizzero-Tedesca
Germani Helvetti Language
Native toSwitzerland, Liechtenstein
Native speakers

(an estimated 5,500 deaf lived in German-speaking cantons in 2011)[1]
possibly French SL
  • Swiss-German Sign Language
SignWriting
Language codes
ISO 639-3sgg
Glottologswis1240[2]

Name

In Switzerland, the language is called Gebärdensprache (sign language) if a distinction from other languages is not required. Some sources call it Natürliche Gebärden or Natürliche Gebärdensprache,[4] or Swiss Sign Language (Langage gestuel suisse).[3] The former just means 'natural sign', like those for "sleep" or "eat", in contrast to Abstrakte Gebärden 'conceptual sign',[5] and so the term is no longer used. Most English sources today uses the term German-Swiss Sign Language or Swiss-German Sign Language.[6][7]

Classification

Wittmann (1991) suspects that Swiss-German Sign Language may be part of the French Sign Language family, but it is not close and this is not easy to demonstrate.[3]

In Switzerland, the parentage of this language is still in research. Research on whether DSGS could be a derivative of the German Sign Language (DGS) is planned, but it was observed that DSGS signers are often more open to borrowing loan signs from LSF-SR, the French Sign Language dialect of the Suisse Romande, and less from the DGS.[1]

Literature

Two books have been published in SignWriting.[1]

gollark: I know Z-codes are rare, but so are As, Bs, Cs, Ds, Es, Fs, Gs, Hs, Is, Js, Ks, Ls, Ms, Ns, Ps, Qs, Rs, Ss, Ts, Us, Vs, Ws, Xs and Ys.
gollark: What am I meant to do, ask for it back?
gollark: 3 CB Coppers? Really? Oh well, I traded it already.
gollark: Conveniently for my idea, right now there's a Jewel 4G and Penk 5G in the hub right now! Less conveniently, they're both upwards-stairy.
gollark: Ah, I see.

References

  1. Braem, Penny Boyes: Gebärdenspracharbeit in der Schweiz: Rückblick und Ausblick, Hamburg: Zeitschrift für Sprache und Kultur Gehörloser
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Swiss-German Sign Language". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Wittmann, Henri (1991). "Classification linguistique des langues signées non vocalement." Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée 10:1.215–88.
  4. Swiss-German Sign Language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  5. Deutsche Hörbehinderten Selbsthilfe e.v.: Gebärdensprache
  6. IANA: Language tag assignment for German Swiss Sign Language
  7. Center for sign language research: Bibliography


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