Russian Sign Language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Russian Sign Language Русский Жестовый Язык, Russkij Žestovyi Jazyk
Signed in:	Russia
Total signers:	—
Language family:	Related to Austrian Sign Language and French Sign Language
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`sgn-RU`
ISO/FDIS 639-3:	`rsl`
sign language — list of sign languages — legal recognition

Russian Sign Language is the sign language of the deaf community in Russia. It has a grammar unlike the (spoken or written) Russian language, although there is a "signed Russian" which has been used on television in interpreted news programs.

The Moscow Bilingual School for the Deaf, which uses Russian Sign Language in classrooms, was opened in 1992.

Much of early research on Russian Sign Language was done by Galina Lazarevna Zaitseva, who wrote her 1969 PhD thesis on spatial relationships in Russian Sign Language, and in 1992 devised the now standard term for Russian Sign Language "Russkii Zhestovyi Iazyk". Ongoing research into the language takes place at the Centre for Deaf Studies in Moscow.