Providence Island Sign Language
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| Providence Island Sign Language | ||
|---|---|---|
| Signed in: | Colombia | |
| Region: | Providence Island | |
| Total signers: | 19 deaf signers, but known by the majority of the 2,500 population | |
| Language family: | Language isolate | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | sgn-CO-SAP | |
| ISO 639-3: | prz
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| sign language — list of sign languages — legal recognition | ||
Providence Island Sign Language (also known as "Providencia Sign Language") is the sign language used by the deaf community on the small island community of Providence Island in the Western Caribbean, off the coast of Nicaragua but belonging to Colombia. The island is about 15 square miles and the total population is about 2,500, of which a large number are deaf.
It is believed that the sign language emerged in the late 19th or early 20th century. Brief sociological studies have suggested that deaf people on the island are not regarded as inferior in the areas of marriage, mental ability, occupations, and social integration.
[edit] External links
- Providence Island Sign Language by William Washabaugh (1991)
- Ethnologue entry
[edit] References
- Woodward, James. Attitudes toward deaf people on Providence Island, Journal article in: Sign Language Studies 7:18 (1978), pp. 49-68
- Woodward, James. Sign languages — Providence Island, in Gallaudet encyclopedia of deaf people and deafness. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987., vol.3, pp. 103-104.
- Washabaugh, William; Woodward,James; DeSantis, Susan (1978): "Providence Island Sign: A Context-Dependent Language". In: Anthropological Linguistics, vol. 20, 95-109.
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