| Bura Sign Language | |
|---|---|
| Signed in | Nigeria |
| Region | 40 km SE of Biu |
| Ethnicity | Bura people |
| Native signers | ? (date missing) |
| Language family |
West African gestural area
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None |
Bura Sign Language is an indigenous sign language used by the Bura people around the village of Kukurpu in Nigeria, an area with a high degree of congenital deafness. None of the signers have been to school, and there appears to be no influence of Western sign.
Bura SL has the lax hand shapes and large sign space characteristic of West African sign. Many of the words are similar or identical to those of Adamorobe Sign Language and Nanabin Sign Language of Ghana; these involve conventionalized (co-verbal) gestures in the hearing population of West Africa, such as 'sweat' for "work" and 'sleep' for "next day".