Ghanaian Sign Language
| Ghanaian Sign Language | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Ghana |
Native speakers | 6,000+ (2004)[1] |
|
French Sign
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
gse |
| Glottolog |
ghan1235[2] |
Ghanaian Sign Language is the national sign language of deaf people in Ghana, descended from American Sign Language.[1] It was introduced in 1957 by Andrew Foster, a deaf African-American missionary, as there had been no education or organizations for the deaf previously. Foster went on to establish the first school for the deaf in Nigeria a few years later, and Nigerian Sign Language shows influence from GSL. GSL is unrelated to indigenous Ghanaian sign languages such as Adamorobe Sign Language and Nanabin Sign Language.
There are nine schools for the deaf in Ghana.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ghanaian Sign Language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Ghanaian Sign Language". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.