Exploring the World of Sign Languages: A Global Perspective

Sign language

A natural human language that uses the visual–gestural modality (hands, face, body, space) with its own grammar and vocabulary, used primarily by Deaf communities.

Natural language

A language that develops spontaneously in human communities over time (like ASL, English, BSL, Libras), as opposed to an artificially constructed code.

Visual–gestural modality

The channel of communication used by sign languages, involving visual perception of movements, handshapes, facial expressions, and spatial patterns.

Universal sign language (myth)

The incorrect belief that there is one single sign language used worldwide; in reality, there are hundreds of distinct sign languages.

International Sign (IS)

A contact variety used mainly at international Deaf events; draws on widely recognizable signs and gestures but is not a standardized native language for most people.

Manually coded language (e.g., Signed English)

A system that represents a spoken language’s grammar and words using signs; created for education and not a natural language that arose in a community.

deaf (lowercase d)

An audiological term describing a person with significant hearing loss. Focuses on hearing status, not on culture or language.

Deaf (capital D)

A cultural identity for people who use sign language, participate in Deaf communities, and share Deaf cultural values and experiences.

Deaf culture

The shared values, norms, histories, and visual ways of living found in Deaf communities, usually centered around sign language.

Deafhood

A concept describing the ongoing journey of becoming and being Deaf, including discovering sign language, community, and pride, and resisting oppression.

Sign language recognition

When a government officially acknowledges a sign language in law or policy, often linked to rights in education, media, and public services.

International Sign (IS)

A contact signing system used in some international Deaf events. It is not a full natural language like ASL or BSL but helps communication across sign language boundaries.

Visual–spatial modality

A way of using language that relies on vision and space (hands, face, body, signing space, and eyes) instead of sound and hearing.

Sign phonology

The study of how the basic visual units of signs (handshape, location, movement, orientation, non-manuals) are organized and contrast with each other.

Non-manual signals (NMS)

Facial expressions, head movements, body posture, and eye gaze that carry grammatical or lexical meaning in sign languages.

Topic–comment structure

A sentence pattern where the topic (what you’re talking about) is presented first, followed by a comment that says something about that topic; common in many sign languages.

Signing space

The three-dimensional area in front of and around the signer’s upper body where signs are produced and where locations can be set up to represent people, places, or things.

Directional verb

A verb sign whose movement path changes to show who is doing what to whom, often by moving from one location in signing space to another.

American Sign Language (ASL)

A natural sign language used primarily in the USA and Anglophone Canada; historically related to French Sign Language (LSF), not to BSL, even though all are used in English-speaking contexts.

British Sign Language (BSL)

The natural sign language of Deaf communities in the UK; part of the BSL–Auslan–NZSL (BANZSL) family and not mutually intelligible with ASL.

Indo-Pakistani Sign Language (IPSL)

A large sign language (or cluster of closely related varieties) used across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and nearby regions, with strong regional and school-based variation.

Libras

Brazilian Sign Language, officially recognized in Brazil; an independent language with its own grammar, distinct from both Portuguese and European Portuguese Sign Language.

Chinese Sign Language (CSL)

A sign language used in mainland China, with notable regional variants such as Shanghai and Beijing varieties; distinct from sign languages used in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

SASL (South African Sign Language)

The sign language used in South Africa, recently recognized as an official language of the country’s Constitution (in 2023), with multiple school-based dialects.

International Sign (IS)

A flexible, evolving contact / pidgin sign language used mainly in international contexts, drawing on iconic signs, gestures, and elements from multiple sign languages; not a fully standardized universal language.

Contact Sign Language

A type of signing that emerges when users of different sign languages (or a sign language and a spoken language) interact, mixing features from the different systems to communicate.

Gestuno

An early attempt (promoted by WFD in the mid-20th century) to create a standardized international sign vocabulary; it influenced later International Sign practices but was never widely followed as a strict system.

Iconic Sign

A sign whose form visually resembles its meaning (e.g., miming drinking from a cup to mean DRINK), often used heavily in International Sign to support cross-border understanding.

Cross-border Communication Strategies

Ways Deaf people communicate across language borders, including adapting their own sign language, using International Sign, borrowing signs, fingerspelling, writing, gestures, and drawing.

CRPD (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities)

A UN human rights treaty (in force since 2008) that protects the rights of persons with disabilities. It explicitly recognizes sign languages as languages and links them to rights such as accessibility, education, and participation in public life.

Legal recognition of a sign language

When a country’s law (constitution, language act, education law, etc.) names a sign language and gives it some formal status or rights, such as use in courts, education, or public services.

Official language status

A strong form of recognition where a language is given high legal standing in a country’s constitution or main laws, often used in Parliament, courts, and public administration (e.g., SASL in South Africa, NZSL in New Zealand).

International Day of Sign Languages (IDSL)

A UN-recognized day on 23 September each year, focusing on the importance of sign languages for human rights, visibility, and inclusion of Deaf people worldwide.

International Week of Deaf People (IWDP)

An annual week-long global campaign, usually the last full week of September, led by Deaf organizations to promote Deaf rights, including language rights, education, and participation.

Deaf linguistic rights

The rights of Deaf people to use, learn, and develop their sign languages, and to access education, information, and services through those languages.

Oralism

A Deaf education approach that focuses on spoken language only (speech, lip‑reading, hearing technology) and typically discourages or bans the use of sign language in the classroom.

Sign Bilingual Education

An education model where a natural sign language is used as a main language of instruction and the majority spoken/written language is taught as a second language.

Mainstreaming (Inclusion)

Educating Deaf students in regular schools with hearing peers, often with support such as sign language interpreters, captioning, or resource teachers.

Interpreter Professionalization

The process of developing training, accreditation, ethical standards, and professional associations so that sign language interpreting is a recognized, high‑quality profession.

WFD–WASLI

The World Federation of the Deaf and the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters; they collaborate to improve interpreting standards and Deaf people’s access to qualified interpreters worldwide.

Signing Ecosystem

The interconnected network of Deaf people, families, schools, interpreters, communities, media, laws, and technologies that shape how sign languages are used and valued in a society.

Village Sign Language

A sign language that develops in a small community (often rural) with a higher-than-average number of Deaf people, used by both Deaf and hearing community members.

Emerging Sign Language

A new sign language that is developing as Deaf people begin to interact regularly, building shared vocabulary and grammar over time.

Corpus (Sign Language Corpus)

A structured collection of video recordings of sign language use, often annotated, used for research, teaching, and documentation.

Community-Led Research

Research where members of the community (here, Deaf signers) design, guide, and control the project, including how data is collected, stored, and used.

Sign Language Avatar

A computer-generated character that produces signs on screen, often using pre-programmed movements or AI, instead of a human signer.

Preservation vs. Revitalization

Preservation focuses on documenting and maintaining a language; revitalization focuses on increasing active use and transmission to new generations.