Irish Sign Language

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Irish Sign Language
Teanga Chomharthaíochta na hÉireann
Native toRepublic of Ireland, Northern Ireland
Native speakers
5,000 deaf (2014)[1]
45,000 hearing signers
Francosign
  • Irish Sign Language
Dialects
Official status
Official language in
Republic of Ireland
Language codes
ISO 639-3isg
Glottologiris1235
The ISL manual/fingerspelling alphabet

Irish Sign Language (ISL, Irish: Teanga Chomharthaíochta na hÉireann) is the sign language of Ireland, used primarily in the Republic of Ireland. It is also used in Northern Ireland, alongside British Sign Language (BSL). Irish Sign Language is more closely related to French Sign Language (LSF) than to BSL, though it has influence from both languages. It has influenced sign languages in Australia and South Africa, and has little relation to either spoken Irish or English. ISL is unique among sign languages for having different gendered versions due to men and women being taught it at different schools all over Ireland.[2]

Development

The

confession if caught signing).[5] The fact that the Catholic schools are segregated on the basis of gender led to the development of a gendered-generational variant of Irish Sign Language that is still evident (albeit to a lesser degree) today.[6]

ISL was brought by Catholic missionaries to Australia, and to Scotland and England, with remnants of ISL still visible in some variants of BSL, especially in Glasgow, and with some elderly Auslan Catholics still using ISL today. In South Africa, the Dominican nuns who established Catholic Schools saw a need for a school for the deaf, but due to resource constraints were not in a position to do this immediately. Instead, they wrote back to their Mother House in Cabra requesting an experienced teacher of the deaf. A deaf teacher, Bridget Lynne, responded. Remnants of gendered generational Irish Sign Language are thought to still be visible in some dialects of South African Sign Language,[7] which can probably be traced back to Lynne.

Oireachtas bill

The "Recognition of Irish Sign Language for the Deaf Community Bill 2016" passed all stages in the

banking.[10][11][12]

Language code

The ISO 639-3 code for Irish Sign Language is 'isg'; 'isl' is the code for Icelandic.

See also

References

  1. ^ Irish Sign Language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ "Irish Sign Language". www.irishdeafsociety.ie. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  3. ^ "Irish Sign Language". Ethnologue.com. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  4. ^ Griffey 1994, Crean 1997
  5. ^ McDonnell and Saunders 1993
  6. ^ LeMaster 1990, Leeson and Grehan 2004, Leeson 2005, Leeson and Saeed 2012, Leonard 2005, Grehan 2008
  7. ^ Leeson, Lorraine; Saeed, John I. (2012). Irish Sign Language. Edinburgh University Press.
  8. ^ "Irish Sign Language given official legal recognition". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2018-01-16.
  9. ^ "President signs Irish Sign Language bill into law". RTE.ie. 2017-12-24. Retrieved 2018-01-16.
  10. ^ "Dáil passes 'historic' sign language legislation". RTE.ie. 2017-12-14. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  11. ^ "Irish Sign Language set to be given official status - Independent.ie". Independent.ie. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  12. ^ "Irish sign language set to receive official recognition". Breaking News. 2017-12-14. Retrieved 2017-12-14.

Bibliography

  • Crean, E, J. (1997): Breaking the silence: The education of the deaf in Ireland 1816-1996. Dublin: Irish Deaf Society Publication.
  • Department of Education (1972): The Education of Children who are Handicapped by Impaired Hearing. Dublin: Government Publications.
  • Grehan, C. (2008): Communication Islands: The Impact of Segregation on Attitudes to ISL among a Sample of Graduates of St. Mary's School for Deaf Girls. Unpublished M.Phil. dissertation. School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences. Dublin: Trinity College.
  • Griffey, N. (1994): From Silence to Speech: Fifty years with the Deaf. Dublin: Dominican Publications.
  • Leeson, L. (2005). Vying with Variation: Interpreting Language Contact, Gender Variation and Generational Difference. In T. Janzen (ed.) Topics in Signed Language Interpreting. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 251–292.
  • Leeson, L. and C. Grehan (2004): "To The Lexicon and Beyond: The Effect of Gender on Variation in Irish Sign Language". In Van Herreweghe, Mieke and Myriam Vermeerbergen (eds.): To the Lexicon and Beyond: Sociolinguistics in European Deaf Communities. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press. 39–73.
  • Leeson, L. and J. I. Saeed (2012) Irish Sign Language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • LeMaster, B. (1990): The Maintenance and Loss of Female and Male Signs in the Dublin Deaf Community. Ann Arbor: U.M.I .: University of California, Los Angeles Dissertation.
  • Leonard, C. (2005): "Signs of diversity: use and recognition of gendered signs among your Irish Deaf people". In: Deaf Worlds 21:2. 62–77.
  • McDonnell, P. (1979): The Establishment and Operation of Institutions for the Education of the Deaf in Ireland, 1816-1889. Unpublished essay submitted in part-fulfillment of the requirements of the award of the degree of Master in Education. Dublin: University College Dublin.
  • McDonnell, P. and Saunders, H. (1993): "Sit on Your Hands: Strategies to Prevent Signing". In Fischer, R. and Lane, H. (eds.) Looking Back: A Reader on the History of Deaf Communities and their Sign Languages. Hamburg: Signum. 255–260.
  • Pollard, Rachel (2006): The Avenue. Dublin: Denzille Press.
  • Rose, Heath and John Bosco Conama. 2018. Linguistic imperialism: still a valid construct in relation to language policy for Irish Sign Language. Language Policy Volume 17, Issue 3, pp 385–404.

External links