Providence Island Sign Language

Providence Island Sign Language
Native to	Colombia
Region	Providence Island
Native speakers	19 deaf (1986)^[1] Known by the majority of the 2,500–3,000 population
Language family	village sign
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`prz`
Glottolog	`prov1243`^[2]

Providence Island Sign Language (also known as "Providencia Sign Language") is a village sign language of 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 (39 km²) and the total population is about 5000, of which an unusual proportion are deaf (5 in 1,000).^[3]

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 regarded as inferior in mental ability; hearing people do not discuss complex ideas with them, and they hold a marginalized social position. Perhaps consequently, PISL is rather simplistic in comparison to other sign languages. Another possibility for the state of the language is that few deaf people communicate directly, meaning that almost all signing is mediated by the hearing population.^[4]

External links

Providence Island Sign Language by William Washabaugh (1991)

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.

^ Providence Island Sign Language at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Providencia Sign Language". Glottolog 2.2. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
^ Lattig MC, Gelvez N, Plaza SL, Tamayo G, Uribe JI, Salvatierra I, Bernal JE, Tamayo ML (2008). "Deafness on the island of Providencia - Colombia: different etiology, different genetic counseling.". Genetic Counseling 19 (4): 403–12.
^ Meir, Sandler, Padden, & Aronoff, (to appear). "Emerging sign languages." In Marschark & Spencer, eds., Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education.

Sign language

By region^[a]

Sign languages by region

Australia	Australia: Auslan, Warlpiri, Australian Aboriginal Hawaii New Zealand Solomon Islands: Rennellese

Asia	Chinese Philippine Indonesia: Indonesian, Kata Kolok (Benkala, Balinese) Indo-Pakistani Israel: Al-Sayyid Bedouin, Israeli Japanese Korean Malaysia: Malaysian, Penang, Selangor Mongolian Nepal: Ghandruk, Jhankot, Jumla, Nepalese Persian Saudi Arabia: Saudi Singapore Sri Lankan Taiwanese Thailand: Ban Khor, Thai Vietnamese

Africa	Algerian Ghana: Adamorobe Kenyan Mali: Tebul Nigeria: Bura, Hausa Senegal: Mbour Somalia & Djibouti: Somali South African Tanzanian Ugandan Zambian

Europe	Armenian Austrian Belgium: Flemish, French Belgian British Croatian Danish Dutch Estonian Finnish France: Lyons, French German Greek Hungarian Icelandic Irish Italian Kosovar Lithuanian Macedonian Northern Ireland Norwegian Polish Portuguese Russian Slovenian Spain: Catalan, Spanish, Valencian Swedish Swiss Turkish

North America	Canada: Maritime, Providence Island, Quebec, Inuit Mexico: Mayan, Mexican, Tijuana United States: American, Plains Indian, Plateau

South America	Argentine Bolivian Brasil: Brazilian, Ka'apor Chilean Colombian Ecuadorian Guatemalan: Guatemalan, Mayan Honduras Nicaraguan Paraguayan Peruvian Salvadoran Uruguayan Venezuelan

International	BANZSL International Sign (Gestuno) Makaton Monastic

Language families^[a]

Australian Aboriginal (List)
British (List)
Danish (List)
French (List)
German (List)
Japanese (List)
Indo-Pakistani (List)
Swedish (List)
Arab (List)
Isolates (List)

American Sign Language

Extinct sign languages

Linguistics

Fingerspelling

Writing

Language contact

Media

Persons

Organisations

Miscellaneous

^a Sign-language names reflect the region of origin. Natural sign languages are not related to the spoken language used in the same region. For example, French Sign Language originated in France, but is not related to French.

Categories

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Providence Island Sign Language