Varieties of American Sign Language
| Bolivian Sign Language | |
|---|---|
| Lenguaje de Señas Bolivianas LSB | |
| Native to | Bolivia |
Native speakers | 350–400 (1988)[1] |
French Sign
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bvl |
| Glottolog | boli1236 |
Bolivian Sign Language (Lenguaje de Señas Bolivianas, LSB) is a dialect of American Sign Language (ASL) used predominantly by the Deaf in Bolivia.
History
In 1973, American Sign Language was brought to Bolivia by Eleanor and Lloyd Powlison, missionaries from the United States.[2] An indigenous signed language or signed languages existed before the introduction and adoption of American Sign Language though it is unknown how widespread or unified it was.[3]
The first book of LSB was published in 1992, but more than 90% of the signs were from ASL.[4] Due to research work in the 1990s and 2000s a lot of expressions in LSB were collected by Bolivian Deaf, and education materials for learning LSB or teaching in LSB were published. The dependence on words used in ASL was reduced, but the usage of ASL words still is over 70%.
Today LSB is used by more deaf Bolivians than the reported 400 in 1988 in the Ethnologue report,[1] due to the introduction of bilingual education (LSB as primary language and Spanish as secondary language) originally in Riberalta and its adoption to other schools in Bolivia with the support of the Education Ministry of Bolivia and the growing social exchange of the Deaf.
In 1988, there were a total of 9 deaf institutions in the country and 46,800 deaf Bolivians.[1] In 2002 there was approximately 25 deaf schools.[4]
References
- ^ a b c Bolivian Sign Language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ "School for the Deaf Faces Hostile Takeover". World Watch Monitor. Aug 18, 2000. Retrieved Jun 29, 2015.
- ^ Holbrook, David (2009). "Bolivia Deaf Community and Sign Language Pre-Survey Report" (pdf). SIL International.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ a b Collaud, Carole. Projektinformationen "Projektinformationen: Bericht von Carole Collaud, 1. Teil" (in German). Retrieved June 29, 2015.
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