Latvian Sign Language
| Latvian Sign Language | |
|---|---|
| Latviešu zīmju valoda | |
| Native to | Latvia |
Native speakers | 2,000 (2014)[1] |
French Sign
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | lsl |
| Glottolog | latv1245 |
Latvian Sign Language (Template:Lang-lv) is the sign language commonly used by deaf people in Latvia. It separated from French Sign Language some time around 1806.[citation needed]
The Official Language Law of 9 December 1999, which came into force on 1 September 2000, gave Latvian Sign Language a legal status in Section 3.3, which stipulates: 'The State shall ensure the development and use of the Latvian sign language for communication with people with impaired hearing.'[2]
Research
Mahoney (2017) conducted the first-known 100-word Swadesh–Woodward list comparison of Latvian Sign Language and Estonian Sign Language (EVK), concluding that a possible relationship between them – as descending from VLFS, perhaps via ÖGS and/or RSL, as Wittmann (1991) and Bickford (2005) proposed – was 'still uncertain as it is unclear how sign languages disseminated in Eastern European countries during the Soviet Union, but aside from superficial impressions that the core lexicons are similar, signs with shared parameters displaying small variation in handshape while retaining 4 selected fingers suggests that these languages share a parent'. She added that '[a]t present there is no reason to assume that Estonian and Latvian sign language have a mother-daughter relationship'.[3]
References
- ^ Latvian Sign Language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Saeima (21 December 1999). "Official Language Law". Likumi.lv. Latvijas Vēstnesis. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
- ^ Mahoney, Shaina (12 December 2017). Apt to change: A Comparison of Handshape Aperture in Estonian and Latvian Sign Languages (PDF). Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania: Bryn Mawr College. p. 7, 24, 25. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
External links
- Sign language centre of Latvian Association of the Deaf (in Latvian)
- Dictionary (in Latvian)
- Video of Latvian Sign Language on Wikitongues
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