Malaysian Sign Language is the sign language in everyday use in many parts of Malaysia. BIM has many dialects, differing from state to state.

Malaysian Sign Language was born when the Malaysian Federation of the Deaf was established in 1998 and use has expanded among deaf leaders and participants. American Sign Language

American Sign Language

American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...

 (ASL) has had a strong influence on BIM, but the two are considered different languages. BIM in turn has been the basis for Indonesian Sign Language

Indonesian Sign Language

Indonesian Sign Language or Bahasa Isyarat Indonesia , is used in Indonesia, at least on the islands of Java and Bali. It is based on Malaysian Sign Language .Another sign language in use in Indonesia is Kata Kolok in Bali.-References:**...

.

Kod Tangan Bahasa Malaysia

Kod Tangan Bahasa Malaysia

Kod Tangan Bahasa Malaysia , or Manually Coded Malay, is the only form of sign language recognised by the government in Malaysia as the language of communication for the Deaf....

 or Manually Coded Malay (KTBM) was created by hearing educators and linguists in between 1980 and 1986 and remains the only sign language recognized by the Malaysian Ministry of Education.

Malaysian sign languages which predate BIM are Penang Sign

Penang Sign Language

Penang Sign Language was developed in Malaysia by deaf children, outside the classroom, when oralism was predominant. It is now mainly used by older people, although many younger people can understand it.-History:...

 (PSL) and Selangor Sign

Selangor Sign Language

Selangor Sign Language , also known as Kuala Lumpur Sign Language , is a sign language used in Malaysia. It was originally based on American Sign Language but has diverged significantly enough to now be considered a language in its own right...

 (Kuala Lumpur Sign, SSL or KLSL). Additionally, every parent of deaf children has own signs called home sign

Home sign

Home sign is the gestural communication system developed by a deaf child who lacks input from a language model in the family...

s to make a gestural communication. The use of such home signs among peranakan

Peranakan

Peranakan Chinese and Baba-Nyonya are terms used for the descendants of late 15th and 16th-century Chinese immigrants to the Indonesian archipelago of Nusantara during the Colonial era....

or ethnic Chinese

Malaysian Chinese

Malaysian Chinese is a Malaysian of Chinese origin. Most are descendants of Chinese who arrived between the fifteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries. Within Malaysia, they are usually simply referred to as "Chinese" in all languages. The term Chinese Malaysian is also sometimes used to refer to...

 users of BIM may be behind controversy over the supposed influence of Chinese Sign Language

Chinese Sign Language

Modern Chinese Sign Language is the deaf sign language of the People's Republic of China. It is unrelated to Taiwanese Sign Language....

s, which does not seem to be documented and may merely be based on ethnic stereotyping

Ethnic stereotype

An ethnic stereotype is a generalized representation of an ethnic group, composed of what are thought to be typical characteristics of members of the group.Ethnic stereotypes are commonly portrayed in ethnic jokes.-Ethnic stereotypes:*African Americans...

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Reference

• http://www.mfd.org.my/public/edu_eSign.asp?q=0&d=1
• http://www.mfd.org.my/public/content.asp?l=EN&q=BOOK
• Bahasa isyarat Malaysia, isyarat-isyarat ICT: Malaysian Sign Language ICT signs.