Salvadoran sign language
Encyclopedia
Salvadoran Sign language is a language used by the deaf community
in El Salvador
. Its main purpose is to provide education. There are three distinct forms of sign language
. American Sign Language
was brought over to El Salvador from the United States
by missionaries who set up small communal schools for the deaf. The government has also created a school for the deaf, teaching by means of their own modified Salvadoran Sign Language. The third type of sign language used is a combination of American Sign Language and Salvadoran Sign language. Most deaf understand and rely upon both. Their own unique Salvidoran Sign language is based on their language and is most useful in regular encounters; however, American Sign Language is often relied on within education due to the larger and more specific vocabulary. This is the reason that the deaf community within El Salvador sometimes relies upon both ASL and SSL in a combined form.
According to sources, El Salvador has fewer than 500,000 deaf. Bridgebuilders.org reports that El Salvador lacks a formal sign language system; however, that is because of the acceptance of the three types of sign language: ASL, SSL, and a combined form of both. Several individual deaf people have traveled to the United States and brought back ASL, which blended into the national sign language. This also created a distance between the deaf people who had education and could use ASL and English
and those who only knew Sal Sign and had limited Spanish
reading and writing abilities. Though it does create tension within communication at times, it has proven to be most effective in educating deaf students, while maintaining their cultural individuality.
The deaf in El Salvador can always find a way to communicate with each other using signs, ASL, Sal Sign, or homemade gestures because it is their natural mode of communication.
.
Deaf culture
Deaf culture describes the social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values and shared institutions of communities that are affected by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as a cultural label, the word deaf is often written with a...
in El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
. Its main purpose is to provide education. There are three distinct forms of sign language
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
. 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...
was brought over to El Salvador from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by missionaries who set up small communal schools for the deaf. The government has also created a school for the deaf, teaching by means of their own modified Salvadoran Sign Language. The third type of sign language used is a combination of American Sign Language and Salvadoran Sign language. Most deaf understand and rely upon both. Their own unique Salvidoran Sign language is based on their language and is most useful in regular encounters; however, American Sign Language is often relied on within education due to the larger and more specific vocabulary. This is the reason that the deaf community within El Salvador sometimes relies upon both ASL and SSL in a combined form.
According to sources, El Salvador has fewer than 500,000 deaf. Bridgebuilders.org reports that El Salvador lacks a formal sign language system; however, that is because of the acceptance of the three types of sign language: ASL, SSL, and a combined form of both. Several individual deaf people have traveled to the United States and brought back ASL, which blended into the national sign language. This also created a distance between the deaf people who had education and could use ASL and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and those who only knew Sal Sign and had limited Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
reading and writing abilities. Though it does create tension within communication at times, it has proven to be most effective in educating deaf students, while maintaining their cultural individuality.
Education
There is a formal school for the deaf run by the government. About every five years, government-hired teachers make their rounds to all the villages and small communities offering to care for and educate the deaf children. The parents may choose to not send their deaf children away, but then the children risk receiving little to no education.The deaf in El Salvador can always find a way to communicate with each other using signs, ASL, Sal Sign, or homemade gestures because it is their natural mode of communication.
Classification
Wittmann (1991) posits that SSL is a language isolate (a 'prototype' sign language), though one developed through stimulus diffusion from an existing sign language, likely French Sign LanguageFrench Sign Language
French Sign Language is the sign language of the deaf in the nation of France. According to Ethnologue, it has 50,000 to 100,000 native signers....
.