Nepalese Sign Language
| Nepali Sign Language | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Nepal |
|
Native speakers
|
20,000 (2014) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | nepa1250 |
Nepali Sign Language or Nepalese Sign Language (Nepali: नेपाली साँकेतिक भाषा) is the main deaf sign language of Nepal. It is a somewhat standardized language based informally on the variety of Kathmandu, with lesser input from varieties of Pokhara and elsewhere. As an indigenous sign language, it is not related to oral Nepali. Although as yet unofficial, in practice it is recognized by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, and is used (albeit in a somewhat pidginized form) in all schools for the deaf. In addition, there is legislation underway in Nepal which, in line with UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which Nepal has ratified, should give Nepalese Sign Language equal status with the oral languages of the country.
Sign languages, it has been argued, generally come into existence when a "critical mass" of deaf come together in one place and time, and this event is generally associated with the founding of schools for the deaf. Although the beginnings of Nepali Sign language are similarly often attributed to the introduction sign language into schools for the deaf, it would be surprising if in fact there had been no sign language at all prior to this point in time.
However, what we now know of as Nepali Sign Language probably does owe its origins to the first school for the deaf in Nepal, established in Kathmandu in 1966, by an ENT Doctor in a room of the hospital where he worked. The school was later moved to a children’s home in Naxal. The aim of the school was to teach speech therapy to deaf children to have them learn to speak. Even so, deaf people who went to the school at this time recall using signs with each other during and after school. The oral policy continued until the arrival of the Patricia Ross, who tried to have total communication introduced into the school in 1985.
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