Nepali Sign Language
| Nepalese Sign Language | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Nepal |
|
Native speakers
|
20,000 (2014) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | nepa1250 |
Nepalese Sign Language or Nepali Sign Language 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 the 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.
Nepalese Sign Language may have originated in the first school for the deaf in Nepal, established in Kathmandu in 1966 by an ENT doctor. 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.
In 1980, 13 young Kathmandu deaf established the Deaf Welfare Association. This was the first association of any type established by disabled themselves and run under their own leadership & management. Later the name of the organization was changed to Kathmandu Association of the Deaf (KAD). One of the chief goals of KAD was social reform of deaf people with an effort to promote and further develop sign language. At the time sign language was still banned in the deaf school; however, KAD worked hard to keep it alive at deaf gatherings on weekends. Later KAD developed a one-handed fingerspelling system for devanagari with the support of UNICEF.
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