Venezuelan Sign Language
| Venezuelan Sign Language | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Venezuela |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | vene1237 |
Venezuelan Sign language or VSL (Lengua de señas venezolana or LSV) is the national deaf sign language of Venezuela. The term, "Venezuelan Sign Language," began to be used in the 1930s. It is widely used, and Venezuela has a national bilingual education program for VSL and Spanish, though the language used by adults differs from that of the classroom. There is a large VSL dictionary published by the Federación Venezolana de Sordos. VSL has been used in schools since 1937.
The first known references to a Deaf community which used a sign language in Venezuela date from the 1930s. In 1935 the first school for children with hearing difficulties, the Instituto Venezolano de Ciegos y Sordomudos (Venezuelan Blind and Deaf Institute), was founded in Caracas. That school served as the cradle for a small community of signers, who created a sign language out of many signs which the children had used at home. A few years later the administration of the institute decided to separate the instruction of blind and deaf students and created the Escuela Taller de Sordomudos (Workshop School for the Prelingually Deaf). This school hired hearing teachers trained in Spain, who knew Spanish Sign language. The mingling of the system developed by the students and the language used by the teachers seems to be the origin of what is today VSL.
In 1950, the first generation of alumni of the schools founded the Asociación de Sordomudos de Caracas (Deaf Association of Caracas), under the direction of José Arquero Urbano, an immigrant who had been a leader of the Deaf community in Madrid. The influence of the signs brought by Arquero further transformed VSL, according to recollections collected from people involved in that period of the Association. Because of this many Venezuelan Deaf people assume that Arquero was the creator of VSL.
In 1999 after intensive lobbying by the Deaf associations of Venezuela, the constituent assembly included two references to LSV in the current constitution of Venezuela. Article 81 recognizes the right of Deaf people to communicate through LSV and Article 101 establishes that Deaf people have the right to be informed in their language through public and private television.
...
Wikipedia