[lg policy] book notice: Sign Languages in Village Communities: Anthropological and Linguistic Insights

[Harold Schiffman]

Sign Languages in Village Communities: Anthropological and Linguistic Insights
Series Title: Sign Language Typology 4

Publication Year: 2012
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
http://www.degruyter.com/mouton


Book URL: http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/182730?format=G


Editor: Ulrike Zeshan
Editor: Connie de Vos


Abstract:

The book is a unique collection of research on sign languages that
have emerged in rural communities with a high incidence of, often
hereditary, deafness. These sign languages represent the latest
addition to the comparative investigation of languages in the gestural
modality, and the book is the first compilation of a substantial
number of different "village sign languages". Written by leading
experts in the field, the volume uniquely combines anthropological and
linguistic insights, looking at both the social dynamics and the
linguistic structures in these village communities. The book includes
primary data from eleven different signing communities across the
world, including results from Jamaica, India, Turkey, Thailand, and
Bali.

All known village sign languages are endangered, usually because of
pressure from larger urban sign languages, and some have died out
already. Ironically, it is often the success of the larger sign
language communities in urban centres, their recognition and
subsequent spread, which leads to the endangerment of these small
minority sign languages. The book addresses this specific type of
language endangerment, documentation strategies, and other ethical
issues pertaining to these sign languages on the basis of first-hand
experiences by Deaf fieldworkers.

http://linguistlist.org/issues/23/23-4493.html

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