Catalan Sign Language vs Spanish Sign Language national sign language issues

[Shane Gilchrist O hEorpa]

Dimitris,

perhaps you can get in touch with Josep Quer at Amsterdam about that -
he's familiar with LSC and all that (I hope!)

http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/j.f.quervillanueva/

Shane Mwangi

On 23/02/2008, Albert Bickford <albert_bickford at sil.org> wrote:
>
>
> One of the best people to answer this question is Steve Parkhurst.  I'm not
> sure he subscribes to this list; if he doesn't respond in the next couple
> days, write to me privately and I'll put you in contact with him.
>
> My understanding of the situation in Spain is that there are substantial
> similarities in the sign language dialects used in various cities in Spain,
> but also significant dialect variation. The signing in Catalonia is the most
> divergent from the rest of the country, and in addition the Deaf community
> in Catalonia has a distinct sociolinguistic identity. It is, as you said, a
> matter of identity construction that the two varieties of signing are
> generally referred to as distinct languages. But, that's a pretty normal
> situation when distinguishing what's a language and what's a dialect:
> identity construction plays a major role in those decisions, sometimes more
> important than the actual structural differences or the ability to
> communicate.
>
> I should note something about the Ethnologue article.  The Ethnologue
> website is only updated about every three years, at the same time as the
> print version is published. A new version is in preparation right now, so
> the information currently on the website is a few years old. In the next
> edition, the name of the article will be changed to Catalan Sign Language,
> which is the English name that is normally used for this language in the
> linguistic literature, and is closer to the name used in Catalonia: Llengua
> De Signes Catalana. This parallels a change that was made to the ISO 639-3
> standard last year; see
> http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/documentation.asp?id=csc. Both
> the Ethnologue and the ISO 639-3 standard attempt to describe the actual
> situation in the real world, not define it. Ultimately, it is the language
> communities themselves that need to decide whether they want to be
> identified as using the same language as another community or have a
> distinct identity.
>
> Albert
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Dimitris Mavreas
> To: slling-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
> Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2008 8:03 AM
> Subject: [SLLING-L] Catalan Sign Language vs Spanish Sign Language national
> sign language issues
>
>
>
>
> Dear all,
>
> I have found on www.ethnologue.com that Catalonian Sign Language is (I copy)
> "An indigenous sign language, quite distinct from Spanish Sign Language.
> About 50% intelligibility by users of Spanish Sign Language" and that
> Spanish Sign Language has  "Small differences throughout Spain with no
> difficulties in intercommunication, except in Catalonia. Origin unknown, but
> it is reported that there are influences from American, French, and Mexican
> sign languages". I can realize the existence of two different sign languages
> in Spain but I wonder if anyone could give me more information about the
> origins of this differentiation (separate deaf schools, Deaf organizations).
>
>
> Variability in sign languages is well documented for various sing languages
> all over the world but at the same time most nations –states are claimed to
> have one national sign language. It is really a question why in Spain two
> sign languages can be identified in regions where the oral languages of
> hearing majority are also separable (Spanish, Catalan). The case is similar
> in Belgium. Is this distinction absolute real or does it reflect identity
> construction issues? Moreover, standardization process in sign languages is
> probably a demand of hearing majority associated with similar evolutions in
> oral languages but I feel lately Deaf communities are also concerned.
>
> I am working on language planning on Greek Sign Language and I am interested
> in similar research on other sign languages.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Dimitris Mavreas
>
> Phd Candidate University of Athens, dmaureas at vodafone.net.gr
>
>
>
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