I can’t find this answer any where (does every country have sign language). I know that North and South America, europe, china, japan, Norway, Hungry, Beru, Germany all of these have sign language and many more but i can’t find any where that does not have sign language what do you think? Do all countries have sign language just like their spoken language? And is it universal?
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There are deaf people in every country in the world and therefore every country in the world has a form of sign language, in the majority of cases these will be similar in many ways, such as American Sign Language, and British Sign Language.
Making one universal sign language sounds like a good idea, since it could not only be used by deaf people, but by people the world over who cannot speak another’s verbal language.
Most countries have their own sign language, and they are not connected to the spoken language for that area. For example, American Sign Language is completely different from British SL, Australian SL, New Zealand SL, and South African SL, even though all those countries speak English.
There’s a list of sign languages here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sign_languages
So no, signed languages are not universal.
And to the other poster: languages are not created, but develop naturally. Most sign languages started because deaf people were in a similar area. Before the recent technological advances (the internet, texting, videophones, TTY’s, etc) it was very difficult for deaf people to communicate with each other over long distances. There was simply not enough interaction for sign languages to develop together. Each country had its own Deaf community, and thus, developed its own sign language. (Recent trends in education, etc etc has led to some sharing and spreading of sign languages, but for the most part, this is the case.)
EDIT: chand, ASL did not evolve from Martha’s Vineyard sign language (MVSL). MVSL was a separate language, used by even the hearing people on MV because the community was so small and because of the size of the Deaf community there. It had some influence on ASL, but it was very limited, especially compared to LSF. Your comment makes it seem like MVSL and LSF were equal in their influence on ASL, which isn’t true.
MVSL is considered an extinct language now.
The shortest answer is that yes, most countries have their own signed languages with a few exceptions. For example, both the United States and Canada use American Sign Language (ASL). However, even within users of the same signed language there are variations. One of the first questions I ask other signers when I meet them is, “How do you sign birthday?” This is because there are more than 35 signs for that one word. This, and other regional sign variations, are due to signers in one area of the country adapting a sign differently than others in another region.
Signed languages develop from the users of a geographic area. ASL was developed mostly from the signs used by Deaf Americans in the Martha’s Vineyard region (an area where there was a lot of inherited deafness) and from French Sign Language (because the first Deaf school in the nations had a teacher from France who taught his students his signed language.) Those signs have merged and transformed over time to become ASL.
There was an attempt a few decades back to develop a universal sign language called “Gestuno,” but it was clumsy and hasn’t caught on. At most international Deaf events (like Deaf Olympics) there are interpreters who know more than one signed language who translate.
Not all countries have their own signed language because some have either very small or very repressed Deaf communities. Some undeveloped nations still view deafness as a punishment, curse or shame on the family so family members who can’t hear are kept segregated. Other countries use the signed language of whatever country set up its Deaf schools (for example, Ethiopians who know sign language almost all use ASL because American missionaries run the Deaf school there.)