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Indo-Pakistani Sign Language

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Indian Sign Language (ISL) or Indo-Pakistani Sign Language (IPSL) is possibly the predominant sign language variety in South Asia, used by at least several hundred thousand deaf signers (2003).[1][2] As with many sign languages, it is difficult to estimate numbers with any certainty, as the Census of India does not list sign languages and most studies have focused on the north and on urban areas.[3]

The Indian deaf population of 3.1 million is 98% illiterate. In line with oralist philosophy, deaf schools attempt early intervention with hearing aids etc, but these are largely dysfunctional in an impoverished society. As of 1986, only 2% of deaf children attended school.

Status of sign language

Deaf schools in the region are overwhelmingly oralist in their approach.[4]

Since 2001, a group at the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped (AYJNIHH) has been working on providing teaching material and training teachers for ISL. The Rehabilitation Council of India and the Ishara Foundation are also involved in ISL training, English through ISL, and interpreter training. A number of vocational schools, e.g. ITI Secunderabad use ISL for teaching. Other institutes such as the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing remain exclusively focused on oralism.

In 2005, India the National Curricular Framework (NCF) gave some degree of legitimacy to sign language education, by hinting that sign languages may qualify as an optional third language choice for hearing students. NCERT in March 2006 launched a class III text includes a chapter on sign language, empasizing the fact that it is a language like any other and is “yet another mode of communication." The aim was to create healthy attitudes towards the differently abled.

Higher Secondary School and College of and for the Deaf run by Mook Badhir Sangathan since last 26 yrs at Indore(M.P.)India uses the Bilingual Method(Sign Language and reading writing)Speech therepy is provided to students as per need,as a second language.Bilingual method took place here because the founder,principal and the director Dr.Usha Punjabi and Mr.Rajkumar Punjabi are Deaf and hence understand the deaf's need and culture.(The only school in India run by a Deaf Couple)This is a residential school,total no.of students till date is 400 from all over India.This school has Indian Sign Language Dept(affiliated to Ali Yavar Jung National Insitute of the Hearing Handicapped and Rehabilitation Council of India),Interpreter services,Sports,Cultural,Computer and Vocational Training.Contact-mbsindore@yahoo.com,www.geocities.com/mbs_indore/Pages/

Dialects and language families

There are many varieties of sign language in the region, including many pockets of home sign and informal sign languages. There is no consensus regarding which of these varieties constitute dialects of a language or separate languages, but several researchers have identified relatedness between the sign languages used in urban regions of India, Pakistan and Nepal.[5][3] It is unknown whether this group is related to other languages of the subcontinent such as sign languages in Bangladesh or Sri Lanka.

Ethnologue.com claims that sign languages across urban India appear to share about 75% of their vocabularies, and that the Mumbai-Delhi dialect is the most influential.[6] Ethnologue identifies the following regional dialects within India:

  • Mumbai-Delhi Sign Language (or separately: Delhi Sign Language, Bombay Sign Language)
  • Calcutta Sign Language
  • Bangalore-Madras Sign Language (or Bangalore-Chennai-Hyderabad Sign Language)

While the sign system in ISL appears to be largely indigenous, elements in ISL are derived from British Sign Language; for example, ISL does not have signs for the Devanāgarī script, and fingerspelling is based on the Latin alphabet. In addition, a small number of the Deaf near Bangalore sign American Sign Language owing to a longstanding ASL deaf school there.

The Delhi Association for the Deaf is reportedly working with Jawaharlal Nehru University to identify a standard sign language for India.[7]

History

Early history

Although discussion of sign languages and the lives of deaf people is extremely rare in the history of South Asian literature, there are a few references to deaf people and gestural communication in texts dating from antiquity.[8] Symbolic hand gestures known as mudras have been employed in religious contexts in Hinduism, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism for many centuries, although these religious traditions have often excluded deaf people from participation in ritual or religious membership.[9] In addition, classical Indian dance and theatre often employs stylised hand gestures with particular meanings.[10]

An early reference to gestures used by deaf people for communication appears in a 12th century Islamic legal commentary, the Hidayah. In the influential text, deaf (or "dumb") people have legal standing in areas such as bequests, marriage, divorce and financial transactions, if they communicate habitually with intelligble signs.[11]

Early in the 20th century, a high incidence of deafness was observed among communities of the Naga hills. As has happened elsewhere in such circumstances (see, for example, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language), a sign language had emerged and was used by both deaf and hearing members of the community. Ethnologist and political officer John Henry Hutton wrote:

"As one might expect ... of men without the art of writing, the language of signs has reached a high state of development... To judge how highly developed is this power of communicating by signs, etc., it is necessary only to experience a Naga interpreter's translation of a story or a request told to him in sign language by a dumb man. ... Indeed the writer has known a dumb man make a long and detailed complaint of an assault in which nothing was missing except proper names, and even these were eventually identified by means of the dumb man's description of his assailants' dress and personal appearance."[12]

However, it is unlikely that any of these sign systems are related to modern IPSL, and deaf people were largely treated as social outcasts throughout South Asian history.

Link title===Residential deaf schools=== Documented deaf education began with welfare services, mission schools and orphanages from the 1830s, and "initially worked with locally-devised gestural or signed communication, sometimes with simultaneous speech."[13] Later in the 19th century, residential deaf shools were established, and they tended (increasingly) to adopt an oralist approach over the use of sign language in the classroom. These schools included The Bombay Institution for Deaf-Mutes, which was founded by Bishop Meurin in the 1880s,[14] and schools in Madras[15] and Calcutta[16] which opened in the 1890s. Other residential schools soon followed, such as the "School for Deaf and Dumb Boys" at Mysore, founded in 1902,[17] a school in Dehiwala in what is now Sri Lanka, founded in 1913,[18] and "The Ida Rieu School for blind, deaf, dumb and other defective children", founded in 1923 in Karachi, in what is now Pakistan.[19]

While a few students who were unable to learn via the oralist method were taught with signs, many students preferred to communicate with each other via sign language, sometimes to the frustration of their teachers. The first study of the sign language of these children, which is almost certainly related to modern IPSL, was in 1928 by British teacher H. C. Banerjee. She visited three residential schools for deaf children, at Dacca, Barisal and Calcutta, observing that "in all these schools the teachers have discouraged the growth of the sign language, which in spite of this official disapproval, has grown and flourished."[20] She compared sign vocabularies at the different schools and described the signs in words in an appendix.

A rare case of a public event conducted in sign language was reported by a mission in Palayamkottai in 1906: "Our services for the Deaf are chiefly in the sign language, in which all can join alike, whether learning Tamil, as those do who belong to the Madras Presidency, or English, which is taught to those coming from other parts."[21]

A Higher Secondary School and College of and for the Deaf run by MOOK BADHIR SANGATHAN,Indore(M.P.)India.The only school in INDIA run by a Deaf couple (Dr.Usha Punjabi and Mr.Rajkumar Punjabi since last 26 years)The strength in the school is of 400 deaf students.We use BILINGUAL METHOD(Sign Language and reading writing)to teach to our deaf.Its a residential school,which has the large capacity and has 200 students staying there from all over India. This school at Indore,India has the commerce and arts sections,Indian Sign Language Dept(affiliated to RCI,AYJNIHH),interpreter Services,Vocational Dept.(Computers for all the standards,fashion designing,textile designing diploma,Speech therepy,English learning classes.Sports(our students participate in the international level always),Dance training(our deaf students have won many national competition amongst deaf and HEARING TOO)and much more...like beauty n brain contest and match making for the indian deaf,job placements,CNC,mining fitting one year course at Indo German Tool Room,Indore with the Interpreter services. You can contact for your deaf child at mbsindore@yahoo.com.and visit www.geocities.com/mbs_indore/Pages/

Grammar

IPSL shares grammatical features with many other deaf sign languages, including the use of space and simultaneity and the five meaningful parameters of handshape, location, orientation, movement and non-manual features such as body position, head movement and facial expression. Some specifics are described by sign language linguist Ulrike Zeshan in her study of IPSL grammar:

Sentences are always predicate final, and all of the signs from the open lexical classes can function as predicates. Ellipsis is extensive, and one-word sentences are common. There is a strong preference for sentences with only one lexical argument. Constituent order does not play any role in the marking of grammatical relations. These are coded exclusively by spatial mechanisms (e.g., directional signs) or inferred from the context. Temporal expressions usually come first in the sentence, and if there is a functional particle, it always follows the predicate (e.g., YESTERDAY FATHER DIE COMPLETIVE — "(My) father died yesterday").[22]

References

  1. ^ Vasishta, M., J. C. Woodward, and K. L. Wilson (1978). "Sign Language in India: Regional Variation within the Deaf Population". Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics. 4 (2): 66–74.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Ethnologue gives the signing population in India as 2,680,000 in 2003.
    Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ a b Ulrike Zeshan (2000). Sign Language of Indo-Pakistan: A description of a Signed Language. Philadelphia, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
  4. ^ Dilip Deshmukh (1996). Sign Language and Bilingualism in Deaf Education,. Ichalkaranji,.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ Woodward, J (1993). "The relationship of sign language varieties in India, Pakistan and Nepal". Sign Language Studies (78): 15–22. {{cite journal}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help)
  6. ^ "Ethnologue entry on Indian Sign Language". Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  7. ^ Press Trust of India (2004-09-16). "Standard sign language for the deaf in India soon". New Delhi,: Hindustan Times.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  8. ^ M. Miles (2001). "Sign, Gesture & Deafness in South Asian & South-West Asian Histories: a bibliography with annotation and excerpts from India; also from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma / Myanmar, Iraq, Nepal, Pakistan, Persia / Iran, & Sri Lanka". Retrieved 2007-05-06.
  9. ^ Scholar of Oriental studies H.W. Bailey identifies passages in the Avesta (Yast 5.93) and the Vinaya, e.g. "Excluded from the Buddhist Theravāda community (sangha-) were the andha-, mUga-, and badhira-, 'the blind, dumb, and deaf'." (Footnote: Pali Vinaya I, 91, 15)
    Bailey, H.W. (1961). "Arya III". Bull. School of Oriental & African Studies (24): 470–483.
  10. ^ Shukla, Hira Lal (1994). Semiotica Indica. Encyclopaedic dictionary of body-language in Indian art and culture. 2 vols. New Delhi: Aryan Books International.
  11. ^ Vol. IV, Book LIII. Al-Marghinani (1870, reprint 1975, 4 vols in one). The Hedaya or Guide. A commentary on the Mussulman laws. 2nd edn. transl. Charles Hamilton, ed. Standish Grady. Lahore. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  12. ^ Hutton, John Henry (1921). The Angami Nagas, with some notes on neighbouring tribes. London: MacMillan. pp. 291–292.
  13. ^ Miles, M. 2001, extended and updated 2006-04. "Signs of Development in Deaf South & South-West Asia: histories, cultural identities, resistance to cultural imperialism". This is a further revised, extended and updated version of a chapter first published in: Alison Callaway (ed) Deafness and Development, University of Bristol, Centre for Deaf Studies, 2001. Internet publication URL: http://www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles200604.html
  14. ^ Hull, Ernest R. (1913) Bombay Mission-History with a special study of the Padroado Question. Volume II 1858-1890. Bombay: Examiner Press
  15. ^ Report on Public Instruction in the Madras Presidency for 1892-93. Madras, 1893. (Report by D. Duncan).
  16. ^ Editorial (1895), "The deaf mutes in India". The Indian Magazine and Review, August 1895, pp. 436-38. (Quoting largely an article by Ernest J.D. Abraham, in The British Deaf-Mute, May 1895).
  17. ^ Iyer, A. Padmanabha (1938). "Modern Mysore, impression of a visitor". Trivandrum: Sridhara Printing House. pp 78-83
  18. ^ Smith, M. Saumarez (1915) "C.E.Z.M.S. Work among the Deaf in India & Ceylon". London: Church of England Zenana Mission Society. p. 13
  19. ^ Report on Public Instruction in the Bombay Presidency for the Year 1923-24. Bombay: Central Govt Press. 1925. (Report by M. Hesketh). p. 91
  20. ^ Banerjee, H.C. (1928) The sign language of deaf-mutes. Indian Journal of Psychology 3: 69-87. (quote from p.70)
  21. ^ Swainson, Florence (1906). "Report of the Deaf and Dumb and Industrial School in connection with the Church of England Zenana Mission, Palamcottah, South India, for 1905". Palamcottah: Church Mission Press. p.9
  22. ^ Zeshan, U. (2003). "Indo-Pakistani Sign Language Grammar: A Typological Outline." Sign Language Studies 3:2, 157-212.

23 - Monica Punjabi- Indian Sign Language Department and Interpreter Services run by Higher Secondary School,Indore(M.P.)India.contact-mbsindore@yahoo.com,www.geocities.com/mbs_indore/Pages/

24 - Dr.Usha Punjabi(Deaf) and Rajkumar Punajbi(Deaf) - run a Higher secondary school and college(400 deaf students all over India)in Indore(M.P.)India since last 26 yrs.Residential school.School uses Bilingual Method.

Further reading

  • Deshmukh, D (1997), "Sign Language and Bilingualism in Deaf Education". Ichalkaranj, India: Deaf Foundation.
  • Sulman, Nasir & Zuberi, Sadaf (2002) "Pakistan Sign Language - A synopsis".

See also

  • Koshish, 1972 Indian film about a deaf couple.
  • Mozhi, 2007 Indian film about the love story of a deaf and dumb girl.
  • Film- Khamoshi - An Indian Film,where the man in the deaf couple is shown weard sometimes...and the deaf community of India were not very happy with the same.But was a beautiful movie.They have a hearing child and she unknowingly is interpreting for her parents since her chilhood...nicely presented.
  • Film - Black - A super duper hit film of a Teacher and his Deaf Blind student.You cant stop your tears ..the film is so meaningful,correct and beautiful.

But ITS SAD..No Indian film director took a deaf artist to play a deaf role in his film.I wish..someone does.