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Swiss-German Sign Language (German: Deutschschweizer Gebärdensprache, abbreviated DSGS) is the primary deaf sign language of the German-speaking part of Switzerland and of Liechtenstein. The language was established around 1828. In 2011 it was estimated that 7,500 deaf and 13,000 hearing people use DSGS. There are six dialects which developed in boarding schools for the deaf in Zürich, Bern, Basel, Lucerne, and St. Gallen, as well as in Liechtenstein.

Name

In Switzerland, the language is called Gebärdensprache (sign language) if a distinction from other languages is not required. Some sources call it Natürliche Gebärden or Natürliche Gebärdensprache, or Swiss Sign Language (Langage gestuel suisse). The former just means 'natural sign', like those for "sleep" or "eat", in contrast to Abstrakte Gebärden 'conceptual sign', and so the term is no longer used. Most English sources today uses the term German-Swiss Sign Language or Swiss-German Sign Language.

Classification

Wittmann (1991) suspects that Swiss-German Sign Language may be part of the French Sign Language family, but it is not close and this is not easy to demonstrate.

In Switzerland, the parentage of this language is still in research. Research on whether DSGS could be a derivative of the German Sign Language (DGS) is planned, but it was observed that DSGS signers are often more open to borrowing loan signs from LSF-SR, the French Sign Language dialect of the Suisse Romande, and less from the DGS.

Literature

Two books have been published in SignWriting.

Manual alphabet

The manual alphabet is similar to that of German Sign Language and American Sign Language, but with the following differences:

• For F, the upright fingers are parallel/in contact
• For T, the index finger lies atop the tip of the thumb (an X with the thumb underneath), as commonly found in other alphabets
• Informally, X uses the thumb, like C with just the index finger
• Ä is like A, but the thumb moves out and back a couple times
• Ö is like O, but it opens to a C shape and closes again a couple times (formally, the index finger remains in contact with the thumb)
• Ü is like U, but the fingers bend down (as the index is in an X or T) a couple times
• SCH is as in DGS
• There is also a CH, which is a C formed with the fingers of H (thumb, index and middle)
• There is no ẞ, as that is rendered SS in Switzerland.

External links

• Swiss Deaf Federation: Web dictionary of the Swiss German Sign Language
• Interkantonale Hochschule für Heilpädagogik: Business dictionary of the Swiss German Sign Language

References

1. Swiss-German Sign Language at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. ^ Wittmann, Henri (1991). "Classification linguistique des langues signées non vocalement." Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée 10:1.215–88. Archived 2019-04-12 at the Wayback Machine
3. ^ Braem, Penny Boyes: Gebärdenspracharbeit in der Schweiz: Rückblick und Ausblick Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine, Hamburg: Zeitschrift für Sprache und Kultur Gehörloser
4. Swiss-German Sign Language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
5. Deutsche Hörbehinderten Selbsthilfe e.v.: Gebärdensprache Archived 2015-04-17 at the Wayback Machine
6. IANA: Language tag assignment for German Swiss Sign Language Archived 2017-10-11 at the Wayback Machine
7. Center for sign language research: Bibliography Archived 2012-12-24 at the Wayback Machine

• Sign languages
• Languages of Switzerland
• Sign language isolates
• French Sign Language family
• Sign languages of Switzerland