Taiwan Sign Language (TSL; Chinese: 台灣手語; pinyin: Táiwān Shǒuyǔ) is the sign language most commonly used by the deaf and hard of hearing in Taiwan.
| Taiwan Sign Language | |
|---|---|
| Taiwan Ziran Shouyu | |
| Native to | Taiwan |
Native speakers | 20,000 (2004)[1] |
Japanese Sign
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | tss |
| Glottolog | taiw1241 |
History
The beginnings of Taiwan Sign Language date from 1895.[2]
The origins of TSL developed from Japanese Sign Language during Japanese rule. TSL is considered part of the Japanese Sign Language family.[3]
TSL has some mutual intelligibility with both Japanese Sign Language and Korean Sign Language; it has about a 60% lexical similarity with JSL.[2]
There are two main dialects of TSL centered on two of the three major sign language schools in Taiwan: one in Taipei, the other in Tainan City. There is a variant based in Taichung, but this sign language is essentially the same as the Tainan school.
After the retrocession of Taiwan to the ROC, Taiwan absorbed an influx of Chinese Sign Language users from mainland China who influenced TSL through teaching methods and loanwords.[2]
Serious linguistic research into TSL began in the 1970s and is continuing at present. The first International Symposium on Taiwan Sign Language Linguistics was held on March 1–2, 2003, at National Chung Cheng University in Minxiong, Chiayi, Taiwan.
Functional markers
TSL, like other sign languages, incorporates nonmanual markers with lexical, syntactic, discourse, and affective functions. These include brow raising and furrowing, frowning, head shaking and nodding, and leaning and shifting the torso.[4]
In popular culture
The 2020 psychological-thriller The Silent Forest uses a large amount of the Taipei variant of TSL in the dialogue.[5]
Notes
References
- Brentari, Diane. (2010). Sign Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521883702; OCLC 428024472
- Huteson, Greg (2003). "Report on Social, Educational, and Sociolinguistic Issues that Impact the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Population of Taiwan" (PDF). SIL International.
- Shih Wen-han & Ting Li-fen, ed. (1999). Shou Neng Sheng Ch'iao Vol. I (13th ed.). Taipei: National Association of the Deaf in the Republic of China.
Further reading
- Sasaki, Daisuke. (2007). "Comparing the lexicons of Japanese Sign Language and Taiwan Sign Language: a preliminary study focusing on the difference in the handshape parameter," Sign Language in Contact: Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities (David Quinto-Pozos, editor). Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press. ISBN 9781563683565; OCLC 154789790
- Smith, Wayne H. Taiwan Sign Language research: an historical overview. Language and Linguistics (Taipei) 6.2 (2005): 187–215. Online free access
- Moratto, Riccardo. (2020). Taiwan Sign Language Interpreting: Theoretical Aspects and Pragmatic Issues. New York: Peter Lang.
External links
- TSL Online Dictionary (in English and Traditional Chinese)
- Sign Language Dictionary from Ministry of Education Republic of China (Taiwan)(in traditional Chinese)