Yolŋu Sign Language

Yolŋu Sign Language
Region	Gove Peninsula, Northern Territory, Australia
Ethnicity	Yolngu people
Native speakers	None
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Yolŋɡu Yolŋu Sign Language
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Yolŋu Sign Language (Yolngu) is a ritual sign language used by the Yolngu, an Aboriginal community in the Arnhem Land region of Australia. As with other Australian Aboriginal sign languages, YSL was developed by the hearing for use when oral speech is forbidden, as during mourning or between certain family relations. (See speech taboo.) However, it is also the first language of the deaf in the community. It is not so much a distinct language as a manual code of the Yolŋu languages.

See also

• Warlpiri Sign Language

References

• Yolngu Sign Language project at the University of Central Lancashire
• Kendon, Adam (1988). Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: cultural, semiotic, and communicative perspective. Cambridge University Press.