Turkish Sign Language
Turkish Sign Language | |
---|---|
Türk İşaret Dili | |
Native to | Turkey, Northern Cyprus |
Early form | Possibly from Ottoman Sign Language
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | tsm |
Glottolog | turk1288 |
Turkish Sign Language (Turkish: Türk İşaret Dili, TİD) is the language used by the deaf community in Turkey. As with other sign languages, TİD has a unique grammar that is different from the oral languages used in the region.
TİD uses a two-handed manual alphabet which is very different from the two-handed alphabets used in the BANZSL sign languages.
Status
There is little published information on Turkish Sign Language.
Signing communities
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, there are a total of 89,000 persons (54,000 male, 35,000 female) with hearing impairment and 55,000 persons (35,000 male, 21,000 female) with speaking disability living in Turkey, based on 2000 census data.[1]
History
TİD is dissimilar from European sign languages. There was a court sign language of the Ottoman Empire, which reached its height in the 16th century and 17th centuries and lasted at least until the early 20th.[2] However, there is no record of the signs themselves and no evidence the language was ancestral to modern Turkish Sign Language.[3]
Deaf schools were established in 1902, and until 1953 used TİD alongside the Turkish spoken and written language in education.[4] Since 1953 Turkey has adopted an oralist approach to deaf education.
See also
References
- ^ Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu, Nüfus, Konut ve Demografi Verileri 2000
- ^ Miles, M. (2000). Signing in the Seraglio: Mutes, dwarfs and gestures at the Ottoman Court 1500-1700, Disability & Society, Vol. 15, No. 1, 115-134
- ^ Turkish Sign Language (TİD) General Info, Dr. Aslı Özyürek, Koç University website, accessed 2011-10-06
- ^ Deringil, S. (2002). İktidarın Sembolleri ve İdeoloji: II. Abdülhamid Dönemi (1876–1909), YKY, İstanbul, 249.
External links
- Turkish Sign Language (Turkish and English) Website including dictionary and general information, by the Turkish Academy of Sciences and Koç University
- Turkish National Deaf Federation homepage (Turkish and English).