Dutch Sign Language

Dutch Sign Language (Dutch: Nederlandse Gebarentaal or NGT; Sign Language of the Netherlands or SLN) is the predominant sign language used by deaf people in the Netherlands.

Dutch Sign Language

Netherlands

15,000 (2019)^[1]

French Sign

Dutch Sign Language

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Dutch Sign Language

Although the same spoken Dutch language is used in the Netherlands and Flanders, the Dutch Sign Language (NGT) is not the same as Flemish Sign Language (VGT). They do have the late 18th-century Old French Sign Language as their common ancestor, but have diverged during the subsequent 200 years, so that mutual intelligibility between modern users has been greatly reduced.^[2]

Education[edit]

There are currently five schools for deaf children in the country, with the first being built at the end of the 18th century and the rest between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. While the first school used a manual method to teach the language, signing was originally prohibited in each of the latter schools and they instead tended to use an oral method of teaching. Today, because of cochlear implants, education is consistently leaning towards oralist methods.

Fingerspelling

Legal recognition of sign languages

List of sign languages

(journal)

Sign Language Studies

"Did You Know Dutch Sign Language Is Vulnerable?" Endangered Languages. N.p., n.d. Web.

Kimmelman, V. (2014). Information structure in Russian Sign Language and Sign Language of the Netherlands (Unpublished master's thesis, 2014). Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (ACLC).

Bank, R., Crasborn, O., & van Hout, R. (2011). Variation in mouth actions with manual signs in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). Sign Language & Linguistics, 14(2), 248–270.

Crasborn, O., van der Kooij, E., Ros, J., & de Hoop, H. (2009). Topic agreement in NGT (Sign Language of the Netherlands). Linguistic Review, 26(2/3), 355–370. :10.1515/tlir.2009.013

doi

Crasborn, O., van der Kooij, E., Waters, D., Woll, B., & Mesch, J. (2008). Frequency distribution and spreading behavior of different types of mouth actions in three sign languages. Sign Language & Linguistics, 11(1), 45–67.

De Clerck, L., & van der Kooij, E. (2005). Modifiable and intensifier self in Dutch and Sign Language of the Netherlands. Linguistics In The Netherlands, 2261–72.

Sandler, W., & Lillo-Martin, D. (2006). Sign language and linguistic universals. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Schermer, T. (2012). Sign Language Planning in the Netherlands between 1980 and 2010. Sign Language Studies, 12(4), 467–493.

Zwets, M. (2014). Locating the difference: A comparison between Dutch pointing gestures and pointing signs in Sign Language of the Netherlands (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Proefschrift Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor in het jaar.

Dutch Sign Language