Yoruba Sign Language (YSL) is an indigenous sign language of the Deaf community in Yoruba-speaking communities of southwestern Nigeria.
Fluent Yoruba requires a large amount of gesture when speaking, which allows minimal communication between the deaf and the hearing. Deaf people in small Yoruba communities use this gesture as the basis of home sign. In larger communities, where there is a sufficient number of deaf people, community sign language has developed. It is not clear how many times this has happened; the Yoruba Sign Language described in the literature is spoken by 32 women in the city of Akurẹ. (Deaf men form a separate community, though some are married to women in the female deaf community. It is not known at present how similar their sign is to that of the women.)
Yoruba Sign Language incorporates many Yoruba gestures as signs (words), as well as the mouthing of many Yoruba words. This local language is unrelated to Nigerian Sign Language, which is based on American Sign Language. "Local" sign is considered inferior to Nigerian/American Sign Language, especially among bilingual signers, but it is nonetheless entrenched; its robustness is presumably related to its basis in Yoruba culture.[1]
^a Sign-language names reflect the region of origin. Natural sign languages are not related to the spoken language used in the same region. For example, French Sign Language originated in France, but is not related to French. Conversely, ASL and BSL both originated in English-speaking countries but are not related to each other; ASL however is related to French Sign Language.
^b Denotes the number (if known) of languages within the family. No further information is given on these languages.
^c Italicised languages demark which languages have gone to sleep or have become extinct.
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