Levantine Arabic Sign Language

Levantine Arabic Sign Language, also known as Syro-Palestinian Sign Language, is the sign language used by Deaf and hearing people of the area known as Bilad al-Sham or the Levant, comprising Jordan, Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon. Although there are significant differences in vocabulary between the four states, this is not much greater than regional differences within the states. Grammar is quite uniform and mutual intelligibility is high, indicating that they are dialects of a single language.[2]

Levantine Arabic Sign Language
Syro-Palestinian Sign Language
RegionLevant / Bilad al-Sham
Native speakers
30,000 (2021)[1]
Arab Sign Language family
  • Iraqi–Levantine?
    • Levantine Arabic Sign Language
Dialects
  • Jordanian Sign Language (LIU)
  • Palestinian Sign Language
  • Syrian Sign Language
  • Lebanese Sign Language
Language codes
ISO 639-3jos (Jordanian Sign Language)
GlottologNone
jord1238  Levantine Arabic SL

The language typically goes by the name of the country, as so:

  • Jordanian SL: لغة الإشارة الأردنية Lughat il-Ishārah il-Urduniyyah (LIU)
  • Lebanese SL: لغة الإشارات اللبنانية Lughat al-Ishārāt al-Lubnāniyyah (LIL)
  • Palestinian SL: لغة الاشارات الفلسطينية Lughat al-Ishārāt al-Filisṭīniyyah (LIF)
  • Syrian SL: لغة الإشارة السورية Lughat il-Ishārah il-Sūriyyah (LIS)

References
  1. Levantine Arabic Sign Language at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) closed access
  2. Hendriks 2008.

Bibliography
  • Hendriks, Bernadet (2008). Jordanian Sign Language: Aspects of grammar from a cross-linguistic perspective (PDF). LOT. ISBN 978-90-78328-67-4.
  • Richardson, Kristina (Winter 2017). "New Evidence for Early Ottoman Arabic and Turkish Sign Systems". Sign Language Studies. 17 (2): 172–192. doi:10.1353/sls.2017.0001. S2CID 44038104.
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