Swiss-German Sign Language

Swiss-German Sign Language (German: Deutschschweizer Gebärdensprache, abbreviated DSGS) is the primary deaf sign language of the German-speaking part of Switzerland and of Liechtenstein. The language was established around 1828.^[2] In 2011 it was estimated that 7,500 deaf and 13,000 hearing people use DSGS.^[3] There are six dialects which developed in boarding schools for the deaf in Zürich, Bern, Basel, Lucerne, and St. Gallen, as well as in Liechtenstein.^[3]

Name

In Switzerland, the language is called Gebärdensprache (sign language) if a distinction from other languages is not required. Some sources call it Natürliche Gebärden or Natürliche Gebärdensprache,^[4] or Swiss Sign Language (Langage gestuel suisse).^[2] The former just means 'natural sign', like those for "sleep" or "eat", in contrast to Abstrakte Gebärden 'conceptual sign',^[5] and so the term is no longer used. Most English sources today uses the term German-Swiss Sign Language or Swiss-German Sign Language.^[6][7]

Classification

Wittmann (1991) suspects that Swiss-German Sign Language may be part of the French Sign Language family, but it is not close and this is not easy to demonstrate.^[2]

In Switzerland, the parentage of this language is still in research. Research on whether DSGS could be a derivative of the German Sign Language (DGS) is planned, but it was observed that DSGS signers are often more open to borrowing loan signs from LSF-SR, the French Sign Language dialect of the Suisse Romande, and less from the DGS.^[3]

Literature

Two books have been published in SignWriting.^[3]

Manual alphabet

The manual alphabet is similar to that of German Sign Language and American Sign Language, but with the following differences:

• For F, the upright fingers are parallel/in contact
• For T, the index finger lies atop the tip of the thumb (an X with the thumb underneath), as commonly found in other alphabets
• Informally, X uses the thumb, like C with just the index finger
• Ä is like A, but the thumb move out and back a couple times
• Ö is like O, but the it opens to a C shape and closes again a couple times (formally, the index finger remains in contact with the thumb)
• Ü is like U, but the fingers bend down (as the index is in an X or T) a couple times
• SCH is as in DGS
• There is also a CH, which is a C formed with the fingers of H (thumb, index and middle)
• There is no ẞ, as that is rendered SS in Switzerland.

External links

• Swiss Deaf Federation: Web dictionary of the Swiss German Sign Language
• Interkantonale Hochschule für Heilpädagogik: Business dictionary of the Swiss German Sign Language

References