Swiss-German sign language

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Swiss-German sign language

Spoken in

Switzerland , Liechtenstein
speaker approx. 7,500
Linguistic
classification
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

-

ISO 639 -2

so-called

ISO 639-3

so-called

The German-Swiss Sign Language ( DSGS ) is the most widely used sign language in German-speaking Switzerland and Liechtenstein .

Dialects

In German-speaking Switzerland, a distinction is made between five dialects, the Zurich , Bern , Basel , Lucerne and St. Gallen dialects. In dictionaries, signs are noted with the respective canton abbreviation (ZH, BE, BS, LU, SG). The sign language used in Liechtenstein is closely related to the DSGS and can therefore be viewed as another DSGS dialect.

The dialects are similar to each other. Nevertheless, there are clear differences, so that one can see from which part of Switzerland the signing comes from. However, with increasing mobility, these dialects are becoming more and more mixed.

The language family to which the German-speaking Swiss sign language belongs is still open. Henri Wittmann suspects that Swiss sign language belongs to the family of French sign languages . Another thesis is that DSGS, like German Sign Language (DGS), belongs to the family of German Sign Languages . However, it has so far been observed that when loanwords are used, they are more likely to be adopted from the Langue des signes Suisse romande (LSF-SR), the western Swiss dialect of the French sign language and less from the DGS.

Features of the DSGS

In comparison to American Sign Language (ASL), the DSGS has a strong oral emphasis. For almost every sign, the corresponding lip movements in High German , not Swiss German , are “spoken” silently (so-called mouth image). In other words, using an example: If the (right-handed) deaf person clenches his right hand into a fist and taps it two or three times on his right cheek (with all fingers except the thumb touching the cheek), then the other person knows he is saying "Mother". Nonetheless, he moves his mouth and also says "Mother" without a sound.

DSGS in schools

At the beginning of the 19th century, when the deaf schools were founded, sign language was used in education for the deaf and dumb in German and French-speaking Switzerland , and in some cases an artificial sign system based on the Signes conventionnels of French origin, adapted to the syntax of spoken language . After the years around 1830, however, sign-based education was banned by the German-speaking Swiss deaf-mute institutions (and a little later also in French-speaking Switzerland), and this until the 1990s. As in other countries, sign language was devalued as "monkey language" and is still stigmatized by large circles today, including in deaf education.

A tentative rethink took place in the 1960s at the school for the deaf in Zurich. Sign language was no longer completely banned there, so there were no longer any penalties. The spoken language accompanying signs (LGB) were introduced into the classroom there from 1984, and DSGS has been used more and more since the 2000s. On the other hand, with the exception of the kindergarten, sign language was not expressly permitted at the St. Gallen Language School in the 1990s. The consequences of using sign language depended on the teacher in question. Younger teachers in particular simply pointed out the ban - even if they found it uncomfortable, others, mainly older ones, even used corporal punishment .

At the turn of the millennium, projects are running in Switzerland to raise deaf children bilingually or in spoken-language sign language. However, this development is only just beginning, and in German-speaking Switzerland there is a need for political will, the necessary knowledge and experience to implement bilingual projects. Numerous parents of deaf children as well as the medical profession who advise them and the educators and therapists active in early childhood education still favor the oral educational model with the exclusion of sign language, so that little money is invested in bilingual research.

At universities, there is a lack of training in the field of special needs education that represents a real bilingual alternative to the conventional oral education program for the deaf; Deaf educators working in German-speaking Switzerland generally have only limited command of sign language and cannot deal with sign-grammatical terms either theoretically or practically. In French-speaking Switzerland, schools are more open (and have more experience than in German-speaking Switzerland) to include sign language in education for the deaf; This topic is also properly devoted to at the university level. In Italian-speaking Switzerland, where in the last 30 years of the 20th century strong efforts to integrate deaf children into normal schools have led to the abandonment of the resident deaf school there, there is currently no real pedagogical and socio-cultural basis for bilingual deaf education.

Even if it has been shown in certain studies that sign language promotes deaf people rather than disadvantages them and that they derive great social, cognitive and integrative benefits from natural communication in sign language, so far only few deaf children in Switzerland have benefited from the blessings of bilingual deaf education and culture . However, there are studies that show exactly the opposite. They show that the benefits of an auditory-verbal education are greater; there is no end in sight to this discussion.

Deaf schools in Switzerland in general

As of 2018 there will be schools for the deaf in Wollishofen (Zurich), Riehen (near Basel) and in Münchenbuchsee (near Bern); there used to be schools in Hohenrain ( Johanniterkommende Hohenrain ) and at Rosenberg in St. Gallen. Only in Zurich is there a secondary school , the rest of them offered secondary schools in the past. Before their integration in mainstream schools in the 2000s became the norm, gifted deaf people were almost forced to complete upper school in Zurich. Another possibility is the center and Swiss school for the hard of hearing Landenhof in Unterentfelden near Aarau . There deaf people can complete secondary and district schools . This school is primarily intended for the hard of hearing , deaf people have more difficulty integrating with the hard of hearing.

In German-speaking Switzerland there is a vocational school for learners with hearing and communication disabilities, the BSfH in Zurich Oerlikon. The school trains apprentices in all professions and offers a BMS (vocational secondary school).

Liechtenstein deaf people visit the offers in German-speaking Switzerland.

Recognition by the state

Switzerland

At the federal level

The DSGS is not officially recognized by the state. The Swiss deaf are therefore fighting for sign language to be recognized in the Swiss constitution as the official language of the country . Among other things, it was criticized that sign language interpreters are not properly supported by the state.

In the summer of 2004 there were around 40 qualified interpreters after only 25 interpreters were available, but the need at that time was 150 sign language interpreters. As a result, many interpreter orders could not be fulfilled at the time. As of 2018, 73 interpreters were registered in DSGS with the national Swiss interpreting agency (there are 27 in LSF and 6 in LSI).

At canton level

Freedom of language includes in Canton Zurich sign languages since the supposed referendum on February 27, 2005 constitutionally with one ( Art. 12 of the Zurich Constitution). Sign language interpreters must therefore be used on request when communicating with the cantonal authorities . In the canton of Geneva , sign language is recognized ( Art. 16 of the Geneva Constitution). In the other cantons, sign language interpreters are also used if necessary, based on customary law and the Disability Equality Act .

Liechtenstein

The Liechtenstein Disabled People's Association maintains an interpreting agency and is responsible for its mediation.

See also

Tutorials and books

  • German-Swiss sign language , lexicon with 3000 videos, CD-ROM, GS-Media, Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-906152-06-5
  • CD-ROM 1, Swiss-German sign language for children, basic vocabulary for communication with deaf children, 740 signs and 250 example sentences, GS-Media, Zurich 2001
  • Penny Boyes Braem: Introduction to Sign Language and its Research , 3rd Edition, Signum Verlag, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-927731-10-2
  • Marina Ribeaud: The sign Search Book: A playful introduction to the Swiss gestures , fingershop.ch , Allschwil 2006, ISBN 978-3-9523171-0-5
  • Marina Ribeaud: Learning Sign Language 1 , fingershop.ch publishing house , Allschwil 2011, ISBN 978-3-9523171-5-0
  • Marina Ribeaud: Learning sign language , fingershop.ch publishing house , learning app for sign language www.gebaerdenssprache-lernen.ch
  • Johanna Krapf: Moving hands , a workshop to get to know the sign language (with DVD), SCOLA Verlag, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-905902-70-9
  • Johanna Krapf: Pauline and the Frog King , Four Stories in Sign Language (DVD), self-published, Jona 2012, ISBN 978-3-033-03358-0
  • Johanna Krapf: Eye people, deaf people tell from their lives, Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2015, ISBN 978-3-85869-645-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ a b c Braem, Penny Boyes, Haug, Tobias, Shores, Patty: Sign language work in Switzerland: Review and Outlook , Hamburg: Journal for Language and Culture of the Deaf
  3. ^ Wittmann, Henri (1991). "Classification linguistique des langues signées non vocalement." Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée 10: 1.215–88. [2]
  4. ↑ a b Rebecca Hesse, Martin Lengwiler : From first hand. Deaf and Sign Language in Switzerland in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Final report of the project “Prohibition of Sign Language in Switzerland” for the attention of the Swiss Association of the Deaf (SGB-FSS). Ed .: Department of History, University of Basel. ( sgb-fss.ch [PDF]).
  5. ↑ http://procom-deaf.ch/de/Dolmetscherinnen.aspx
  6. ↑ http://www.lbv.li/Gebaerdensprach-Dolmetscherinnen.php