Thai Sign Language

Thai Sign Language
ภาษามือไทย
Native to	Thailand
Native speakers	estimated 90,000–300,000 deaf (2008)[1]
Language family	Creole of American Sign (French family), Old Bangkok Sign and Old Chiangmai Sign. Possibly related to sign languages in Vietnam and Laos.
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tsq
Glottolog	thai1240

Thai Sign Language (TSL; Thai: ภาษามือไทย), or Modern Standard Thai Sign Language (MSTSL), is the national sign language of Thailand's deaf community and is used in most parts of the country by the 20 percent of the estimated 56,000 pre-linguistically deaf people who go to school.^[2]

Thai Sign Language is related to American Sign Language (ASL), and belongs to the same language family as ASL.^[3] This relatedness is due to language contact and creolisation that has occurred between ASL, which was introduced into deaf schools in Thailand in the 1950s by American-trained Thai educators,^[4] and at least two indigenous sign languages that were in use at the time: Old Bangkok Sign Language and Chiangmai Sign Language.^[3] These original sign languages probably developed in market towns and urban areas where deaf people had opportunities to meet. They are now considered moribund languages, remembered by older signers but no longer used for daily conversation.^[5] These older varieties may be related to the sign languages of Vietnam and Laos.^[6]

Thai Sign Language was acknowledged as "the national language of deaf people in Thailand" in August 1999, in a resolution signed by the Minister of Education on behalf of the Royal Thai Government. As with many sign languages, the means of transmission to children occurs within families with signing deaf parents and in schools for the deaf. A robust process of language teaching and acculturation among deaf children has been documented and photographed in the Thai residential schools for the deaf.^[7]

There are other moribund sign languages in the country such as Ban Khor Sign Language.

See also

• Deafness in Thailand

References

Further reading

• Nonaka, Angela M. (2004). The forgotten endangered languages: Lessons on the importance of remembering from Thailand's Ban Khor Sign Language. In: Language in Society 33:5 (2004) pp. 737–768
• Suwanarat, M., C. Reilly, O. Wrigley, A. Ratanasint, and L. Anderson (1986). The Thai Sign Language dictionary. Bangkok: National Association of the Deaf in Thailand.
• Suwanarat, M., O. Wrigley, and L. Anderson.(1990). The Thai Sign Language dictionary, Revised and expanded ed. Bangkok: National Association of the Deaf in Thailand.
• Wallace, Cassie. 2019. "Spatial Relations along the In-On Continuum in Thai Sign Language." Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 12.1:163-178. Online access

External links

• Survey report of Thai sign languages [1]

• v
• t
• e

Languages of Thailand

Official language

• Thai

Other Thais

Lao–Phutai	Isan Phu Thai
Chiang Saen	Northern Thai Tai Lü Phuan Thai Song
Sukhothai	Southern Thai
Northwestern	Khün Shan Tai Nüa

Minority
by languages groups

Austroasiatic	Bru Chong Chung Jahai Kensiu Khmer Northern Western Kintaq Kuy Mlabri Mon Nyah Kur Palaung Ten'edn Thavung Vietnamese
Austronesian	Cham Malay Bangkok Malay Pattani Malay Satun Malay Moken Moklen Urak Lawoi’
Hmong-Mien	Hmong Iu Mien
Sino-Tibetan	Akha Eastern Pwo Lisu Sinitic Cantonese Teochew Hakka Hokkien Hainanese Hokchew Nuosu Mpi Northern Pwo Phrae Pwo Red Karen (Eastern Kayah) S'gaw Karen Ugong

Non-Indigenous

Immigrant language	Burmese Hindi Punjabi Russian Southwestern Mandarin
Working language	English Japanese Korean

Sign languages

• Thai Sign Language
• Ban Khor Sign