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    This (lowercase (translateProductType product.productType)) has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by CrossRef.
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    Roy, Cynthia B. and Napier, Jemina 2015. The Sign Language Interpreting Studies Reader. Vol. 117, Issue. ,
    Dakwa, Francis Emson and Musengi, Martin 2015. A look at language problems experienced by children with hearing impairments—the learner's experience. South African Journal of African Languages, Vol. 35, Issue. 2, p. 177.
    Van Herreweghe, Mieke and Vermeerbergen, Myriam 2010. Deaf perspectives on communicative practices in South Africa: institutional language policies in educational settings. Text & Talk - An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse & Communication Studies, Vol. 30, Issue. 2, p. 125.
    Reagan, Timothy Penn, Claire and Ogilvy, Dale 2006. From policy to practice: sign language developments in post-apartheid South Africa. Language Policy, Vol. 5, Issue. 2, p. 187.
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  • Print publication year: 2002
  • Online publication date: September 2009

6 - South African Sign Language: one language or many?

from Part I - The main language groupings
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Summary

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter we discuss the signed language used by the Deaf community in South Africa, and examine the historical conditions for its emergence. We describe the legal and actual situation of South African Sign Language in South Africa today, particularly in relation to schooling. We investigate the different factors that underlie the claims that there is more than one sign language in South Africa, and we spell out the practical consequences of accepting these claims without further examination.

We assume without argument that Deaf people in South Africa, far from being deficient, or disabled, are a linguistic minority, with their own language, South African Sign Language, and their own culture, South African Deaf culture. Like everyone else in this post-modern world, Deaf people have differential membership in many cultures, on the basis of, for instance, religion, lifestyle, daily practices, political beliefs and education. However, what they all have in common is membership in a community that uses signed language, and socialises with other people who do the same.

Thus, the model we adopt is non-medical. We are not interested here in degree of hearing loss, the remediation of hearing, audiological measures, speech therapy or any other medical views of deafness. We regard deafness only as the sufficient, but not necessary, precipitant of signed-language development, and our concern here is to examine certain sociolinguistic issues that come into play in the consideration of the status of the signed language used in South Africa.

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Language in South Africa
  • Online ISBN: 9780511486692
  • Book DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486692
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Aarons, D. 1996. ‘Signed languages and professional responsibility’. In Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 30: 285–311
Aarons, D. and R. Morgan 1998. ‘The Structure of South African Sign Language after Apartheid’. Paper presented at the Sixth International Conference on Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research, Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C., November 1998
Constitutional Assembly of the Republic of South Africa. 1996. Constitution of the Republic of South Africa
Heap, M. (in progress) ‘An anthropological perspective of the Deaf people in Cape Town’. University of Stellenbosch, Department of Anthropology
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Penn, C. 1992a. Dictionary of Southern African Signs, 5 vols. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council
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