Mongolian Sign Language

{{Short description|Deaf sign language of Mongolia}}

__NOTOC__

{{Infobox language

| name = Mongolian Sign Language

| states = Mongolia

| speakers = 16,000

| date = 2021

| ref = e25

| familycolor = Sign

| fam1 = French Sign?

| fam2 = Austro-Hungarian Sign?

| fam3 = Russian Sign Language?{{cite web| editor-last1 = Hammarström| editor-first1 = Harald| editor-last2 = Forke| editor-first2 = Robert| editor-last3 = Haspelmath| editor-first3 = Martin| editor-last4 = Bank| editor-first4 = Sebastian| year = 2020| title = Mongolian Sign Language| work = Glottolog 4.3| url = https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/mong1264| access-date = 2024-05-26| archive-date = 2022-02-07| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220207191520/https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/mong1264| url-status = live}}

| iso3 = msr

| glotto = mong1264

| glottorefname = Mongolian Sign Language

| nativename = Монгол дохионы хэл

}}

Mongolian Sign Language (MSL; {{langx|mn|Монгол дохионы хэл|translit=Mongol dokhiony khel}}) is a sign language used in Mongolia. Ethnologue estimates that there are between 9,000 and 15,000 deaf signers in Mongolia {{asof|2019|lc=on}}.{{e23|msr}}

A school for the deaf was established in Mongolia in 1964 with assistance from the Soviet Union. This resulted in many similarities between MSL and Russian Sign Language (RSL) for a time, but the two languages have since developed to be separate and distinct.{{Cite journal|last=Geer|first=Leah|date=2011|title=Kinship in Mongolian Sign Language|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/content/crossref/journals/sign_language_studies/v011/11.4.geer.html|journal=Sign Language Studies|language=en|volume=11|issue=4|pages=594–605|doi=10.1353/sls.2011.0007|s2cid=144028961 |issn=1533-6263|url-access=subscription}}

Linda Ball, a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, is believed to have created the first dictionary of MSL in 1995.{{harvnb|Peace Corps Times|1995|p=6}} In 2007, another MSL dictionary with 3,000 entries was published by Mongolia's Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science with assistance from UNESCO.{{harvnb|Torigoe|2008|p=286}}