Rennellese Sign Language

{{Short description|Extinct home sign language of Rennell Island}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Rennellese Sign Language

| states = Solomon Islands

| region = Rennell Island

| extinct = ca. 2000{{cite web|url=https://www.atomicscribe.com/extinct-languages-the-languages-we-have-lost-in-the-21st-century/#3|title=Extinct Languages: The Languages We Have Lost in the 21st Century|publisher=Atomic Scribe|access-date=2024-10-05|date=2022-01-31|quote=Extinct: Around 2000}}

| familycolor = sign language

| family = none (home sign)

| iso3 = rsi

| linglist = rsi.html

| iso3comment = (retired){{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=rsi|title=Rennellese Sign Language|publisher=Ethnologue|access-date=2024-10-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080928072802/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=rsi|archive-date=2008-09-28|url-status=dead}}

| glottorefname = Rennellese Sign Language

| glotto = renn1236

}}

Rennellese Sign Language is an extinct form of home sign documented from Rennell Island in the Solomon Islands in 1974.

{{cite book

|last1=Kuschel

|first1=Rolf

|title=A Lexicon of Signs from a Polynesian Outliner Island: A Description of 217 Signs as Developed and Used by Kagobai, the Only Deaf-Mute of Rennell Island

|date=1974

|publisher=Københavns Universitet

|location=København

|isbn=9788750015062

|pages=187 pages

|url=http://www.bellona.dk/pdf/Deaf-mute/a_lexicon_of_sign/lexicon.pdf

|access-date=2016-01-22

}} It was developed about 1915 by a deaf person named Kagobai and used by his hearing family and friends, but apparently died with him; he was the only deaf person on the island, and there never was an established, self-replicating community of signers. Accordingly, in January 2017 its ISO 639-3 code [rsi] was retired.

{{cite web|title=ISO 639-3 Registration Authority Change request documentation for: 2016-002|url=http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/chg_detail.asp?id=2016-002&lang=rsi|website=ISO 639|publisher=SIL International|access-date=1 February 2017}} Kuschel, the only source of information about this communication system, cites no evidence to suggest that there was any contact with any sign language.