Turkish Sign Language
{{Short description|Deaf sign language of Turkey}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Turkish Sign Language
|nativename=Türk İşaret Dili
|states=Turkey, Northern Cyprus
|speakers=250,000
|date=2021
|ref=e25
|speakers_label=Signers
|familycolor=Sign
|family=Language isolate
|ancestor=Possibly from Ottoman Sign Language
|iso3=tsm
|glotto=turk1288
|glottorefname=Turkish Sign Language
}}
Turkish Sign Language ({{langx|tr|Türk İşaret Dili, TİD}}) is the language used by the deaf community in Turkey. As with other sign languages, TİD has a unique grammar that is different from the oral languages used in the region.
TİD uses a two-handed manual alphabet which is very different from the two-handed alphabets used in the BANZSL sign languages. It also uses the tongue in certain phrases.
Grammar
There is little published information on Turkish Sign Language. Turkish Sign Language exhibits a subject-object-verb order (SOV). There is a rich set of modal verbs which appear in a clause-final position.{{cite journal |first1=Serpil |last1=Karabüklü |first2=Fabian |last2=Bross |first3=Ronnie B. |last3=Wilbur |first4=Daniel |last4=Hole |year=2018 |title=Modal signs and scope relations in TID |journal=Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory |volume=2 |pages=82–92 |doi=10.31009/FEAST.i2.07 |doi-access=free}}
Signing communities
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, there are a total of 89,000 people (54,000 male, 35,000 female) with hearing impairment and 55,000 people (35,000 male, 21,000 female) with speaking disability living in Turkey, based on 2000 census data.[http://www.tuik.gov.tr/AltKategori.do?ust_id=11&ust_adi=N%FCfus%2C+Konut+ve+Demografi Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu, Nüfus, Konut ve Demografi Verileri 2000]
History
TİD is dissimilar from European sign languages. There was a court sign language of the Ottoman Empire, which reached its height in the 16th century and 17th centuries and lasted at least until the early 20th.{{cite journal |last=Miles |first=M. |year=2000 |title=Signing in the Seraglio: Mutes, dwarfs and jestures at the Ottoman Court 1500-1700 |journal=Disability & Society |volume=15 |number=1 |pages=115–134 |doi=10.1080/09687590025801 |s2cid=145331019}} However, there is no record of the signs themselves and no evidence the language was ancestral to modern Turkish Sign Language.[http://turkisaretdili.ku.edu.tr/en/tid.aspx Turkish Sign Language (TİD) General Info] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415064343/http://turkisaretdili.ku.edu.tr/en/tid.aspx |date=2012-04-15 }}, Dr. Aslı Özyürek, Koç University website, accessed 2011-10-06
Deaf schools were established in 1902, and until 1953 used TİD alongside the Turkish spoken and written language in education.Deringil, S. (2002). İktidarın Sembolleri ve İdeoloji: II. Abdülhamid Dönemi (1876–1909), YKY, İstanbul, 249. Since 1953 Turkey has adopted an oralist approach to deaf education.
See also
References
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20051013081634/http://turkisaretdili.ku.edu.tr/ Turkish Sign Language] (Turkish and English) Website including dictionary and general information, by the Turkish Academy of Sciences and Koç University
- [http://www.turkdeaf.org Turkish National Deaf Federation] homepage (Turkish and English).
{{Languages of Turkey}}
{{Languages of Cyprus}}
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Category:Sign language isolates
Category:Sign languages of Turkey