Call for sign language to become an official language of SA
'In the event of a tragedy, a deaf person’s life could be saved if rescue workers could understand basic sign language.' - MPL Blessed Gwala
DURING the debate on the IFP-motion to discuss sign language, party officials moved to have it made the country’s twelfth official language.
MPL Blessed Gwala, speaking on Thursday, told the KZN Legislature that his party would be the front-runner in promoting the teaching of sign language at South African schools.
‘We must take the lead and demonstrate that we care for all our citizens,’ he said.
‘This Legislature must begin without delay to implement the training of key personnel and us as members of this legislature.
‘It is up to us to speak out (for the deaf).
‘We have the power to draft legislation, and we must use these powers that have been entrusted to us to open the doors of communication.’
He further said no member of the public should be at a disadvantage as a result of a physical impediment that hinders communication.
‘It is for this reason, among many others, that we feel that basic sign language tuition must be given to all state employees, emergency services personnel and community representatives who interact with the community at large,’ he continued.
What is ISL?
International Sign Language – or ISL – is a term used by the World Federation of the Deaf and other international organisations.
It is a contact variety of sign language used in a variety of different contexts, particularly at international meetings such as the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) congress, events such as the Deaflympics, in video clips produced by deaf people and watched by other deaf people from around the world, and informally when travelling and socialising.
The need to standardise an international sign system was discussed at the first World Deaf Congress in 1951, when the WFD was formed.
In the following years, a pidgin language developed as the delegates from different language backgrounds communicated with each other, and in 1973, a WFD committee published a standardised vocabulary.
They selected ‘naturally spontaneous and easy signs in common use by deaf people of different countries’ to make the language easy to learn.
A book published by the commission in the early 1970s, ‘Gestuno: International Sign Language of the Deaf’, contains a vocabulary list of about 1 500 signs.
However, when Gestuno was first used at the WFD congress in Bulgaria in 1976, it was incomprehensible to deaf participants.
Subsequently, it was developed informally by deaf and hearing interpreters, and came to include more grammar – especially linguistic features that are thought to be universal among sign languages, such as role shifting and the use of classifiers.
Additionally, the vocabulary was gradually replaced by more iconic signs and loan signs from different sign languages.
The first training course in Gestuno was conducted in Copenhagen in 1977 to prepare interpreters for the 5th World Conference on Deafness.
The name Gestuno has fallen out of use, and the phrase ‘International Sign’ is now more commonly used in English to identify this sign variety.
*Source: Wikipedia
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