Mayan sign languages
1721335
219558606
2008-06-15T20:39:26Z
Ggpab
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Maya prefered for all usages, apart from "Mayan languages"
{{language
|name=Yucatec Maya Sign Language
|states=[[Mexico]]
|region=Isolated villages in south-central [[Yucatán]]
|signers=Unknown. 16 deaf signers and 400–500 hearing signers reported in one village.
|iso2=sgn-MX-YUC
|iso3=msd}}
'''Maya sign languages''' are used in [[Mexico]] and [[Guatemala]] by [[Maya peoples|Maya]] communities with unusually high numbers of [[deaf]] inhabitants. In some instances, both hearing and deaf members of a village may use the sign language. These [[sign language]]s are thought to be unrelated to both the "national sign languages" of Mexico ([[Mexican Sign Language]]) and Guatemala ([[Guatemalan Sign Language]]), as well as the local spoken [[Mayan languages]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]].
==Yucatec Maya Sign Language==
'''Yucatec Maya Sign Language''' is used in the [[Yucatán]] region by both hearing and [[deaf]] rural Mayas. It is a natural complex [[language]], which is not related to [[Mexican Sign Language]], but may have similarities with sign languages found in nearby [[Guatemala]].
As the hearing villagers are competent in the sign language, the deaf inhabitants seem to be well integrated in the community - in contrast to the marginalisation of deaf people in the wider community, and also in contrast to Highland Maya Sign Language, which appears to be used in at least one village as a means of social segregation and oppression (see below).
The spoken language of the community is [[Yucatec Maya language]]. <!-- What is the relation of this language to Yucatec Maya Sign Language? -->
==Highland Maya Sign Language==
In the highlands of Guatemala, Mayas use a sign language that belongs to a "sign language complex" known locally in the [[Quiché|K'ichee'an]] language as ''Meemul Ch'aab'al'' and ''Meemul Tziij'', "mute language." Researcher Erich Fox Tree reports that it is used by deaf rural Maya throughout the region, as well as some traders and traditional storytellers. These communities and Fox Tree believe that ''Meemul Ch'aab'al'' belongs to an ancient family of Maya sign languages.<ref>[http://www.diverseeducation.com/Anthropology_ErichFoxTree.asp Navigating North and South for Native Knowledge], by Patricia Valdata for DiverseEducation.com, 2005.</ref> Fox Tree claims that Yutactec Maya Sign Language is also "closely-related and substantially mutually-intelligible".<ref>Fox Tree, Erich (2004). ''Meemul Ch'aab'al (Highland Maya Sign Language): The Invisible Visible Vernacular of an Indigenous Underclass''. Society for Linguistic Anthropology. [http://culturalheritageinternational.org/forums/view.php?site=anthrocommons&bn=anthrocommons_section31&key=1100304653 Abstract].</ref>
In at least one highland community, the sign language is used by "an impoverished class of deaf and hearing servants who are often forbidden to speak aloud in the presence of their masters: a hidden class of rural peons who call themselves '[[slave]]s.'"
==Footnotes==
<references/>
==Further reading==
*Johnson, Robert E. (1991). ''Sign language, culture & community in a traditional Yucatec Maya village'', in Sign Language Studies 73:461-474 (1991).
*Shuman, Malcolm K. & Mary Margaret Cherry-Shuman. (1981). ''A brief annotated sign list of Yucatec Maya sign language.'' Language Sciences, 3, 1 (53), 124-185.
*Shuman, Malcolm K. (1980). ''The sound of silence in Nohya: a preliminary account of sign language use by the deaf in a Maya community in Yucatan, Mexico.'' Language Sciences, 2, 1 (51), Mar, 144-173.
*Du Bois, John W. (1978). ''Mayan sign language: An ethnography of non-verbal communication.'' Paper presented at the 77th annual meeting, [[American Anthropological Association]], Los Angeles.
==External links==
*[http://www.sil.org/mexico/lenguajes-de-signos/04i-LSMayaYucateco.htm SIL overview of YMSL]
[[Category:sign languages]]
[[Category:Mayan languages]]
[[Category:Mesoamerican languages]]
[[pt:Línguas gestuais maias]]