| Also Known As: ISL
Description:
Israeli Sign Language, or ISL, is the most commonly used sign language in the deaf community of Israel. Some other sign languages are also used in Israel, among them Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language. The number of Israeli deaf people is around 10,000, though it is unclear how many of them use ISL as their main language.
The history of ISL goes back to 1873 in Germany, where Marcus Reich, a German Jew, opened a special school for Jewish deaf children. At the time, it was considered one of the best of its kind, which made it a lodestone to Jewish deaf children from all over the world, as well as non-Jews. In 1932 several teachers from this school opened the first school for Jewish deaf children in Jerusalem. The sign language used in the Jerusalemite school was influenced by the German Sign Language (DGS), but other sign languages or signing systems brought by immigrants also contributed to the emerging language. A local signing system gradually emerged, which eventually became ISL.
ISL still shares many features and vocabulary items with DGS, although it is too far apart today to be considered a dialect of the latter.
During the 1940s ISL became the language of a well established..... full article at Wikipedia |
