| Also Known As: Nohya Sign Language
Description:
Maya sign languages are used in Mexico and Guatemala by 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 languages 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.
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.
In the highlands of Guatemala, Mayas use a sign language that belongs to a "sign language..... full article at Wikipedia |
