Sign Language

Nepali Sign Language used by children in Nepal
Nepali children using Nepali Sign Language in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Sign language is a language in visual-manual modality. It is a natural language as sophisticated and complex as any speech language. It has been primarily developed and used by Deaf people.

Like speech language, sign language is not universal nor international. Signed languages around the world are as distinct as, for example, English and Japanese.

Sign language is not made up of a standardized system of gestures. Numerous lingustic studies show that sign languages have their own grammatical rules, syntax, phonology, morphology, and other linguistic features that spoken languages have.

Sign language is not a substitute of a speech language nor it is a signed version of a speech language. It stands in its own independence. Ameslan (American Sign Language) and Auslan (Australian Sign Language), for example, are not signed versions of English nor are they based on English.