Turkish Sign Language (
Turkish: Türk İşaret Dili, TİD) is the language used by the
deaf community in
Turkey. As with other
sign languages, TİD has a unique grammar that is different from the oral languages used in the region.
TİD uses a two-handed
manual alphabet which is very different from the two-handed alphabets used in the
BANZSL sign languages. It also uses the tongue in certain phrases.
Grammar
There is little published information on Turkish Sign Language. Turkish Sign Language exhibits a subject-object-verb order (SOV). There is a rich set of modal verbs which appear in a clause-final position.[2]
Signing communities
According to the
Turkish Statistical Institute, there are a total of 89,000 people (54,000 male, 35,000 female) with
hearing impairment and 55,000 people (35,000 male, 21,000 female) with speaking disability living in Turkey, based on 2000 census data.[3]
History
TİD is dissimilar from European sign languages. There was a
court sign language of the
Ottoman Empire, which reached its height in the 16th century and 17th centuries and lasted at least until the early 20th.[4] However, there is no record of the signs themselves and no evidence the language was ancestral to modern Turkish Sign Language.[5]
Deaf schools were established in 1902, and until 1953 used TİD alongside the Turkish spoken and written language in education.[6] Since 1953 Turkey has adopted an
oralist approach to deaf education.
^Miles, M. (2000). "Signing in the Seraglio: Mutes, dwarfs and jestures at the Ottoman Court 1500-1700". Disability & Society. 15 (1): 115–134.
doi:
10.1080/09687590025801.
S2CID145331019.
^a Sign-language names reflect the region of origin. Natural sign languages are not related to the spoken language used in the same region. For example, French Sign Language originated in France, but is not related to French. Conversely,
ASL and
BSL both originated in English-speaking countries but are not related to each other; ASL however is related to
French Sign Language.
^b Denotes the number (if known) of languages within the family. No further information is given on these languages.