Taiwan Sign Language
Sign language · official in 1 country
Taiwan Sign Language dates from 1895 and grew out of Japanese Sign Language during Japanese rule, with which it has about a 60% lexical similarity. It is the sign language of deaf and hard of hearing people in Taiwan, and its two main dialects centre on sign language schools in Taipei and Tainan.
The language on record
- Own name
- 台灣手語
- ISO 639-3
- TSS
- Script
- Signed
- Family
- Japanese Sign Language family
- Official in
- 1 country
Where Taiwan Sign Language is official
Taiwan is the one country on record, and Taiwan Sign Language is its national sign language.
Official beside Taiwan Sign Language
About Taiwan Sign Language
How Chinese Sign Language entered the classroom
After the Republic of China took control of Taiwan, users of Chinese Sign Language from China arrived on the island. They influenced TSL through teaching methods and through loan signs.
TSL remains part of the Japanese Sign Language family and is partly intelligible to users of both Japanese and Korean Sign Language.
What the face and body add
Like other sign languages, TSL uses nonmanual markers alongside the hands. Brows go up or draw together, the head shakes or nods, and the torso leans or shifts. These signals carry lexical, grammatical, discourse and emotional meaning, and a frown can do the same work.
When research on the language began
Serious linguistic research on TSL started in the 1970s. The first International Symposium on Taiwan Sign Language Linguistics was held on 1 and 2 March 2003 at National Chung Cheng University in Minxiong, Chiayi County.
A variant based in Taichung is essentially the same as the Tainan one. The 2020 psychological thriller The Silent Forest uses a large amount of the Taipei variant in its dialogue.
Common questions
Questions about Taiwan Sign Language
Can users of Japanese Sign Language understand TSL?
Partly. About 60% of the vocabulary is shared, and the two are in the same family, which also takes in Korean Sign Language.
Does Taichung have its own sign dialect?
There is a Taichung-based variant, but it is essentially the same as the Tainan school's.