Rennellese Sign Language
| Rennellese Sign Language | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Solomon Islands |
| Extinct | ca. 2000 |
|
none (home sign) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
rsi (proposed for retirement) |
| Glottolog |
renn1236[1] |
Rennellese Sign Language is an extinct form of home sign documented from Rennell Island in 1974.[2] It was developed about 1915 by a deaf person named Kagobai and used by his hearing family and friends, but apparently died with him; he was the only deaf person on the island, and there never was an established, self-replicating community of signers. Accordingly, as of January 2016, its ISO 639-3 code has been proposed for retirement.[3]
Classification
Wittmann (1991)[4] proposed that RSL was a language isolate (a 'prototype' sign language), though one developed through stimulus diffusion from an existing sign language. However, his classification presupposes that it was a full language, which is almost certainly not the case, and Kuschel[2] (the only source of information about this communication system) cites no evidence to suggest that there was any contact with any sign language.
References
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Rennellese Sign Language". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- 1 2 Kuschel, Rolf (1974). A Lexicon of Signs from a Polynesian Outliner Island: A Description of 217 Signs as Developed and Used by Kagobai, the Only Deaf-Mute of Rennell Island (PDF). København: Københavns Universitet. pp. 187 pages. ISBN 9788750015062. Retrieved 2016-01-22.
- ↑ ISO 639-3 Registration Authority. "Request for Change to ISO 639-3 Language Code" (PDF). ISO 639-3. SIL International. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
- ↑ Wittmann, Henri (1991). "Classification linguistique des langues signées non vocalement." Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée 10:1.215–88.
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