Sign-Supported Nepali

Sign-Supported Nepali, also commonly known as Signed Nepali, is a pidginized form of Nepali Sign Language commonly used by hearing people who (nominally) sign in their interactions with deaf people. It is also commonly used by those deaf persons who acquired Nepali Sign Language later in life and for whom Nepali is their first language (L1) and Nepali Sign Language is a second language (L2).

Although schools for the deaf in Nepal theoretically use Nepali Sign Language as their medium of instruction (alongside written Nepali), in practice and in fact, the majority of classes are conducted in some version of Sign-Supported Nepali, as a Simultaneous Communication (or so-called Total Communication) approach is widely practiced. Although the deaf themselves, as articulated by representative organizations such as the National Deaf Federation Nepal and Kathmandu Association of the Deaf, value natural sign language (i.e. Nepali Sign Language) most highly, teachers at schools for the deaf (including sometimes teachers who are themselves deaf) tend to value only signing which follow the grammar of Nepali, i.e. Sign-Supported Nepali.^[1]

References

1. Erika Hoffmann-Dilloway (2008). "Metasemiotic Regimentation in the Standardization of Nepali Sign Language." Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 18/2: 192-213.