The Arab Sign Language family is a family of sign languages spread across the Arab Middle East, including Egyptian Sign Language, Iraqi Sign Language, Yemeni Sign Language, Kuwaiti Sign Language, Levantine Arabic Sign Language, Libyan Sign Language, Emirati Sign Language, Omani Sign Language, Qatari Sign Language and Saudi Sign Language. Its full extent is not yet known because only some of the region's sign languages have been compared, and despite the shared label Arabic Sign Language it is considered unlikely that all of these languages are actually related to one another; other regional sign languages, such as Moroccan Sign Language, derived from American Sign Language, and Tunisian Sign Language, derived from Italian Sign Language, are not part of this family.
Facts
RegionThe Middle East and North Africa. 1 Proto-Language StatusNo proto-language has been reconstructed, and the family's own genetic unity is unestablished: its extent is not yet known because only some of the region's sign languages have been compared, and several national sign languages of the Arab world (Moroccan, Tunisian, and the various Sudanese sign languages among them) appear unrelated to it, having independent origins. 1 Partially Attested
Speaker CountNo family-wide aggregate is published, and the family's own extent is not established. Egyptian Sign Language, one of the larger national sign languages provisionally placed in this family, is put at approximately 500,000 signers per the cited source infobox. Iraqi, Yemeni, Kuwaiti, Levantine and Libyan Sign Language speaker counts are not included. Sources
1. Wikipedia: Arab Sign-Language Family
Wikimedia FoundationInfobox language family, region field
Mideast, North Africa
Lead section, first sentence
Its extent is not yet known, because only some of the sign languages in the region have been compared.
View the Source 2. Wikipedia: Egyptian Sign Language
Wikimedia FoundationInfobox, speakers fieldQuote, Infobox, speakers field
500,000
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