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Italian Sign Language

Eurasian Language Families

Italian Sign Language (LIS) is the visual language used by deaf people in Italy. Sustained linguistic analysis of it began in the 1980s, following the lines set by William Stokoe's research into American Sign Language in the 1960s. Through the end of the twentieth century, most scholarly study of LIS concentrated on its vocabulary. According to the European Union for the Deaf, the majority of Italy's estimated 60,000 to 90,000 Deaf people use LIS.

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