Finnish Sign Language

Finnish Sign Language is the sign language most commonly used in Finland. A 2012 estimate counted about 3,000 Finnish deaf people with Finnish Sign Language as a first language, though because Finland's records classify users by their written language rather than their signed one, most deaf signers are folded into overall Finnish-language figures; only 500 people registered it as a first language in 2014. Counting related varieties, including Signed Finnish, which does not follow the same grammar, and a version for people who are both deaf and blind, around 8,000 people use a form of Finnish Sign Language. The language descends from Swedish Sign Language, from which it began to separate as an independent language in the middle of the nineteenth century, and is distinct from the separate Finland-Swedish Sign Language.