Argentine Sign Language

Argentine Sign Language, abbreviated LSA, is the sign language of Deaf communities throughout Argentina, classified as unclassified and not belonging to any recognized language family. It traces its origins to 1905 and the opening of the Ayrolo Institute, Argentina's first boarding school for Deaf boys, though the school's adherence to oralism meant LSA itself was not encouraged there in its early years; the language spread instead through Deaf associations formed across the twentieth century, particularly in Cordoba, La Plata and Mendoza, gaining real institutional traction only in the 1990s. Roughly 60,000 people used the language as of 2017, and it received formal government recognition in 2023.