Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language, abbreviated ABSL, is a village sign language used by about 150 deaf people and many hearing members of the al-Sayyid Bedouin tribe in the Negev desert of southern Israel.
Facts
RegionThe Negev desert of southern Israel, among the al-Sayyid Bedouin tribe 1 Speaker CountAbout 150 deaf signers as of the cited estimate (120-150 deaf individuals reported in 2011); many further hearing community members also sign fluently and are not counted in this figure. Proto-Language StatusABSL is not descended from any prior sign language or reconstructed proto-language; it emerged spontaneously within the al-Sayyid Bedouin community, founded in the mid-19th century, over the last three generations, uninfluenced by any other sign language. 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language
Wikimedia Foundationlead section
is a village sign language used by about 150 deaf and many hearing members of the al-Sayyid Bedouin tribe in the Negev desert in southern Israel.
History section
The spontaneous emergence of the language in the last 70 years and the development of a complex grammar in near-isolation are of particular interest to linguists for the insights it provides into the birth of human language.
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