| Austrian Sign Language | |
|---|---|
| Österreichische Gebärdensprache (ÖGS) | |
| Native to | Austria |
Native speakers | 8,000 (2014)[1] |
French Sign
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | asq |
| Glottolog | aust1252 |
Austrian Sign Language (German:Österreichische Gebärdensprache,ÖGS) is thesign language used by theAustrianDeaf community—approximately 10,000 people (see Krausneker 2006).
ÖGS andHungarian Sign Language seem to be related for historical reasons (First School for the Deaf in Vienna), but HSL forms a cluster with neighboring languages rather than with ÖGS.[2] Although there are no detailed studies of the extent of relatedness, ÖGS shares aspects of itsgrammar withGerman Sign Language andSwiss Sign Language, while thevocabulary differs (see Skant et al. 2002);[3] Wittmann (1991) places it in theFrench Sign Language family).
Linguistic research on ÖGS started in the 1990s and is primarily conducted at theUniversity of Klagenfurt[4] andUniversity of Graz.[5] The Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt (AAU) worked on the "Deaf learning" project[6] (September 1, 2015 – August 31, 2018) financed underErasmus+ as a cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices, strategic Partnerships for adult education aimed at deaf adults with Austrian Sign Language as their first natural language and the German written language as their second language with the aim of raising the level of literacy. The program was expanded by Eramus+ after its completion to promote achieving higher social, educational and financial positions through better access to the written language proficiency with the "Deaf language awareness"[7] project (September 1, 2018 – July 7, 2021) by developing online courses for independent learning in ÖGS and written German text.[8]
After a 15-year effort by the Deaf community, ÖGS waslegally recognized by theAustrian Parliament on September 1, 2005.[citation needed]
ÖGS possess hundred of signs, of which 26 signs represent single letters similar to the basic writtenGerman alphabet, 3 signs represent letter-diacritic combinations (Ä/ä,Ö/ö,Ü/ü) using theumlaut and 1 sign represents the German"sch" (trigraph).
The Austrian Deaf community is represented by the Austrian Federation of the Deaf (theÖsterreichischer Gehörlosenbund).[9]
There is one nationwide association for professional interpreters of ÖGS.[10]
| Official language |
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| Germanic |
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| Slavic |
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| Other minority languages | |||||||||
| Sign languages | |||||||||
| International | |
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| Other | |
