| Burmese Sign Language | |
|---|---|
| Myanmar Sign Language | |
| Signers | 270,000 (2021)[1] |
ASL?
| |
| Dialects | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ysm |
| Glottolog | myan1234 |
There are one or two knownsign languages inMyanmar. There are three schools for the deaf in the country: the Mary Chapman School for the Deaf inYangon (est. 1904), the School for the Deaf, Mandalay (est. 1964), and the Immanuel School for the Deaf inKalay (est. 2005). At least in Yangon, instruction in oral, in theBurmese language, with sign used to support it. The sign ofYangon andMandalay is different, but it is not clear if they are one language or two.[2] Influences on the language(s) includeASL in all schools, as well asKorean Sign Language,Australian Sign Language,Thai Sign Language, and possibly a local substratum. A government project was set up in 2010 to establish a national sign language with the aid of theJapanese Federation of the Deaf.[3]
Two manual alphabets are in use inYangon: theAmerican manual alphabet, which may or may not be well known, and aBurmese-based alphabet taught in the 1970s and 1980s.[4]
