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| Estonian Sign Language | |
|---|---|
| eesti viipekeel (EVK) | |
| Native to | Estonia |
Native speakers | 1,500 (2011)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | eso |
| Glottolog | esto1238 |
| ELP | Estonian Sign Language |
Estonian Sign Language (Estonian:eesti viipekeel,EVK) is the nationalsign language ofEstonia.
Research into the origins and nature of EVK did not begin until the late 1980s, so many details remain unknown.[2]Ulrike Zeshan (2005) concluded that, based on the historical influence of the German and Russian communist oral methods of deaf education, the fact that the first deaf school in Estonia was established in 1866 inVändra in theGovernorate of Livonia of theRussian Empire and the evident influence ofRussian Sign Language (RSL) present in EVK, it most likely either derived from or was strongly influenced by RSL, thus making Estonian Sign Language a member of theFrench Sign Language family.[2] Taniroo (2007) found that 61% of Estonian and Russian signs of the 200-wordSwadesh list were identical, confirming the hypothesis that EVK is either related to or has been significantly influenced by RSL through language contact.[2] However, as of 2016 there were 'no studies comparing EVK vocabulary with any other sign languages than Russian SL.'[2]: 50 Although the spoken and writtenEstonian andFinnish languages are closely relatedFinno-Ugric languages and there are some notable and probableFinnish Sign Language influences on EVK, there seems to have been 'no considerable historical language contact between EVK and Finnish Sign Language' (Hollman 2016).[2]: 48 In the unlikely event that EVK originally derived from Finnish Sign Language, it would belong to theSwedish Sign Language family.
Mahoney (2017) conducted the first-known100-word Swadesh–Woodward list comparison of EVK andLatvian Sign Language, concluding that a possible relationship between them – as descending fromVLFS, perhaps viaÖGS and/or RSL, as Wittmann (1991) and Bickford (2005) proposed – was 'still uncertain as it is unclear how sign languages disseminated in Eastern European countries during the Soviet Union, but aside from superficial impressions that the core lexicons are similar, signs with shared parameters displaying small variation in handshape while retaining 4 selected fingers suggests that these languages share a parent'. She added that '[a]t present there is no reason to assume that Estonian and Latvian sign language have a mother-daughter relationship'.[3]
In its formative stages, Estonian Sign Language was influenced by Russian andFinnish Sign Language; for example, the EVK sign for 'butterfly' developed from the Finnish sign for 'bird'.[citation needed] There are several dialects, the most archaic of which is the Pärnu variety. Like other sign languages, EVK is influenced by the local oral language. For instance, some signs are based onfingerspelling the first letter of an Estonian word, as in the sign forrestoran, meaning 'restaurant'.[citation needed]
Instruction for parents of deaf children is available in Tallinn. Teaching and research began in 1990 atTartu University.[citation needed]
In 1998 there were about 4,500 signers out of a deaf population of 2000 and a hearing-impaired population ten times that number.[citation needed] It is widespread in the cities ofTallinn andPärnu among deaf ethnic Estonians; deaf Russians in Tallinn useRussian Sign Language, Russians outside Tallinn tend to use a Russian–Estonian Sign Language pidgin, or may be bilingual.[citation needed]
Estonian Sign Language was recognised as an independent language in 2007 under the Language Act.[2]
