Indonesian Sign Language Explained

Indonesian Sign Language
Nativename:Indonesian: Bahasa Isyarat Indonesia<br>(BISINDO)
States:Indonesia
Date:2021
Ref:e25
Speakers Label:Signers
Familycolor:sign
Fam1:French Sign
Fam2:American Sign
Dia1:Jakarta Sign Language
Dia2:Yogyakarta Sign Language
Dia3:(presumably others)
Iso3:inl
Glotto:indo1333
Glottorefname:Indonesian Sign

Indonesian Sign Language (Indonesian: Bahasa Isyarat Indonesia, BISINDO) is any of several related deaf sign languages of Indonesia, at least on the island of Java. It is based on American Sign Language, with local admixture in different cities. Although presented as a coherent language when advocating for recognition by the Indonesian government and use in education, the varieties used in different cities may not be mutually intelligible.

Specifically, the only study to have investigated this, Isma (2012),[1] found that the sign languages of Jakarta and Yogyakarta are related but distinct languages, that they remain 65% lexically cognate but are grammatically distinct and apparently diverging. They are different enough that Isma's consultants in Hong Kong resorted to Hong Kong Sign Language to communicate with each other. Word order in Yogyakarta tends to be verb-final (SOV), whereas in Jakarta it tends to be verb-medial (SVO) when either noun phrase could be subject or object, and free otherwise. The varieties in other cities were not investigated.

Rather than sign language, education currently uses a form of manually-coded Indonesian known as Sistem Isyarat Bahasa Indonesia (SIBI).

See also

Notes and References

  1. Silva Tenrisara Pertiwi Isma, 2012, "Signing Varieties in Jakarta and Yogyakarta"http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/lin/new/doc/ma_papers/macla/Silva_2011-12.pdf