Classification

Wittmann assigned DSL to the French Sign Language family

French Sign Language family

The French Sign Language family is a proposed language family of sign languages which includes French Sign Language and American Sign Language, among others....

 because of similarities in vocabulary. However, the founder of the first deaf school in Denmark, Peter Atke Castberg (in 1807), was receptive to local sign and so may have introduced FSL signs to the local language rather than FSL itself.

Norwegian Sign Language

Norwegian Sign Language

Norwegian Sign Language, or NSL , is the principal deaf sign language Norway. There are many sign language organizations and some television programs broadcast in NSL in Norway...

 is generally thought to be a descendant of DSL. However, it may well be a mixture of DSL and indigenous sign, parallel to the situation between Swedish Sign and Finnish Sign

Finnish Sign Language

Finnish Sign Language is the sign language most commonly used in Finland. There are 5000 Finnish deaf who have Finnish Sign Language as a mother tongue...

.

Icelandic Sign Language

Icelandic Sign Language

The Icelandic sign language is the sign language of the deaf community in Iceland. It is based on the Danish Sign Language; until 1910, deaf Icelandic people were sent to school in Denmark, but the languages have diverged since then...

is closer; 37% of a set of analyzed signs (Aldersson 2006) were completely different in structure and a further 16% were similar but not the same. Faeroese and Greenlandic Sign are more clearly dialects of DSL.

External links

• Ordbog over Dansk Tegnsprog A free online DSL dictionary.

Sign Language Studies | October 1, 2008 | Aldersson, Russell R; McEntee-Atalianis, Lisa J | 700+ words