What is Nicaraguan Sign Language?
Q: What is Nicaraguan Sign Language?
A: Nicaraguan Sign Language (ISN) is a sign language that was spontaneously invented by deaf schoolchildren in Nicaragua in the 1970s and 1980s.
Q: How did it develop?
A: The language developed when the Sandinist government of Nicaragua created the first elementary school for deaf people, in the 1970s. At first, fifty children took part, but when the Sandinist came to power, the number of pupils rose to hundred. In 1983, both schools together had about 400 pupils. The teaching was centered on lip reading and the use of a hand alphabet which was mostly unsuccessful due to most pupils having trouble spelling words this way. This led to them creating their own system using gestures and signs used at home which eventually developed into a pidgin and then a Creole language.
Q: Who asked for help with understanding ISN?
A: In 1986, Judi Kegl, an expert on American Sign Language was asked to help understand ISN as staff of the school missed that a language was developing before their eyes and all they saw were some mimics and failure to learn Spanish.
Q: What is LSN?
A: Lenguaje de Signos Nicaragüense (LSN) is what is known as the first step or pidgin form of ISN before it became more complex with grammar and verb arrangement by younger pupils. Pupils who left school before creole language was created continue to use this pidgin form today.
Q: When did Nicaragua's special programme for deaf people start?
A: The special programme for deaf people started in 1977 in a suburb of Managua with fifty children taking part initially.
Q: When did Nicaragua open its vocational school for deaf people?
A: A vocational school for deaf people opened in another part of Managua in 1980.
