Sign Language Studies

A sociolinguistic survey of the sign language used by the deaf communities of Peru was conducted in November and December of 2007. For eight weeks, our survey team visited six deaf communities in the cities of Lima, Arequipa, Cusco, Trujillo, Chiclayo, and Iquitos. Using sociolinguistic questionnaires and recorded text testing (RTT) tools, we explored the general social situation of these communities, as well as sociolinguistic topics such as ethnolinguistic identity, language vitality and stability, and the attitudes of deaf people toward their local sign variety. We also probed sign language standardization and variation in Peru. During background research, we had heard reports that Peruvian Sign Language (LSP) was similar to American Sign Language (ASL), but the responses of the questionnaire participants and comprehension testing of an ASL text in various deaf communities in Peru indicate that ASL is quite different from LSP.