Page Type: languageUkrainian Sign Language | Ethnologue

UKL ISO 639-3

Ukrainian Sign Language

A language of Ukraine

ISO 639
ukl
Alternate Names
USL, Ukrayinska Mova Zhestiv, Ukrayinska Zhestova Mova
Population
54,500 (2008 WFD). Approximately 0.1% of total population. Other estimates: 43,000 registered Ukrainian nationals with hearing impairments (2015 Ukrainian Society of the Deaf); 223,000 deaf (2016 IMB).
Location:
Scattered.
Language Status
5 (Developing). Recognized language (2005, Law No. 2961–IV (06.10.2005)), for use in education (2008 WFD).
Classification
Sign language, Deaf community sign language
Dialects
High intelligibility with Russian SL [rsl]; distinguished primarily on sociolinguistic factors and some dialectal differences. Relatively high lexical similarity to sign languages in Moldova [vsi] and Russia [rsl] (Bickford 2005); signs in Ukraine tend to be more similar to older signs in Russia (2020 N. Andrianova).
Typology
One-handed fingerspelling (Cyrillic script).
Language Use
Vigorous. Used by all. Some also use Ukrainian [ukr], primarily written.
Language Development
Dictionary. Agency: Ukrainian Society of the Deaf (USD, UTOG).
Other Comments
Sometimes called ‘Russian Sign Language’, to which it is closely related but diverging (2020 N. Andrianova). 39 preschools and 61 secondary schools for the deaf, most of which emphasize oral proficiency in Ukrainian (2015 Ukrainian Society of the Deaf), although some teach Ukrainian SL (2020 A. Fairchild). 152 deaf students in universities (2010 Kyiv Post). Sign language interpretation in a few universities and some television news sources (2020 A. Fairchild). Deaf associations, athletic organizations. Christian.

Also Spoken in

Map

Location: Scattered.