| Russian Sign Language | |
| Nativename: | русский жестовый язык russkiy zhestovyi yazyk |
| States: | Russia, Tajikistan, Belarus |
| Region: | Russian |
| Date: | 2010 census |
| Speakers: | 120,000 in Russia |
| Ref: | [1] |
| Speakers Label: | Signers |
| Familycolor: | Sign |
| Fam1: | French Sign |
| Fam2: | Austro-Hungarian Sign |
| Dia1: | Kazakh Sign Language |
| Dia2: | Uzbek Sign Language |
| Dia3: | Moldovan Sign Language |
| Lc1: | rsl |
| Ld1: | Russian Sign Language |
| Lc2: | vsi |
| Ld2: | Moldovan Sign Language |
| Glotto: | russ1270 |
| Glottorefname: | Russian Sign |
Russian Sign Language (RSL) is the sign language used by the Deaf community in Russia, with what is possibly additional presence in Belarus and Tajikistan. It belongs to the French Sign Language family.
RSL is a natural language with a grammar that differs from spoken or written Russian language. Signed Russian is an artificial form of communication used in schools and differs from RSL in strictly following Russian grammar.
Although RSL is legally recognized in Russia, it does not enjoy state support and there is a lack of skilled RSL interpreters in the country.
In 1806, the first Russian deaf school was founded near St. Petersburg. It is believed that RSL belongs to the French sign language family due to the fact that the first two sign language teachers were from France and Austria. Beyond a speaker base in Israel,[2] researchers do not know for sure if RSL is used outside of Russia; it may also be used in Ukraine, Belarus or Tajikistan.[3]
Much of the early research on RSL was done by Galina Lazarevna Zaitseva, who wrote her 1969 PhD thesis on spatial relationships in Russian Sign Language, and in 1992 devised the now standard term for Russian Sign Language "Russkii Zhestovyi Yazyk" (Russian: Русский Жестовый Язык).
Most deaf people in Russia are born to hearing families and therefore are not provided the opportunity to acquire a native-like command over RSL. Bilingualism between RSL and written or spoken Russian is very common.
Signed Russian differs from RSL in that it is an artificial form of communication which closely follows Russian word order and adds Russian grammatical features not found in RSL. Sign Russian has a higher social status than RSL because of its association with literacy and higher education. This higher status is due educational policies, such the near-exclusive use of Signed Russian at deaf schools by teachers. Many Deaf RSL users see their language as a jargon without grammar. These social factors have caused RSL to be significantly influenced by Russian in its vocabulary and some syntactic structures as well.
There appears to be a relatively significant amount of regional variation in RSL comparable to regional variants of Polish Sign Language or Estonian Sign Language. One study reported lexical similarity between two Russian signers at around 70–80%.[4]
The basic word orders in RSL appears to be SVO and SOV. A 2012 study found that that subject came before the predicate 95% of the time. Additionally, the object was placed before the verb 74-81% of the time. In situations where the subject and object can switch places, SVO word order is preferred; the same can be said for sentences with animate objects. Topicalization, marked by either by lowered eyebrows and a head nod or just raised eyebrows, introduces previously mentioned information.[5] Although RSL lacks determiners, pointing signs can act like demonstratives to mark definiteness. Lexical signs may also be doubled in the sentence to add emphasis or to foreground something (see below).Verbs may take one, two or no arguments at all in RSL. There are also several alternations that change the argument structure in predictable ways. Examples of this include impersonal, reciprocal and causative constructions. In this respect RSL is typologically similar to other languages.[6]
Classifier predicates are highly iconic verbal signs in which the handshape represents an object and the movement expresses how the object moves.[7] RSL classifier predicates use SOV word order[8] and are do not seem to be intrinsically associated with particular argument structures.
Whereas tense is marked analytically or lexically, aspectual distinctions are marked morphologically. Examples of the latter include repeating the sign to indicate habituality, slow movement for durativity, and a single quick movement for completivity.
Adjectives and temporal adverbials along with negative, tense markers all come after the base of the sign. Question words tend to come at the end of the sentence. The plural may be marked either by doubling the sign or by signing MNOGO 'many' or RAZNYJ 'various' after the base sign. A dual meaning of the noun can be expressed by signing the predicate with both hands. Naturally masculine signs are signed at the upper part of the face whereas feminine ones are signed on the lower part of the face.[9]
Similar to other sign languages, RSL makes extensive use of facial expressions for grammatical purposes and signs are either performed with one or both hands. An example of the former include a headshake, furrowed eyebrows and wrinkled nose for negation. This form of negation must include the manual sign NOT, but the facial element may spread to other parts of the sentence.
A 2019 study identified 116 handshapes in a corpus of more than 5000 images, 23 of which were phonologically distinct.
The current legal status of RSL is as follows:
There are several problems concerning the study and application of sign language in Russia, which Valery Nikitich Rukhledev, President of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf[11] cited:
However, there is hope that the situation can change. On 4 April 2009, at the Russian Council on The Disabled, President Dmitry Medvedev discussed the issue of the status of sign language in Russia. In his closing remarks, the President of the Russian Federation expressed his opinion: