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Number of Sign Languages?

adoroshow's picture

While reading Train Go Sorry and thinking about Deaf culture, I wondered exactly how many documented forms of sign language existed in the world.  The answer appears to be that no one really knows, but it's a lot.  One particularly interesting tidbit I found online had to do with a dying sign language that was invented by and intelligible only to one Turkish extended family so that its deaf members could communicate at family gatherings (https://www.degruyter.com/view/books/9781614511496/9781614511496.395/9781614511496.395.xml).