"Sign Languages of the world" provides information on some 38 sign languages, including basic facts about each of the languages, structural aspects, history and culture of the Deaf communities, and history of research. This comparative handbook is accessible to a less specialist audience.
"Sign Languages of the world" (approximately 1000 pages) is edited by Julie Bakken Jepsen, Goedele De Clerck, Sam Lutalo-Kiingi an William McGregor and published by De Gruyter.
De Gruyter: "Although a number of edited collections deal with either the languages of the world or the languages of particular regions or genetic families, only a few cover sign languages or even include a substantial amount of information on them. This handbook provides information on some 38 sign languages, including basic facts about each of the languages, structural aspects, history and culture of the Deaf communities, and history of research. This information will be of interest not just to general audiences, including those who are deaf, but also to linguists and students of linguistics. By providing information on sign languages in a manner accessible to a less specialist audience, this volume fills an important gap in the literature."
"Sign Languages of the world" is organised into two main parts. Part I consists of chapters on a selection of the world's deaf sign languages. Part II consists of a smaller set of chapters on alternate sign languages including those of Aboriginal Australia, monastic sign languages, hunting signs of the Ts'ixa of the Kalahari, and Plains Indian Sign Language.
The editors see this book as an initial step towards meeting the challenge of a comprehensive overview of sign languages of the world.
Julie Bakken Jepsen is a doctoral scholar at Aarhus University in Denmark. Goedele De Clerck is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders, working at Ghent University in Belgium. Sam Lutalo-Kiingi is Sign Language Lecturer and Postdoctoral Fellow of the Endangered Languages Documentation Program (SOAS, London), working at Kyambogo University in Uganda. William McGregor is professor of linguistics at Aarhus University.
"Challenging prejudiced beliefs that sign languages are inferior to spoken languages or are not even true languages, and that deaf people are 'disabled' continues to be a core experience in the emancipation of processes of deaf people around the world."
ISBN 978-1-61451-796-2
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-61451-817-4
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-5015-0102-9
http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/429986