Yolngu Sign Language: An Undocumented Language of Arnhem Land

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Publication TypeJournal articleAbstractRecently there has been an increase in studies documenting the world’s languages. Most of
these studies concentrate on spoken languages but there is a growing effort to document
sign languages. In this short paper we describe one of the many undocumented sign
languages of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. This Indigenous sign
language is known locally as Yolngu Sign Language (YSL). Although this language is used
in daily interaction, many of its users are not aware that it is a language per se. With
this brief description of YSL we hope to make our readers aware of the existence of this
language. Another aim of this paper is to generate some general discussion on the status
of Indigenous sign languages in Arnhem Land, which we believe have become endangered.
Although YSL is an endangered language there are still measures that can be taken to
prevent this language disappearing.AuthorMaypilama, E. Adone, D.Date2013Publication CollectionNorthern Institute - Learning Communities: International Journal of Learning in Social ContextsVolume13/ 2013Page Number37-44CopyrightCC By. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia LicenseISSNISSN 1329-1440 (online)ISSN 2202-7904 (print)PublisherFaculty of Law, Education, Business and Arts CHARLES DARWIN UNIVERSITYPlace of PublicationDarwin