Native to Norway, Glottolog norw1261 | ISO 639-3 nsl – Norwegian SL | |
Native speakers 15,000 speakers in Norway (2005) Language family French Sign
Danish Sign
Norwegian Sign Language | ||
Norwegian Sign Language, or NSL (Norwegian: norsk tegnspråk, NTS), is the principal sign language in Norway. There are many sign language organizations and some television programs broadcast in NSL in Norway. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation airs Nyheter på tegnspråk (News in Sign Language) daily and Tid for tegn (Time for Signs) weekly.
Norway is in the process of making NSL an official language.
Relation to Malagasy Sign Language
The language is sometimes reported to be similar, or even identical to the sign language used in Madagascar. In fact, while Norwegian Sign Language may have influenced Malagasy sign language via the creation of schools for the deaf by Norwegian Lutheran missionaries, the languages are quite distinct. Out of a sample of 96 sign pairs, 18 pairs were identical between the two languages, 26 showed some level of similarity, and 52 appeared completely unrelated. It is not yet known to what degree the similarities are a result of direct borrowing, borrowing from a common source language (such as ASL or International Sign Language, mimesis of the thing they refer to, or sheer coincidence.