Original Bangkok Sign Language

Facts

  • Language: Original Bangkok Sign Language
  • Alternate names: Old Bangkok Sign Language
  • Language code: 1kw
  • Language family: Sign Language; Southeast Asian (SIL classification)
  • Number of speakers: ~495
  • Vulnerability: Endangered
  • Script:

More information:

    "OBSL is an original sign language that developed among deaf people living in Bangkok in the Central Area of Thailand long before the first school for deaf people was established in 1951. Like users of other typical original sign languages, Deaf people who use OBSL have a separate Deaf Linguistic Identify... The massive introduction of American Sign Language vocabulary into the Thai deaf educational system severed the historical connection between OBSL and Modern Thai Sign Language." (Woodward & Suwanarat, 2015)