Singapore Sign Language: The unique, visual language of Deaf Singaporeans

Singapore Sign Language: The unique, visual language of Deaf Singaporeans

For Deaf Singaporeans, Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) is more than a set of gestures, and more than a way to communicate.

“It is a distinct language that embodies the cultural identity of the Deaf community in Singapore,” explains Josh Lye, executive director of The Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf).

Phoebe Tay, a PhD candidate in linguistics who is deaf, describes SgSL as a natural sign language of Deaf Singaporeans with its own grammar and structure. It is a language that conveys meaning through a combination of hand shapes, movements and facial expressions, and has a grammatical structure that is distinct from spoken and written English.

For Deaf Singaporeans, SgSL is their language.

The term “deaf” (lower-case “d”) refers to the medical condition of hearing loss – in varying degrees. “Deaf” (capital letter “D”) describes people with hearing loss who identify as part of the Deaf community and prefer to use sign language.

SgSL evolved organically within the Deaf community and is “a unique reflection of Singapore’s national heritage and multilingual culture”, says Lye.

SgSL has roots in Shanghainese Sign Language (SSL), which was taught in Singapore’s first school for the deaf, the Singapore Chinese Sign School for the Deaf in the 1950s, alongside written Chinese, which was the other language of instruction of the school. Peng Tsu Ying, one of the school’s founders, taught the techniques and the sign language he had learnt while growing up in Shanghai.

In the 1970s, Lim Chin Heng, a former student of Peng’s who studied in America, brought back American Sign Language (ASL) to the local Deaf community, as well as Signing Exact English, which is not a language in itself, but a manual code that represents English grammar visually.

With the help of four Deaf Singaporeans – Andrew Tay, Shariffah Faaiqah, Amirul Afiq and Lisa Loh – we’ll discover how these varied influences have shaped their language and how some of these signs have changed over time.

Click here to find out more!

BY ALEXIS GABRIELLE, ALYSSA KARLA MUNGCAL, CHARLES TAMPUS, HANNAH ONG, KHOO ZI QI | PUBLISHED: DEC 18, 2024