2
Brentari, Diane (ed.). 2010. Cambridge Language Surveys: Sign Languages.
Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
Transmission
of
sign languages
in Northern Europe
Penny Boyes Braem and Christian Rathmann
Introduction
This chapter presents case studies
of
sign language transmission in European
countries in which the majority
of
inhabitants all speak a Germanic-based lan-
guage.
Owing to space constraints,
we
are focusing in this chapter on Switzerland,
Germany
and
the Netherlands as examples
of
the past and current practices
of
language transmission in this
part
of
Europe,
but
by no means should this overview
be
interpreted as being inclusive
of
other countries
of
the region.
2 Transmission
of
the three sign languages
of
Switzerland
2.1 The spoken language situation in Switzerland
Switzerland recognizes four
"National Languages," which are those used by the
majority
of
people in different geographical regions
of
the country: Eighteen cantons
are primarily Gem1an-speaking,
five
French, one Italian, one bilingual French/
German and one trilingual canton where German, Italian and Rhaeto-Romansh
are spoken. "National Languages," however, have historically not been the same as
the
"Official Languages," which are those that can be used legally at the federal level.
Romansh, for example, became
an
official language only in 1996. The "mother
tongues" actually spoken by Swiss people in their families and local communities
are not necessarily either "national" or "official" languages. "Mother tongue" lan-
guages used by a large number
of
persons
on
a daily basis include the several regional
dialects
of
"Swiss German" and, as approximately
20
percent
of
the population
living in Switzerland have foreign roots, such languages
as
Spanish, Portuguese,
Serb, Croatian, Albanian and English.
There
is
no standardized form
of
the Swiss-German and Rhaeto-Romansch
dialects learned by many persons as a mother tongue. Spoken Swiss
German
is
lexically
and
grammatically different from the
"Standard
German"
spoken in
neighboring Germany
and
has no conventional written form. As a consequence,
19
20
Sign Languages
Swiss
German
hearing children learn to read
and
write
"Standard
German"
and
not
their mother tongue, Swiss German.
This somewhat complex spoken language situation has consequences for Swiss
deaf
persons.
Deaf
children from the Swiss
German
cantons usually do
not
learn
the spoken
but
unwritten Swiss
German
dialects
of
their communities
but
are
taught to read
and
write
"Standard
German."
Their hearing families also usually
speak with them in
Standard
German, although this
is
not
a mother tongue
of
any
of
them.
Deaf
children from Rhaeto-Romansh areas have traditionally attended
schools for the
Deaf
in the German-speaking cantons, where they are taught to
speak, read
and
write in Standard
German
(Boyes Braem
eta!.
2000). Needless to
say, the children from other cultural
and
linguistic backgrounds also have home
languages, such as Portuguese
or
Albanian, which are different from whatever
official Swiss language
is
their school language.
2.2 The sign language situation in Switzerland
The three sign languages used in Switzerland are
Swiss
German Sign Language (Deutschschweizerische Gebii.rdensprache,
DSGS),
Swiss French Sign Language (Langue des Signes Suisse romande,
LSF-SR)
and
Swiss Italian Sign Language (Lingua dei Segni Italiana, LIS-SI).
There are
no
official statistics on
deaf
persons in Switzerland,
but
estimates based
on the internationally used formula
of
0.0 I signing
deaf
persons per thousand
of
a
population, as well as
on
membership in various clubs
and
organizations
and
on
clients
of
interpreter services, would indicate
that
of
the c.7.5million inhabitants
of
Switzerland, there are c.7,500
Deaf
signers, with c.5,500 in the eighteen primarily
German-speaking cantons,
1,700 in the seven primarily French cantons
and
300 in
the Italian canton. Whether the traditional formula
is
still valid for the younger
generations
of
deaf
children who now routinely receive cochlear implants
is
an
important
open question for future research. There are, in addition, c.l3,000
hearing signers in the country, an estimate based on the number
of
participants
in sign language classes. There are
no
figures for children
of
deaf
adults (CODAs).
In
the past, signers learned their languages either from
Deaf
family members or,
if
they came from hearing families, from
Deaf
peers
at
a regional school for the
deaf. This has changed radically in the
past
two decades, due primarily to the fact
that, beginning in the 1980s, an increasingly large
number
of
deaf
children have
received cochlear implantations
at
an
early age
and
have been educated only in the
Transmission
of
sign languages
in
Northern Europe
21
spoken language
of
their region, with no contact with signers.
Many
signers in these
rnore recent
deaf
generations have learned sign language as adolescents from the
d
ult
Deaf
community.
a
2.2.1
Official recognition
of
sign language
The sign languages
of
Switzerland are
not
recognized as either
"National"
or
"Official Languages" in the Swiss Constitution.
Part
of
the state's reasoning for
refusing the Swiss
Deaf
Association's
1993
petition
that
sign languages be officially
recognized was
that
the users
of
these languages were
not
all located in one
geographical "territory." .
In 1994, the Swiss Parliament did pass a postulate
that
"recommends sign
language for the integration
of
the
deaf
and
urges, together with the oral language,
its support in the fields
of
education, training, research
and
communication."
1
This
postulate represented a first step
but
falls short
of
an
official recognition
that
sign
languages are the
natural
languages
of
Deaf
people. Any implementation
of
most
of
the recommendations in the postulate, especially those concerning educational
practices, is left
up
to the decisions
of
the numerous different cantonal institutions
and governmental offices.
In
2002, in a federal law on nondiscrimination
of
disabled people, a special Article was added to specify
that
the government could
financially help institutions
and
cantons
that
encourage sign languages,
and
that
sign language can also be used for official administration proceedings (for example
in courts, with social agencies, etc.).
It
also stipulates
that
official political speeches
on television by members
of
the Swiss Federal Council (Bundesrat) be translated
by
sign language interpreters. As a result
of
the 1994 Postulate
and
the 2002
and earlier regulations, the federal government now subsidizes sign language
classes, the inter-cantonal training
of
sign language teachers
and
of
sign language
interpreters.
2.3
Descriptions
of
the three Swiss sign languages
None
of
the Swiss sign languages are standardized
and
all are composed
of
regional
dialects
that
differ primarily
at
the lexical level.
The
five
variants
of
DSGS
and
five
variants
ofLSF-SR
are related to the traditional residential schools for the
Deaf
in
these regions. The regional dialects
of
DSGS are Basel, Bern, Lucerne, St. Gallen
and Zurich. Although living in a different country, the
deaf
persons in
Liechtenstein use a sign language which seems to be closely related to
that
used
in the Swiss
German
cantons. The main regional varieties
of
LSF-SR
are those
of
Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchatel, Fribourg
and
Sion.
No
research has been done on
regional variation
of
LIS-SI,
but
deaf
persons have informally reported
that
there
22
Sign Languages
are two main varieties
of
this language, centered
on
the cities
of
Lugano
and
Bellinzona.
The sign language used in German Switzerland, DSGS,
is
similar to the sign
language used in the southern parts
of
Germany, LSF-SR to the sign language used
in France (LSF) and LIS-SI to Italian Sign Language (LIS).
An
interesting study
that
remains to be done
is
of
the extent to which these Swiss sign languages could be
considered regional dialects
of
the sign languages
of
these neighboring countries, a
question
that
is
reflected in the use
of
abbreviations for these languages. Signers in
French and Italian Switzerland usually refer to their languages with the abbrevia-
tions
that
are used for the related sign languages in neighboring countries. DSGS
has been used in research publications,
but
Swiss
German
signers do
not
usually
refer to their language with any abbreviation.
It
is
not
unusual for a Swiss
Deaf
person to know more
than
one
of
the Swiss sign
languages through personal contacts as well as national associations (such as
the Swiss
Deaf
Sports Association), as well as one or more foreign sign languages
(especially German, French, Italian and American sign languages).
Owing to fre-
quent encounters with persons using other sign languages, including
Deaf
refugees
and immigrants from other countries, many Swiss
Deaf
signers are also fluent in
some form
of
international signing.
Loan items from other sign languages do find their way into the lexicons
of
Swiss
sign languages, but the direction
of
borrowing seems to be asymmetrical. Signers
of
DSGS report a high regard for the aesthetic qualities
of
LSF-SR and are relatively
open to borrowing signs from that language. Signers
ofLSF-SR,
in contrast, report
resistance to borrowing from DSGS, which
is
viewed as the language
of
the
majority group
of
Swiss Deaf. Signers
of
DSGS,
on
their part, report a resistance
to borrowings from German Sign Language (DGS), due, again, to feelings
of
a
minority needing to protect itself against a neighboring majority language.
In
general, deaf persons in Ticino have more contact with
deaf
in Italy
than
with the
deaf
in the German
and
French areas
of
Switzerland, which represent "dominating
majorities"
and with whom they do
not
share a common spoken language. The
LIS-SI variety used around Bellinzona
is
more strongly influenced by sign lan-
guages
of
immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, Lithuania
and
Poland.
Signers
of
DSGS tend to use voiceless mouthings
of
German-like words
or
word
beginnings with their signing for lexical, prosodic and stylistic purposes (Boyes
Braem
2001b). Signers
of
LSF-SR use more fingerspelling with their signing
compared to signers
of
DSGS, who until very recently have used this very little.
As
few
DSGS signers are as yet as fluent in producing
or
reading fingerspelling, the
use
of
"initialized" signs
is
not
common for the creation
of
new DSGS signs. Both
fingerspelling and mouthings are used with the signing
of
LIS-SI.
Transmission
of
sign languages
in
Northern Europe
23
Deaf signers
of
both LSF-SR and DSGS have reported
that
they
feel
their
!ag
es
have changed over the past couple
of
decades, primarily in
an
expansion
Jangt
of the vocabulary with new lexical items replacing the older signing generation's
araphrases
or
simply mouthings alone for describing concepts for which there are
p
".
dG
"I
. 1· h
l
·gns DSGS signers also report
that
more
s1gne
erman
ex1ca
1tems ave
nos
·
crept into their language from the younger generations
of
Deaf
that
have attended
the
zurich
school for the deaf, where a ten-year program
of
"signed
German"
was
introduced in the 1980s (Maye, Ringli
& Boyes Braem 1987).
2.4 Swiss sign languages in
deaf
education
2.4.1
Education and attitudes toward
deqf
persons
in
the past
2.4.1.1
First schools for the
deqf
in
Switzerland The first classes for the
deaf
in
German Switzerland were begun in
1777
in the canton
of
Zurich and involved the use
oflocal signs as well as spoken German.
It
was in Zurich in
1783
that the historical
debate took place between the German proponent
of
the oral methodology, Samuel
Heinicke, and proponents
of
Abbe Charles-Michel de !'Epee's "methodological
signs."
Schools for the deaf were established in Switzerland between
1811
and
1838,
including Johan Heinrich Pestalozzi's school in Yverdon? All
of
these schools
used sign language together with the spoken language in a "combined method" and
employed deaf teachers (Caramore
1988,
1990). As all teachers
of
the deaf were, until
1924,
trained directly in the schools, they became increasingly influenced by the
hiring
of
many fellow-teachers from Germany.
By
the middle
of
the nineteenth
century already, before the
1880
Congress
of
Milan, the Swiss schools had become
so
strongly influenced by German oral methods that they had turned away from their
earlier support
of
deaf teachers and signing.
2.4.1.2
Eugenics movement and
deaf
people
in
Switzerland Eugenics, a theory
of
improving the human race through breeding,
had
an
influential following in
Switzerland in the first
part
of
the twentieth century
and
was implemented through
several measures affecting the so-called
"degenerate" elements
of
the population, in
which deaf persons were included. After World
War
I, the proponents
of
eugenics
saw the increase in the deaf school population in contrast to the stagnating general
population as a danger
that
the congenitally impaired sections
of
the population
were increasing
at
the cost
of
the non-impaired citizens.
According to the then director
of
the Zurich
"Deaf
and
Dumb
Institute,"
The aim
of
the caretaking
of
the deaf and dumb
is,
and must remain, to
make itself superfluous. We should not let ourselves be satisfied with
24
Sign Languages
raising
our
children to be people who strive to be good, capable and
able to take care
of
themselves. We have the duty to help shape the
research and to stem the tide
of
deafness.
(Hepp
&
Nager
1926:11)
The Swiss medical and educational authorities did
not
chose, however, to adopt the
extreme measures
of
the National Socialists in neighboring Germany, but rather
relied on other means, such
as
the clergy forbidding marriages
of
deaf
persons,
placement
of
deaf women in institutions where their becoming pregnant was less
likely, abortions, as well as
voluntary-
and as a last resort,
obligatory-
steriliza-
tion. These attempts to eradiate deafness continued in Switzerland until the 1950s.
The
Deaf
community began only in the 1990s to re-examine this historical period
(Winteler 1995, Boyes Braem
et
al.
2000).
2.4.2 Current educational situation
2.4.2.1 Cochlear implantation, parents' associations and counseling services The
practice
of
cochlear implantation
is
widespread throughout Switzerland, with the
entire cost
of
the procedure covered by the federal Disability Insurance. In 2006,
approximately
80
percent
of
deaf infants were implanted, many
of
them
at
as
early
as thirteen months
of
age and the medical staff usually does
not
encourage parents
to use sign language with their deaf child. The Swiss Association
of
Parents
of
Deaf
Children as well as most counseling services for parents do officially mention sign
language as a possible form
of
communication,
but
their activities in practice,
especially in German Switzerland, concentrate primarily
on
information
about
cochlear implantation and oral education.
In
the late 1990s and early 2000, several playgroups using sign language were
started
up
all over the country; however, most
of
these playgroups no longer exist,
due to the lack
of
interest
of
new parents
of
young
deaf
children.
2.4.2.2
Primary and secondary school education The number
of
pupils in the
day and residential schools for the
Deaf
has been steadily decreasing over the
past decade, as the large majority
of
Swiss deaf children who have received a
cochlear implant are integrated into classes with hearing children, usually without
signing support. The small number
of
deaf
children still attending the traditional
residential schools tends to have additional disabilities
or
come from immigrant
families.
In
French Switzerland, the schools for the
deaf
in Geneva, Fribourg
and
Lausanne do have bilingual (LSF-SR/French) programs. In German Switzerland,
the Basel school has one experimental bilingual classroom
and
the Zurich school
offers a
few
classes per week taught in sign language by
Deaf
teachers.
3
In
Italian
Transmission
of
sign languages
in
Northern Europe
25
. ·land although in the past there was a school for the deaf, currently there
is
Swttzet '
. ional school for the small population
of
deaf children.
~~~
. .
After primary school, many Swiss deaf students now attend public htgh schools
with hearing children
but
some chose to attend a residential secondary school
f~r
the deaf in Zurich
or
in Fribourg,
4
or
a vocational training school for the
deaf
m
· h
sAt
these schools almost all
of
the main teachers are hearing, and
few
have
zunc
. ,
fluent sign language skills. As approximately two-thirds
of
the students
at
the vocational training school are hard
of
hearing (often due to early cochlear
implants), communication between the students themselves can also take place
in
the spoken language rather than in sign language.
At
the secondary school for the
deaf, signing takes place mainly in the dormitory.
2
.4.2.3
College and university-level education
In
order to enter any Swiss uni-
versity or technical college (Fachhochschule), one must have a special diploma
(Matura(Baccalaureat/Maturitd) from a secondary school. Secondary schools
for the deaf have in the
past
not
offered this kind
of
diploma and consequently
there have been very
few
deaf
Swiss who have been qualified to enter universities in
this country.
For
those who do make it into a university or college, sufficient
interpreting services are often
not
available for those who wish them.
In the absence
of
other Swiss university programs
that
are easily accessible for
Deaf persons, the part-time program for training
Deaf
teachers
of
sign language
6
has functioned since 1990 as a center for higher education for signing
deaf
students,
a kind
of
Swiss German "mini-Gallaudet." This program has been taught in sign
language and includes several courses on sign language linguistics and
Deaf
cul-
ture.
Deaf
persons have also participated as team members as well as informants in
all
research and development studies
of
DSGS, from which they receive a kind
of
"on-the-job" training in research principles and techniques.
2.5
Swiss sign language in
Deaf
communities
Deaf clubs and associations began springing up in many regions
of
the country in
the later nineteenth century providing places where the
Deaf
could communicate
with signs. This was done, however, in face
of
strong disapproval by the teachers
and professionals, who considered themselves to be the public representatives
of
the deaf. Until the 1920s,
deaf
who could
not
demonstrate good oral skills were
regarded as peculiar
or
rebellious, which, until the 1940s,
put
them in danger
of
becoming "mentally retarded" wards
of
the state (Gebhard 2007).
In
this environ-
ment, it
is
not
surprising
that
many deaf persons chose
not
to sign when in public,
or even to regard signing as a
"real" language. In the first church services for the
26
Sign Languages
deaf, one
of
the first ministers, Eugen Sutermeister (1929), himself deafened as a
child, was also a proponent
of
a
ban
on signing.
The local associations and clubs were united into a national
"Swiss
Deaf
and
Dumb
Association" (Schweizerische Taubstummenverein) in
1873.
It
was, how-
ever, not until1987
that
the French and German areas began publications
of
their
own
and
the dominance
of
the hearing professionals began to break down
(Gebhard
2007). In the early 1980s, the three regional
Deaf
Associations in the
German, French and Italian parts
of
the country also began to fight for the public
recognition
of
the
Deaf
person to sign, although
at
the beginning this was referred
to as
"signing" and only later
as
"sign language." In 2006, the three regional
associations joined together into one national organization, the Swiss Federation
of
the
Deaf
(SGB-FSS),
7
which, among other things, was responsible for almost
all sign language courses in the country as well as the development
of
sign
language learning materials. There are currently more materials available for
DSGS than for the other Swiss languages, although the newly nationalized
Swiss
Deaf
Association
is
currently making plans for producing such products
for LSF-SR and LIS-SI
as
well.~
In
recent years, a growing number
of
regional "Communication Forums"
("Kofos")
in the French and German cantons have become important places for
conveying information in sign language on political and social topics. In
both
French and German Switzerland, there
is
a tradition
of
sign language theatre
and
"Deaf
slams," competitions with signed poetry and stories, have become increas-
ingly popular. DeafWebsites and Blogs have also become forums in which Swiss
Deaf
routinely discuss, among other things, matters relating to their sign
languages.
As a counterpart to the many Swiss deaf groups
that
use
and
advocate sign
languages, there are also organizations, in
both
the
German
and
French areas,
of
oral-only communicating deaf persons, who advocate
not
using sign language.
9
As
Switzerland
is
such a small, and linguistically diverse, country, networking
with
Deaf
signers from other countries
is
an important influence
on
the form
and transmission
of
its sign languages. Swiss French
Deaf
have contact with
signers over the border in France, a connection
that
was particularly important
in setting up the first LIS-SR sign language courses and interpreter training
programs in the 1980s. Congresses and cultural events in Germany in the early
1990s
had
a great influence on the linguistic self-awareness
of
all Swiss
Deaf
and a renewed look
at
some form
of
signing in the classroom for educators.
Several Swiss
Deaf
from the French and German areas have, since the 1980s,
attended Gallaudet University in the United States for shorter
or
longer periods
of
time.
Transmission
of
sign languages
in
Northern Europe
27
2.6
Swiss sign languages in society
2.6.1
Sign language courses and sign language interpreting
in
Switzerland
All
teachers
of
sign language courses in Switzerland are themselves deaf. In
German Switzerland, there
is
a permanent training program for these teachers; in
the French area, there have been intermittent programs; there have been no
equivalent programs in the Italian canton.
part-time programs for interpreter training began in 1984 in Lausanne/Geneva
for LIS-SR and in Zurich in
1986
for DSGS.
10
In Italian Switzerland, there has
been only one interpreter training program (1996-1999). Despite these programs,
there are clearly
not
enough trained interpreters for the ever-growing demand in all
areas
of
the country, and the
deaf
client
is
often upset by not receiving requested
interpreting services.
2.6.2
Sign language
in
the Swiss Media/Internet
In
1998,
the bimonthly television program in German Switzerland, which commu-
nicated in DSGS, was dropped entirely from the public television.
In
order to
fill
the
information gap left for a
Deaf
audience, an Internet TV program (www.focus-S.tv)
was
begun by
Deaf
persons in
2003
with reports in DSGS, ASL and International
Signing.
In
French Switzerland, the TV program in LSF-SR for the
Deaf
("signes")
was
never cancelled.
In
Italian Switzerland, there
is
no television program for the
Deaf on the Italian Swiss television. Since
2007, all Swiss national television stations
are legally required to provide sign language interpretation
of
at
least one program
per day and, in
2008, the national Swiss television stations in all three areas
of
the
country began, in addition, the interpretation
of
one daily news program into the
local sign languages.
The Swiss government
is
now required by law to provide official information in
sign
language on some
of
its official websites, and some private companies are also
beginning to provide information in sign languages. Also available
on
the Web are
DSGS lexicons for technical terms, explanations
of
health topics in SLF-SR, as
well
as
Sign Writing
Notation
for both
of
these languages.
11
2.7
Sign language research and development
Research
on
sign languages in Switzerland has been greatly hampered by the
fact that, in contrast to most
of
its neighboring countries, there are no depart-
ments or faculty positions in any university
that
specialize in sign language or
have permanent faculty positions for sign language research. There has been
more research published
on
DSGS than
on
the other two Swiss sign languages,