A reference corpus of the Malian Sign Language/Langue des Signes Malienne (LSM)
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| Language | Langue des Signes Malienne |
| Depositor | Victoria Nyst |
| Affiliation | Leiden University |
| Location | Mali |
| Collection ID | 0108 |
| Grant ID | IPF0114 |
| Funding Body | ELDP |
| Collection Status | Collection online |
| Landing Page Handle | http://hdl.handle.net/2196/c7ce7509-964a-4666-a3de-5c6bc1b69b15 |
Summary of the collection
African sign languages are severely under-researched. This project is a documentation of the Langue des Signes Malienne (LSM). In the absence of deaf education, LSM has emerged naturally. Once deaf schools were established, LSM was initially used for instruction, but was replaced by American Sign Language in 2001. Having virtually no child users, LSM is seriously endangered. During three field trips, a team consisting of three native LSM signers and the applicant, recorded a diverse sample of texts, transcribing them in a time-aligned annotation system. In addition, the project generated a video vocabulary and a basic grammar CD of LSM.
Group represented
LSM is used by the deaf community in Bamako, Mali. The number of users is unknown.
Language information
Alternative names for LSM include Malian Sign Language, Langue des Signes Bambara, and Bamako Sign Language.
Unlike many other sign languages, LSM has arisen outside of a school context, as a result of regular interaction between Deaf people in the streets of Bamako. As late as 1994, the first school for the Deaf was established in Bamako. This school initially used Langue de Signes Française, but switched to ASL at the end of the nineties. Soon after that, the second school for the deaf was established by a Canadian linguist, Dominique Pinsonneault, who also published a vocabulary of about 570 LSM signs. The second school used LSM as the medium of instruction. The difference in the language of instruction resulted in a long controversy between the schools. The Ministry of Education resolved the issue in 2001 by deciding that both schools should use ASL.
The decision to use ASL negatively impacts the usage of LSM. World-wide an estimated 95% of deaf children are born to hearing, non-signing parents, meaning that deaf schools are a crucial factor in the transmission of a sign language. Although LSM has arisen outside of an educational context, present and future deaf children in Bamako grow up using ASL. Adult deaf signers too are eager to learn and use ASL and are often bilingual. Thus, ASL is gradually replacing LSM. Having virtually no child users and a lower status compared to ASL, LSM should be considered a seriously endangered language.
Special characteristics
At the time of creation, this is the only digital collection of Malian Sign Language and probably the first digital collection of an African sign language.
Collection contents
This collection contains a corpus of Langue des Signes Malienne, collected in Bamako and Mopti between 2007 and 2009. The material consists of video clips annotated in ELAN at the gloss, translation or abstract level. The recordings contain spontaneous narratives and dialogues as well as semi-spontaneous discourse in response to cartoons and picture-based tasks. A subset of the recordings specifically targets the collection of lexical items. The clips feature 65 – mostly Deaf – signers. Some of the recordings show signers using the Malian variety of American Sign Language (ASL) or a contact form of Langue des Signes Malienne and ASL. The collection includes some video material recorded by others prior to 2007.
Acknowledgement and citation
Acknowledge as: Corpus Langue des Signes Malienne (Bamako & Mopti)
To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:
Nyst, Victoria. 2010. Un Corpus de Reference de la Langues des Signes Malienne. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/00-0000-0000-0001-EBE1-8. Accessed on [insert date here].
