Egyptian Sign Language (Arabic: لغة الإشارة المصرية, romanized: lugha al-ʿišāra al-Miṣriyyati) is a sign language used by members of the deaf community in Egypt.
Egyptian Sign Language | |
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Region | Egypt |
Signers | 500,000 (2021)[1] |
Arab Sign Language family
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | esl |
Glottolog | egyp1238 |
Although there are no official statistics on the number of deaf people or the number of people who use Egyptian Sign Language as their primary language,[2] Gallaudet University's library resources website quotes a 1999 estimate of 2 million hearing impaired children,[3] while a 2007 study by the World Health Organization places the prevalence of hearing loss in Egypt at 16.02% across all age groups.[4] Egyptian Sign Language is not formally recognized by the government.[2]
Linguistically, Egyptian Sign Language is not related to other sign languages of the Arab World, such as Jordanian Sign Language, Palestinian Sign Language, or Libyan Sign Language.[5] Attempts at unification, creating an "Arabic Sign Language", have failed, as the unified form would be an entirely new language.[2]