View source for Polish Sign Language

{{Short description|Deaf sign language of Poland}}
{{Expand language|topic=|langcode=pl|otherarticle=Polski język migowy|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Polish Sign Language
|altname={{Lang|pl|Polski Język Migowy}}
|states=Poland
|speakers=40,000 to 50,000
|date=2014
|ref=e22
|familycolor=Sign
|fam1=[[Unclassified language|unclassified]], possibly an [[Language isolate|isolate]]
|iso3=pso
|glotto=poli1259
|glottorefname=Polish Sign Language
}}

'''Polish Sign Language''' ({{Langx|pl|Polski język migowy}}, '''{{Lang|pl|PJM|italic=no}}''') is the language of the [[deaf community]] in [[Poland]]. Polish Sign Language uses a distinctive [[Polish manual alphabet|one-handed manual alphabet]] based on the alphabet used in [[Old French Sign Language]] and therefore appears to be related to [[French Sign Language]]. It may also have common features with [[Russian Sign Language]] and [[German Sign Language]], which is related to the history of Poland during [[Partitions of Poland|the Partitions]], when [[Russification of Poles during the Partitions|Russification]] and [[Germanization of Poles during the Partitions|Germanization]] influenced the [[Polish language]], and may also have borrowings from the sign language used in the Austrian partition.{{CN|date=November 2021}} Its [[lexicon]] and [[grammar]] are distinct from the [[Polish language]], although there is a [[Manually Coded Language|manually coded]] version of Polish known as {{Lang|pl|[[Signed Polish|System Językowo-Migowy]]}} ({{Lang|pl|SJM|italic=no}}, or Signed Polish), which is often used by interpreters on television and by teachers in schools.

Polish Sign Language was first formed/became prevalent around 1817. Around that time, the [http://instytut-gluchoniemych.waw.pl/ Instytut Głuchoniemych] (Institute for the Deaf-Mute) was founded by [[:pl:Jakub Falkowski|Jakub Falkowski]], who began teaching deaf children after meeting a deaf boy by the name of Piotr Gąsowski.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://instytut-gluchoniemych.waw.pl/historia/ |title=<span lang="pl">Historia Instytutu Głuchoniemych: szkoły dla niesłyszących</span> |access-date=2020-08-21 |archive-date=2020-10-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008083115/http://instytut-gluchoniemych.waw.pl/historia/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1879, its first dictionary was published by Józef Hollak and Teofil Jagodziński, titled "<span lang="pl">Słownik mimiczny dla głuchoniemych i osób z nimi styczność mających</span>"<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26984269|title=Grammar of Polish Sign Language as Compared to Grammar of Polish Language: Selected Themes|first=Wiktor|last=Eźlakowski|date=Spring 2020|journal=[[Sign Language Studies]]|volume=20|issue=3|pages=518–532|doi=10.1353/sls.2020.0011|jstor=26984269|s2cid=219809339|access-date=12 January 2022|archive-date=12 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220112191522/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26984269|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> ("The Mimic Dictionary for the Deaf-Mute and Persons Having Contact with Them").

In 2012, under the "Sign Language Act", the [[Languages of Poland|language received official status in Poland]] and can be chosen as the language of instruction by those who require it.<ref>{{Cite web |url = http://www.biuletyn.agh.edu.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=839:29&catid=97:marzec-2012-nr-51 |title = <span lang="pl">Ustawa o języku migowym wchodzi w życie!</span> |author = AGH |date = 2012-03-23 |publisher = agh.edu.pl |access-date = 2018-05-27 |language = Polish |archive-date = 2018-05-28 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180528134305/http://www.biuletyn.agh.edu.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=839:29&catid=97:marzec-2012-nr-51 |url-status = dead }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Scholarly literature==
*Piotr Fabian and Jarosław Francik. "Synthesis and presentation of the Polish sign language gestures." 1st International Conf. on Applied Mathematics and Informatics at Universities. 2001.
*Farris, M. A. Sign language research and Polish sign language. ''Lingua Posnaniensis'' 36 (1994): 13–36. 
*Mariusz Oszust and Marian Wysocki. Polish sign language words recognition with Kinect. Human System Interaction (HSI), 2013 The 6th International Conference on. IEEE, 2013.
*Włodarczak, Aleksandra, Agnieszka Kossowska, and Małgorzata Haładewiczygrzelak. "Understanding Loans from Standard Polish into the Polish Sign Language." ''Communication as a Life Process'', Volume Two: ''The Holistic Paradigm in Language Sciences'' (2019): 73ff. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

==External links==
* {{in lang|pl}} [https://archive.today/19980220052642/http://lo13.univ.szczecin.pl/sosw/polski/palcowka/palcowka.htm Polish manual alphabet]
**(image [https://web.archive.org/web/20030514081311/http://lo13.univ.szczecin.pl:80/sosw/polski/palcowka/pictures/120dpi.gif here])
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060203213752/http://www.pzg.org.pl/zgpzg/zgpzg_about.htm Polish Association of the Deaf] official website
* {{in lang|pl}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20051221115233/http://www.pzg.org.pl/sc/sc_historia_ig.asp History of Polish Sign Language]

{{Languages of Poland}}
{{Polish language}}
{{sign language navigation}}

[[Category:Languages of Poland]]
[[Category:Sign languages]]
[[Category:Unclassified languages of Europe]]


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