View source for Turkish Sign Language

{{Short description|Deaf sign language of Turkey}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Turkish Sign Language
|nativename=Türk İşaret Dili
|states=[[Turkey]], [[Northern Cyprus]]
|speakers=250,000
|date=2021
|ref=e25
|speakers_label=Signers
|familycolor=Sign
|family=[[Language isolate]]
|ancestor=Possibly from [[Ottoman Sign Language]]
|iso3=tsm
|glotto=turk1288
|glottorefname=Turkish Sign Language
}}

'''Turkish Sign Language''' ({{langx|tr|Türk İşaret Dili, TİD}}) is the language used by the [[deaf]] community in [[Turkey]]. As with other [[sign languages]], TİD has a unique grammar that is different from the oral languages used in the region.

TİD uses a two-handed [[manual alphabet]] which is very different from the two-handed alphabets used in the [[BANZSL]] sign languages. It also uses the tongue in certain phrases.

==Grammar==
There is little published information on Turkish Sign Language. Turkish Sign Language exhibits a subject-object-verb order (SOV). There is a rich set of modal verbs which appear in a clause-final position.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Serpil |last1=Karabüklü |first2=Fabian |last2=Bross |first3=Ronnie B. |last3=Wilbur |first4=Daniel |last4=Hole |year=2018 |title=Modal signs and scope relations in TID |journal=Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory |volume=2 |pages=82–92 |doi=10.31009/FEAST.i2.07 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Signing communities==
According to the [[Turkish Statistical Institute]], there are a total of 89,000 people (54,000 male, 35,000 female) with [[hearing impairment]] and 55,000 people (35,000 male, 21,000 female) with speaking disability living in Turkey, based on 2000 census data.<ref>[http://www.tuik.gov.tr/AltKategori.do?ust_id=11&ust_adi=N%FCfus%2C+Konut+ve+Demografi Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu, Nüfus, Konut ve Demografi Verileri 2000]</ref>

==History==
TİD is dissimilar from European sign languages. There was a [[Ottoman Sign Language|court sign language]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]], which reached its height in the 16th century and 17th centuries and lasted at least until the early 20th.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Miles |first=M. |year=2000 |title=Signing in the Seraglio: Mutes, dwarfs and jestures at the Ottoman Court 1500-1700 |journal=Disability & Society |volume=15 |number=1 |pages=115–134 |doi=10.1080/09687590025801 |s2cid=145331019}}</ref> However, there is no record of the signs themselves and no evidence the language was ancestral to modern Turkish Sign Language.<ref>[http://turkisaretdili.ku.edu.tr/en/tid.aspx ''Turkish Sign Language (TİD) General Info''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415064343/http://turkisaretdili.ku.edu.tr/en/tid.aspx |date=2012-04-15 }}, Dr. [[Aslı Özyürek]], Koç University website, accessed 2011-10-06</ref>

Deaf schools were established in 1902, and until 1953 used TİD alongside the Turkish spoken and written language in education.<ref>Deringil, S. (2002). İktidarın Sembolleri ve İdeoloji: II. Abdülhamid Dönemi (1876–1909), YKY, İstanbul, 249.</ref> Since 1953 Turkey has adopted an [[Oralism|oralist]] approach to deaf education.

==See also==
*[[Sign language]]
*[[Deafness]]
*[[Deafness in Türkiye]]

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051013081634/http://turkisaretdili.ku.edu.tr/ Turkish Sign Language] (Turkish and English) Website including dictionary and general information, by the [[Turkish Academy of Sciences]] and [[Koç University]]
*[http://www.turkdeaf.org Turkish National Deaf Federation] homepage (Turkish and English).

{{Languages of Turkey}}
{{Languages of Cyprus}}
{{sign language navigation}}

{{Turkey-stub}}
{{sign-lang-stub}}

[[Category:Sign languages]]
[[Category:Sign language isolates]]
[[Category:Languages of Turkey]]
[[Category:Disability in Turkey]]
[[Category:Sign languages of Turkey]]
[[Category:Language isolates of Asia]]
[[Category:Language isolates of Europe]]