Rennellese Sign Language

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Rennellese Sign Language
Native to Solomon Islands
Extinct ca. 2000
none (home sign)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 rsi (proposed for retirement)
Glottolog renn1236[1]

Rennellese Sign Language is an extinct form of home sign documented from Rennell Island in 1974.[2] It was developed about 1915 by a deaf person named Kagobai and used by his hearing family and friends, but apparently died with him; he was the only deaf person on the island, and there never was an established, self-replicating community of signers. Accordingly, as of January 2016, its ISO 639-3 code has been proposed for retirement.[3]

Classification

Wittmann (1991)[4] proposed that RSL was a language isolate (a 'prototype' sign language), though one developed through stimulus diffusion from an existing sign language. However, his classification presupposes that it was a full language, which is almost certainly not the case, and Kuschel[2] (the only source of information about this communication system) cites no evidence to suggest that there was any contact with any sign language.

References

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  4. Wittmann, Henri (1991). "Classification linguistique des langues signées non vocalement." Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée 10:1.215–88.[1]