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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML+RDFa 1.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/DTD/xhtml-rdfa-1.dtd"> <html lang="en" dir="ltr" xmlns:fb="https://ogp.me/ns/fb#" xmlns:og="https://ogp.me/ns#"> <head profile="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml/vocab"> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/sil-favicon_0.ico" type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon" /> <meta name="description" content="SIL's Global Sign Languages Team contributes to the language development goals of Deaf communities through advocacy, the provision of technical services, training and research on sign languages. As languages of the eye rather than the ear, sign languages form a unique class of the world鈥檚 languages. Linguists have agreed that there are more than 149 identified so far, but" /> <meta name="keywords" content="sign language, language development in Deaf communities, technical support training and research on sign languages, sign, languages" /> <meta name="generator" content="Drupal 7 (https://www.drupal.org)" /> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.sil.org/sign-languages" /> <link rel="shortlink" href="https://www.sil.org/node/243" /> <meta property="og:site_name" content="SIL Global" /> <meta property="og:type" content="article" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://www.sil.org/sign-languages" /> <meta property="og:title" content="Sign Languages" /> <meta property="og:description" content="SIL's Global Sign Languages Team contributes to the language development goals of Deaf communities through advocacy, the provision of technical services, training and research on sign languages. As languages of the eye rather than the ear, sign languages form a unique class of the world鈥檚 languages. Linguists have agreed that there are more than 149 identified so far, but research to identify the world鈥檚 sign languages is far from finished. SIL estimates that the actual number may exceed 400. For many Deaf people sign languages are their primary means of communication." /> <meta property="og:updated_time" content="2024-01-19T05:54:21-06:00" /> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary" /> <meta name="twitter:url" content="https://www.sil.org/sign-languages" /> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Sign Languages" /> <meta name="twitter:description" content="SIL's Global Sign Languages Team contributes to the language development goals of Deaf communities through advocacy, the provision of technical services, training and research on sign languages. As" /> <meta property="article:published_time" content="2012-05-25T15:57:09-05:00" /> <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2024-01-19T05:54:21-06:00" /> <title>[Sign Languages] | SIL Global</title> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/css/css_lQaZfjVpwP_oGNqdtWCSpJT1EMqXdMiU84ekLLxQnc4.css" media="all" /> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/css/css_EM9PzeHZt2AxxQ3R05nXINg9akBOG66G3hxOgWtlp2E.css" media="all" /> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/css/css_y-6OGvqwgwpR259lzJYNwvxpJm3Q1qOD_DWt90goRpM.css" media="all" /> <style>.panels-flexible-new .panels-flexible-region { padding: 0; } .panels-flexible-new .panels-flexible-region-inside { padding-right: 0.5em; padding-left: 0.5em; } .panels-flexible-new .panels-flexible-region-inside-first { padding-left: 0; } .panels-flexible-new .panels-flexible-region-inside-last { padding-right: 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