German Sign Language

German Sign Language or Deutsche Gebärdensprache is the sign language of the Deaf community in Germany. It is often abbreviated as DGS. It is unclear how many use German Sign Language as their main language; Gallaudet University estimated 50,000 in 1986. The language has evolved though use in deaf communities over hundreds of years.

Recognition of German Sign Language
Germany has a strong oralist tradition and historically has seen a suppression of sign language. German Sign Language was first recognised legally in a disability act in May 2002. Since then, Deaf people have a legal entitlement to Sign Language interpreters when communicating with federal authorities, free of charge.

Very few television programs include an interpreter; those that do are the news and a news 'round-up'. There is at least one programme conducted entirely in German Sign Language called "Sehen Statt Hören" (Seeing Instead of Hearing), a documentary-style programme broadcasting every Saturday morning on the third public channel.

German and German Sign Language
German Sign Language is unrelated to spoken German. The two have very different grammars, though as the dominant language of the region, German has had some influence on German Sign Language. A signed system that represents the German language has been developed, which is known as "Signed German" (Lautsprachbegleitende Gebärden, Lautbegleitende Gebärden or LBG, meaning "sound-accompanying signs"). It is rarely used as a natural means of communication between deaf people. Another system of manually representing German is cued speech, known as "Phonembestimmes Manualsystem" (Phonemic Manual System). Similar systems that represent the English language are known as Manually Coded English.

Manual alphabet and fingerspelling
German Sign Language uses a one-handed manual alphabet ('Fingeralphabet' in German) derived from the French manual alphabet of the 18th century; it is related to manual alphabets used to across Europe and in North America.

Dialects and related languages
Regional variants of German Sign Language include Hamburg, Berlin, and Munich sign. Sign languages of regions in the former East Germany have a greater divergence from sign languages of the western regions; some may be unrelated. Other sign languages such as Swiss-German Sign Language (Deutschschweizer Gebärdensprache or DSGS) and Austrian Sign Language (Österreichische Gebärdensprache or ÖGS) are thought to be related to German Sign Language. Israeli Sign Language (ISL) is said to be a descendant of German sign language, as it evolved from the sign language used by German Jewish teachers who opened a school for deaf children in Jerusalem in 1932, and still shows some resemblance to its German counterpart.

Notation systems
Everyday users of German Sign Language use no written form of the language. In academic contexts, German Sign Language is usually described with the Hamburg notation system or HamNoSys. SignWriting also has its adherents in Germany.