Rennellese Sign Language
Extinct home sign language of Rennell Island
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rennellese Sign Language is an extinct form of home sign documented from Rennell Island in the Solomon Islands in 1974.[3] 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, in January 2017 its ISO 639-3 code [rsi] was retired.[4] Rolf Kuschel,[3] the only source of information about this communication system, cites no evidence to suggest that there was any contact with any sign language.
| Rennellese Sign Language | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Solomon Islands |
| Region | Rennell Island |
| Extinct | ca. 2000[1] |
none (home sign) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | (rsi deprecated in 2017 due to spurious)[2] |
rsi.html | |
| Glottolog | renn1236 |
| ELP | Rennell Island Sign Language |
Further reading
- Kuschel, Rolf [in German] (1987). "Renellese". In Van Cleve, John V. (ed.). Gallaudet Encyclopedia of Deaf People and Deafness. Vol. 3. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. pp. 105–106. ISBN 9780070792296. OCLC 13821696.
