Language and Humor Blog

Quick, what’s the official language of New Zealand?

English? Wrong. It’s a trick question because there are three: English, Maori, and as of April 2006, New Zealand Sign Language (New Zealand Sign Language Act).

Now they’re having their First New Zealand Sign Language Week, May 7-13, 2007. There’s a lot of history and other information at the Official Site (via [New Zealand] Scoop Independent News).

This will coincide with Auckland’s 3rd New Zealand Deaf Short Film Competition on May 12, 2007 (deafshortfilm.co.nz). [EDIT (6/4/10): dead link]

How many people use New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL)? According to the New Zealand Office for Disability Issues (odi.govt.nz/what-we-do/nzsl-common-questions.html) [EDIT (6/4/10): dead link]:

Census 2001 data shows that 28,000 New Zealanders (including both Deaf and hearing people) use NZSL, and there are at least 210,000 deaf or hearing impaired people in New Zealand.

The above numbers are out of New Zealand’s 2001 3.7 million population (stats.govt.nz/census/2001-census-data/2001-popn-structure/highlights.htm). [EDIT (6/4/10): dead link]

NZSL users aren’t great in number or in percentage (0.76 percent). However, for a small number of deaf people, it’s their native language. For many others, a natural sign language is still the best way to gain access to knowledge, to communicate, and to learn written and even spoken English (or Spanish, Japanese, etc.). Lack of sufficient access to any language at all limits a person not just linguistically but cognitively and emotionally as well.

It’s hard to say which children can do well without sign language because deafness is extremely complicated. There are different:

• types (conductive vs. sensorineural, the latter brain/nerve problems cause highly distorted “underwater” sounds that aren’t likely to be improved by hearing aids)
• causes (congenital vs. adventitious, the latter including various illnesses, fevers, and accidents)
• ages of onset (pre-lingual child, post-lingual child, plus adult or elderly person)
• language environments (born to Deaf signing parents vs. the typical born to Hearing speaking parents)
• degrees of severity (minor to profound).

All of these factors, plus personality (introverted vs. extroverted, reflective vs. impulsive, empathy level, etc.) and other traits (general intelligence, linguistic intelligence, etc.) shape how someone learns concepts and language.

In addition, many deaf people naturally want to join the culture of people like themselves. This includes using the group’s language, a language that is comfortable because it has evolved for the hands and eyes.

If you want to see NZSL, there are short MP4/Quicktime videos at the sites of NZSL Week (seems to only work in Internet Explorer) and the NZ Office for Disability Issues.

See also my posts:

• 2006 BSL Learn to Sign Week (British Sign Language)
• Maori Language Week

See also elsewhere:

Europe: a continent of many sign languages from the European Commission