Kaapor Sign Language

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Kaapor Sign Language is not extinct

Paulo Jeferson Pilar Araújo, Wed, 2022-08-10 11:42
Regarding: 
Language Status
ISO 639-3: 
uks

Ka'apor Sign Language is still used by Deaf and hearing Ka'apor people in Maranhão State in Brazil. A more recent research defended as a dissertation brings a good amount of data about the vitality of the language.

In his PhD dissertation, Gustavo Godoy mentioned about 13 to 15 Deaf indigenous people in diferent villages using Kaapor Sign Languages (Godoy: 2020, p. 61). That number might be bigger as the researcher did not have access to other villages where there are more Deaf people. The researcher also recorded Deaf indigenous signing in his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltuSbKYQBP4 

I sugest to update the references on the language including Godoy's dissertation:

Godoy, G. Os Ka'apor, os gestos e os sinais. (Unpulished dissertation), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2020.

Available at: http://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/tese%3Agodoy-2020/Godoy_...

and also an article: 

https://revistas.ufrj.br/index.php/rl/article/view/36942/22618


I am sure changing the status of the Ka'apor Sign Language will encourage more researchers to pay attention to that sign language as well as other village sign languages in Brazil.  

Editorial Action

We will make the necessary updates and changes to the entry for Ka'apor Sign Language [uks] in Brazil, for inclusion in the next edition of the Ethnologue.