Flemish Sign Language - Regional Variation

Regional Variation

It is now generally accepted and confirmed by research, that Flemish Sign Language consists of five regional varieties which have developed in and around the different Flemish deaf schools: West Flanders, East Flanders, Antwerp, Flemish Brabant, and Limburg (De Weerdt et al., 2003).

Next to the differences between the regions, there is intra-regional variation. One example is gender related variation. Until the 1970s, there were separate schools for Deaf boys and girls and this has led to gender variation: some of the signs which are generally used today were boys’ signs or girls’ signs in origin. There are of course more reasons for the relatively high degree of intra-regional variation.

At the moment there is no standardized sign language in Flanders, although there is an on-going process of spontaneous standardization (mostly due to increasing contacts between Deaf people from different regions).