Malagasy Sign Language

The Malagasy Sign Language (Malagasy: Tenin'ny Tanana malagasy, abbreviated TT) is a sign language used for communication among hearing impaired people in Madagascar. An estimated 110,000 to 170,000 people (or 1% of the population of Madagascar) are deaf. Malagasy Sign Language is similar to Norwegian Sign Language because the first deaf school in Madagascar was founded in 1960 by the Malagasy Lutheran Church with the assistance of a number of Norwegians, including Norwegian teachers.^[1] That said, a large number of signs in Malagasy Sign seem to be completely unrelated to their Norwegian Sign counterparts.^[1] Seven deaf schools in Madagascar are sponsored by Evangelical Lutherans.^[2]

Danish Sign Language family tree
French Sign (c. 1760–present) local/home sign Danish Sign (c. 1800–present) Faroese Sign (c. 1960–present) Greenlandic Sign (c. 1950–present) Icelandic Sign (c. 1910–present) Norwegian Sign (c. 1820–present) Malagasy Sign (c. 1950–present)

Malagasy Sign Language
Madagascar Sign Language Tenin'ny Tanana Malagasy
Native to	Madagascar
Language family	French Sign Danish Sign Norwegian Sign Malagasy Sign Language
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mzc
Glottolog	mada1271

External links

• WikiSigns.org – Malagasy Sign Language Dictionary