Mongolian Sign Language

Mongolian Sign Language (MSL; Mongolian: Монгол дохионы хэл, romanized: Mongol dokhiony khel) is a sign language used in Mongolia. Ethnologue estimates that there are between 9,000 and 15,000 deaf signers in Mongolia as of 2019^[update].^[3]

Mongolian Sign Language
Монгол дохионы хэл
Native to	Mongolia
Native speakers	16,000 (2021)[1]
Language family	French Sign? Austro-Hungarian Sign? Russian Sign Language?[2] Mongolian Sign Language
Language codes
ISO 639-3	msr
Glottolog	mong1264

A school for the deaf was established in Mongolia in 1964 with assistance from the Soviet Union. This resulted in many similarities between MSL and Russian Sign Language (RSL) for a time, but the two languages have since developed to be separate and distinct.^[4]

Linda Ball, a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, is believed to have created the first dictionary of MSL in 1995.^[5] In 2007, another MSL dictionary with 3,000 entries was published by Mongolia's Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science with assistance from UNESCO.^[6]