Peruvian Sign Language


Peruvian Sign Language is the deaf sign language of Peru. It is used primarily outside the classroom.
Variations exist geographically and among generations and religious groups, while the variety used in Lima is the most prestigious one. 70 Peruvian schools offer help for deaf students. There are 11 schools for the deaf in Peru, though two of them are oral and use only Spanish. Although the government tries to integrate deaf students into mainstream educational programs, deaf social gatherings keep the Peruvian Sign Language strong.

Classification

Clark notes that Peruvian, Bolivian, Ecuadorian and Colombian sign languages "have significant lexical similarities to each other" and "contain a certain degree of lexical influence from ASL" as well, at least going by the forms in national dictionaries. Chilean and Argentinian share these traits, though to a lesser extent. Clark counts the lexical similarities to Peruvian SL as Ecuadorian, Bolivian, Colombian, Chilean, and Argentinean.