Vlaamse Gebarentaal in Belgium

Speakers

13,000

Type

Location

Vlaamse Gebarentaal in Belgium

Country

Information available

1. Basics

Names

Vlaamse Gebarentaal in Belgium

Size

13,000

2. Status

Status

  • Official country wide language
  • Official regional language
  • Official minority language
  • Recognised community language
  • Unrecognised community language
National language
No
Indigenous language
No
Comments
Since April 26 2006, VGT has been culturally recognized by the Flemish government.

3. State

Documentation: materials

Written

  • Extended corpora
  • Annotated corpora
  • Corpus/corpora
  • Materials/corpus
  • Some materials
  • No materials
Comments
Sign languages use the visual-manual modality and do not have a traditional or formal written form. Nevertheless, several ways to represent sign languages in written form have been developed.

divider

Video

  • Extended corpora
  • Annotated corpora
  • Corpus/corpora
  • Materials/corpus
  • Some materials
  • No materials
Digital
Yes

divider

Documentation: descriptions

  • Elaborated dictionaries, grammars, statistical language models, etc.
  • Dictionaries and grammars
  • Dictionary and grammar
  • Glossary and descriptions
  • Few descriptions
  • No descriptions
Digital
Yes

Standardization

  • Modern standard language
  • Young standard language
  • Standardised language
  • Quasi-standard language
  • Semi-standardised language
  • Un-standardised language
Comments
There is no standardized sign language in Flanders. There is however an ongoing process of spontaneous standardization (mostly due to increased contact between deaf people from different regions).

4. Users

Geographical distribution

  • Users live and dominate in all regions of the country
  • Users live in one [state/...] of the country
  • Users live in a cross-border region [state/...] of the country
  • Users live in separated [states/...] of the country
  • Users live dispersed across one [state/...] of the country
  • Users live scattered all over the country

Settlements

  • Rural
  • Urban

Size / Number of users

Number of users

13000
Source
Loots, G., I. Devisé, G. Lichtert, N. Hoebrechts, C. Van de Ginste & I. De Bruyne (2003). De gemeenschap van doven en slechthorenden in Vlaanderen. Communicatie, taal en verwachtingen omtrent maatschappelijke toegankelijkheid. Gent: Cultuur voor Doven.
Year
2003
Comments

In Flanders, there are about 6,000 deaf sign language users, and 7,000 hearing people who know Flemish Sign Language.

Users within total population

Less than 1% use the language

Users within the reference community

Less than 1% use the language
Comments
About 800,000-900,000 people in Flanders have some form of hearing loss. Only 6,000 deaf and hard of hearing people use sign language as their first language.

Age distribution of users

Comments

Data not available

Generational use

All generations
Comments

As approximately 95% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who do not know sign language, Flemish Sign Language is not usually passed on from parent to child. Deaf children of hearing parents mostly learn the language from (slightly older) peers at school. However, the give or take 5% of deaf children that are born to deaf parents, do learn VGT from birth. It is as of yet not clear how many deaf parents sign to their hearing children.

Educational attainment

Comments

Data not available

Occupational qualifications

Comments

Flemish Sign Language is - to a small extent - used in every sector (almost every sector has deaf signers working in it), but not structurally.

Language competence

Comments

Data not available

Literacy of users

Comments

Data not available

Digital use

More than 50% digital users of the language

5. Use

Socio-geographic dimension

Geographic scope
  • International
  • Supranational
  • Cross-border (states)
  • State-wide
  • Supra-regional cross-border
  • Supra-regional
  • Regional cross-border
  • Regional
  • Local
Comments
Flemish Sign Language is used in Flanders, the northern part of Belgium, and in the capital of Brussels.

Functional use in administration

Comments
Direct communication in Flemish Sign Language is (almost) impossible. However, sometimes messages are made accessible through interpreters or translations into Flemish Sign Language.

Ethnoculture

Formal Education

Comments
Flemish Sign Language is used in a small part of special education, type 7. However, most students are mainstreamed these days. Mainstream education can partly be made accessible through interpreters. From 2023, bilingual Dutch-Flemish Sign Language classes will be established in regular, primary education (2,5 - 12 years old).

Public healthcare

Comments
Flemish Sign Language is only used in (public) healthcare when an interpreter/a translation is present.

Information, communication and cultural production

Digital sphere

  • Language not used
  • Texting and messaging
  • Social media
  • Blogs, web pages, e-books
  • Edutainment products and services
  • Social media have a localized interface
  • Localized web search and e-commerce services
  • Localized operating systems
  • Machine translation
  • Top level domain name
  • Language not used
  • Texting and messaging
  • Social media
  • Blogs, web pages, e-books
  • Edutainment products and services
  • Social media have a localized interface
  • Localized web search and e-commerce services
  • Localized operating systems
  • Machine translation
  • Top level domain name
  • Language not used
  • Texting and messaging
  • Social media
  • Blogs, web pages, e-books
  • Edutainment products and services
  • Social media have a localized interface
  • Localized web search and e-commerce services
  • Localized operating systems
  • Machine translation
  • Top level domain name

Legal system

Comments
Flemish Sign Language is only used in the legal system when an interpreter/a translation is present.

Completion