Korean Sign Language in Republic of Korea

Speakers

Type

Location

Korean Sign Language in Republic of Korea

Country

Information available

1. Basics

Names

Korean Sign Language in Republic of Korea

Size

2. Status

Status

  • Official country wide language
  • Official regional language
  • Official minority language
  • Recognised community language
  • Unrecognised community language
National language
Yes
Indigenous language
No

3. State

Documentation: materials

Written

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

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

Asynchronicity

  • Pervasive uses of asynchronicity by all users in a wide range of domains
  • Frequent uses of asynchronicity by a majority of users in several contexts
  • Habitual uses of asynchronicity by a good number of users which may be limited to specific contexts
  • Occasional and unsystematic use of asynchronicity
  • Very limited use of asynchronicity by a few individuals only
  • Not used for purposes of asynchronicity

Standardization

  • Modern standard language
  • Young standard language
  • Standardised language
  • Quasi-standard language
  • Semi-standardised language
  • Un-standardised language

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

Users within the reference community

More than 50% use the language
Source
2020 한국수어 활용 조사, 국립국어원
(2020 Survey of Korean Sign Language Usage, National Institute of Korean Language)
Year
2020
Comments
The population of the survey was set to be a registered people with disabilities aged 20 years or older, who was categorized as Deaf and Hard of Hearing (severe disability). The sampling was conducted with a total of 539 Deaf people, applying two stage cluster sampling, considering the population’s disability grade, sex, and age of the population.

Generational use

50
All generations
Source

Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Republic of Korea
https://jumin.mois.go.kr/

Year
2021
Comments

This percentage is based on the total population of the country.

Language competence

Language not used
Understand little, speak/sign none
Understand some, speak/sign little
Understand well, speak/sign some
Understand all, speak/sign well
Understand all, speak/sign fluently

Digital use

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

Functional dimension

Functional scope
  • Public domains
  • Everyday domains
  • Private domains
Nature
complementary
Stability
Increasing

Functional use in administration

Language use in administration
  • International level
  • National level
  • Regional level
  • Local level
  • Auxiliary use
  • No use

Types of language use

  • signed / spoken use
  • written use
  • digital use

Public healthcare

  • Language not used
  • Translations
  • Healthcare information
  • Nursing care (incl. elderly)
  • Doctor-patient communication
  • Generally used

Information, communication and cultural production

Legal system

Language use in the legal system
  • General use
  • Legal transactions
  • Court proceedings
  • Written submissions
  • Spoken/signed testimonies
  • Language not used

Areas of law the language is used

  • Criminal law
  • Civil law
  • Administrative law

Geographical scope of legal language use

  • Local
  • Regional
  • National
  • International

Completion