Alternate Names: Slovenian Sign Language
Dialects: Serbian Sign Language. Origin from deaf schools in Austria and Hungary. Regional variants, but adequate comprehension. Efforts to standardize since 1979. Slovenian Sign Language , used in Slovenia is a dialect. Possibly includes Croatian Sign Language , and sign languages in other Balkan states (Bickford 2005); further research is needed especially to determine if these are dialects of the same language or separate languages.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 30,000 users out of 60,000 deaf persons in former larger Yugoslavia (Van Cleve 1986).
Language Use: First deaf school in 1840, but sign language not used in schools. Interpreters furnished in court.
Language Development: TV.
Nation of Origin: Serbia, Kosovo