From erasure to recognition (and back again?): the case of Flemish Sign Language

Autor/a: DE MEULDER, Maartje; HERREWEGHE, Mieke Van; VERMEERBERGEN, Myriam
Año: 2015
Editorial: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015
Tipo de código: Copyright
Soporte: Digital

Temas

Legislación

Detalles

In this chapter we consider linguistic ideologies and deaf people’s attitudes toward Flemish Sign Language (VGT). First, we review the major historical steps with respect to the status of VGT. In this historical evolution, it can be shown that VGT has developed from complete erasure (Irvine and Gal, 2000) via implicit recognition within the VGT linguistic minority community to legal recognition by Flemish Parliament. This has gone hand in hand with changing attitudes within the Deaf community toward the status of VGT. Indeed, the 2006 recognition has unmistakably had an empowering effect in the Flemish Deaf community, even though the actual knowledge of the contents of the recognition decree may be rather meager. At the same time, new indications of erasure can be exposed in Flanders, which are leading to serious concerns within the Flemish Deaf community about the future of VGT and the community in which it is used.

En: Marschark, Marc & Spencer, Patricia Elizabeth (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of deaf studies in language: Research, policy, and practice.