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Abstract
This article examines the diversity of sign language varieties used in Lima, Peru. The majority of the analysis is based on lexicostatistics, using data collected in 2014 to compare nine signers and to determine foreign influences. This technique is used to better understand the linguistic situation without the need for a large corpus of data. Two distinct sign languages are identified: Peruvian Sign Language among younger signers and a previously undocumented language that this article calls Inmaculada Sign Language among the oldest generation. A third variety, which acts as link between these two languages, exhibits some features of a creole. All three varieties are native in origin and show some influence from American Sign Language (ASL), with the most ASL influence in Peruvian Sign Language. The history of deaf education in Lima helps explain how the two languages developed, and individual variation is described as the product of social factors. The findings are in line with what has been found in other surveys of supposedly uniform national sign languages.
With many distinctive landscapes and native species, unique indigenous cultures, and even seventy-five endangered spoken languages (Catalogue of Endangered Languages 2015), Peru is known for its diversity. Yet, the Catalogue of Endangered Languages, Glottolog (Hammarström, Forkel, Haspelmath, and Bank 2015), Ethnologue (Lewis, Simons, and Fenning 2015), and the government of Peru itself (Vílchez Jiménez 2013) list only a single sign language for the entire nation. How could it be that, among so many different groups, only a single, nationwide "Peruvian Sign Language" could be announced with the passage of a law in 2010 (El Congreso de la República)? Are deaf education and deaf individuals in Peru so uniform that the entire national community is linguistically homogeneous? It is precisely this area that the current article seeks to investigate.
Very little has been written on the actual linguistic structure of Peruvian Sign Language (LSP). A detailed nationwide survey conducted by the Ministry of Education (Vílchez Jiménez 2013) and a sociolinguistic profile compiled by SIL (Parks and Parks 2010) thoroughly describe Peru's deaf population and assert that LSP is used by it. Passing comments in both studies indicate that some groups of signers have difficulty communicating with other groups. Parks and Parks classify this simply as...