Жаңа Зеландия шамалы тілі: тарихы мен мәртебесі

Main language of the deaf community in New Zealand

New Zealand Sign Language or NZSL is the main language of the deaf community in New Zealand. It became an official language of New Zealand in April 2006 under the New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006. The purpose of the act was to create rights and obligations in the use of NZSL throughout the legal system and to ensure that the Deaf community had the same access to government information and services as everybody else. According to the 2013 Census, over 20,000 New Zealanders know NZSL. New Zealand Sign Language has its roots in British Sign Language (BSL), and may be technically considered a dialect of British, Australian and New Zealand Sign Language (BANZSL). There are 62.5% similarities found in British Sign Language and NZSL, compared with 33% of NZSL signs found in American Sign Language. Like other natural sign languages, it was devised by and for deaf people, with no linguistic connection to a spoken or written language. NZSL uses the same two handed manual alphabet as BSL (British Sign Language) and Auslan (Australian Sign Language). It uses more lip patterns in conjunction with hand and facial movement to cue signs than BSL, reflecting New Zealand's history of oralist education of deaf people. Its vocabulary includes Māori concepts such as marae and tangi, and signs for New Zealand placenames (e. g., Rotorua – mudpools, and Christchurch – 2 Cs, represents ChCh.)

NZSL became the third official language of New Zealand on 11 April 2006, joining English and Māori. The parliamentary bill to approve this passed its third reading on 6 April 2006. At the first reading in Parliament, on 22 June 2004, the bill was supported by all political parties. It was referred to the Justice and Electoral Committee, which reported back to the House on 18 July 2005. The second reading passed by 119 to 2 on 23 February 2006 with only the ACT party opposing, because the government was not providing funding for NZSL. It passed the third reading on 6 April 2006 by the same margin. The bill received Royal assent on 10 April 2006 and became law the following day. The use of NZSL as a valid medium of instruction has not always been accepted by the government, the Association of Teachers of the Deaf, nor by many parents. However, in light of much research into its validity as a language and much advocacy by deaf adults, parents of deaf children (both hearing and deaf) and educationalists, NZSL has since become — in tandem with English — part of the bilingual/bicultural approach used in public schools (including Kelston Deaf Education Centre and Van Asch Deaf Education Centre) since 1994. Victoria University of Wellington has courses in New Zealand Sign Language, although it has yet to develop a major programme for it. Auckland University of Technology (AUT) offers a 3 year Bachelor of Arts course with an NZSL English Interpreting major.