Albanian Sign Language
PrintA language of Albania
ISO 639-3
Alternate Names
AlbSL
Population
205,000 (Hoyer 2007).
Location
Nationwide.
Language Status
6a (Vigorous).
Classification
Dialects
Not similar to any of the Sign Languages in the Balkan area.
Language Development
TV. Videos. Dictionary.
Language Resources
Writing
Unwritten.
AlbSL has evolved in close contact with spoken Albanian, which is seen in a tradition of heavy use of fingerspelling. After the collapse of communism, the language came into contact with International Sign and other sign languages, resulting in a lot of lexical borrowing (Hoyer 2007).