Kinship Terms in Argentine Sign Language

The deaf community in Buenos Aires, like deaf communities in other industrialized societies, is isolated linguistically and culturally and at once integrated economically with mainstream society. The kinship terminology of Argentine Sign Language (LSA) provides an insight into the cultural independence of deaf culture. In LSA, male and female terms are combined, and many terms are reciprocal. This stands in sharp contrast to the standard Spanish language terminology used by non-deaf members of Argentine society. The terminological difference substantiates the observation that deaf society is culturally distinct in important ways from mainstream society.