Sociolinguistic Approach to Sign Language at the Balearic Islands

Nowadays there are no references on sign language at the Balearic Islands. This island territory is part of the territory where the Catalan language is spoken since 1229, although it often happens in the case of sign languages, there is no match between administration, the predominant oral language and the sign language. Besides Catalan and Spanish, one can find on the islands at least 162 languages and one sign language, which is rooted in the Spanish Sign Language (LSE), though with an important influence from the Catalan Sign Language (LSC) and the LSE in Valencia.

The present work aims to make a first approach to the sociolinguistic situation of the deaf community and users of the sign language at the Balearic islands.