Philippine signed languages survey: a rapid appraisal

This report concerns a 2004–2005 survey of the signed languages in the Philippines. Wordlists and stories were collected from some of the major cities where there are schools for the Deaf. In some cities Deaf had come from many outlying provinces, so wordlists were collected from them at the college or at the hostel where they were staying. As a result of those contacts, it was not deemed necessary to go to every area of the country to collect data. The data gathered seemed to be representative of the various sign language varieties that exist, with the exception of parts of the far southwest. Wordlists and stories were collected from each of the places visited. The wordlists were transcribed by hand using the SignWriting orthography.

The survey revealed only two signed languages in the country: Filipino Sign Language (fsl) and Samar Sign Language (ssb). The latter is a village sign language used by the Deaf and some of the hearing residents in San Julian on the east coast of Samar Island.