Portuguese Sign Language
Portuguese Sign language (Portuguese: Língua gestual portuguesa) is a sign language used mainly by deaf people in Portugal. It is recognized in the present Constitution of Portugal.[2] It was significantly influenced by Swedish Sign Language, through a school for the Deaf that was established in Lisbon by Swedish educator Pär Aron Borg.[3][4] Portuguese Sign is the basis of Cape Verdian Sign,[5] it has also slightly influenced Guinea-Bissau Sign[6] and some reports have said that São Tomé and Príncipe Sign Language has considerable mutual intelligibility with Portuguese Sign.[7] It is also reported that Portuguese Sign has been also used in Angola.[8] HistoryThe Portuguese Sign Language has its origins from the Swedish Sign Language (LGS), as in the 19th century, the king called to Portugal Pär Aron Borg, a Swede who had founded an institute for the education of the deaf in Sweden. In 1823, the first school for the deaf was made in Portugal.[9] Although many signs were transported from Swedish Sign to Portuguese sign, thus sharing a common root, it has evolved autonomously and become very distinct from the sign language used in Sweden.[10]
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