An international consortium of 10 institutions from 7 different countries, led by Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), recently launched the world’s first platform on sign languages (SL). This innovative digital resource hub hosts scientific and informational resources on the cultural and linguistic heritage of both sign languages and Deaf communities.

One of the platform’s main features is that it allows complete reference grammars for any sign language to be written online. Just like oral languages, the grammar of sign languages may also be described and analysed at different levels (morphology, syntax, etc.). However, many sign languages are yet to develop this grammar or have but limited knowledge of it.

The new platform was created as part of the European research project “SIGN-HUB: Preserving, researching and fostering the linguistic, historical and cultural heritage of European Deaf signing communities”, funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. This ambitious European project faces the scientific challenge of furthering our knowledge of sign languages, as well as the social challenge of promoting this part of European and international linguistic and cultural heritage, which is often rendered invisible. It also endeavours not only to provide useful tools for teaching sign languages and for interpreters, but also to foster the full social inclusion of the Deaf community in public life on equal terms.

According to Josep Quer, ICREA professor in the Department of Translation and Language Sciences at UPF and principal investigator for the SIGN-HUB project: “Prior to our project, there were no reference grammars for sign languages. This knowledge was often scattered across different publications of a highly diverse nature. Nor were they readily accessible, which is why compiling them in a coherent matter was no trivial undertaking. Furthermore, not all sign languages have been analysed to the same degree, which means that there was an imbalance in the grammars written for the various sign languages, something we are trying to remedy through this project”.

What does the platform contain?

The SIGN-HUB digital platform contains linguistic and cultural resources and documents related to six of the world’s sign languages (Catalan, Spanish, German, Italian, of the Netherlands and Turkish) and their respective Deaf signing communities, as well as scientific papers by the research team on SL.

Its contents are divided into the following sections:

1) Grammars

On the one hand, this section contains the grammatical descriptions of five of the above-mentioned sign languages (German, Catalan, Italian, of the Netherlands and Turkish), written with a new digital tool based on SignGram, which provides guidelines on ways of doing so. On the other, it makes it possible to write complete reference grammars for any sign language. The objective is to regularly publish these grammars on the platform, where they may be viewed online or downloaded.

2) World’s first digital archive of the life experiences of elderly Deaf signers

This section contains the testimony of elderly signers of the six sign languages referred to above. There are also plans to include the testimonies of people who use the French and Israeli sign languages. These interviews form the basis of the documentary “We Were There”, about the life of deaf people from the postwar period onwards in several European countries.

3) Interactive atlas of grammatical structures

This section enables users to view the characteristics and grammatical structures of the world’s sign languages on a world map, helping to provide greater insight into their diversity and geographical distribution.

4) Online assessment tools

These tools allow workers from different public services (education, healthcare...) to assess the linguistic skills of individual sign language users.

A platform fostered by the international SIGN-HUB consortium, made up of 10 institutions from 7 countries

The platform was unveiled on Friday, 15 November during a presentation held in the auditorium on the Poblenou campus, which featured representatives from the 10 institution members of the SIGN-HUB consortium, headed by UPF. The following is a list of the consortium’s institutions –from Spain, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Israel and Turkey– with the project’s local websites.

• Pompeu Fabra University (coordinator)
• Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (Italy)
• Universiteit van Amsterdam (Netherlands)
• Boğaziçi University (Turkey)
• Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France)
• Université Paris Diderot, Paris (France)
• Tel Aviv University (Israel)
• Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Germany)
• Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia (Italy)
• Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per l’Informatica (Italy)

UPF, a leading national and international centre for sign languages

UPF, the coordinator of the SIGN-HUB consortium, is a leading national and international centre for studies related to sign languages and Deaf communities. Since the early 21st century, UPF has been at the forefront in the teaching, research and dissemination of Catalan Sign Language (CSL), in partnership with organizations such as the Catalan Federation of the Deaf (FESOCA). Since 2003, it has taught a number of postgraduate degrees on the subject, the most recent of which, which began this year, is intended for degree holders in Translation and Interpretation, Applied Languages, Linguistics or Philology interested in specializing in CSL. Since 2008, CSL has also been part of the curriculum of the bachelor’s degree taught by the Faculty of Translation and Language Sciences at UPF. Since 2009, the Catalan Sign Language Laboratory (LSCLab) has been conducting top-level research in sign language linguistics. 2017 saw the opening of UPF’s LSC-UPF Actua Studies Centre, which, in addition to teaching, encourages research in this field, as well as the dissemination and social impact of CSL.