Dutch Sign Language

Dutch Sign Language
Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN)
Nederlandse Gebarentaal (NGT)
Native toNetherlands
Native speakers
15,000 (2019)[1]
French Sign
  • Dutch Sign Language
Language codes
ISO 639-3dse
Glottologdutc1253
ELPDutch Sign Language
A Dutch Sign Language speaker, recorded in the Netherlands.

Dutch Sign Language (Dutch: Nederlandse Gebarentaal or NGT; Sign Language of the Netherlands or SLN) is the predominant sign language used by deaf people in the Netherlands.

Although the same spoken Dutch language is used in the Netherlands and Flanders, the Dutch Sign Language (NGT) is not the same as Flemish Sign Language (VGT). They do have the late 18th-century Old French Sign Language as their common ancestor, but have diverged during the subsequent 200 years, so that mutual intelligibility between modern users has been greatly reduced.[2]

  1. ^ Dutch Sign Language at Ethnologue (22nd ed., 2019) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Marten van der Meulen (27 April 2018). "Hoeveel lijken Nederlandse en Vlaamse Gebarentaal op elkaar?". Neerlandistiek (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 7 January 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2020.