Mongolian Sign Language
Mongolian Sign Language is a sign language used in Mongolia. Ethnologue estimates that there are between 9,000 and 15,000 deaf signers in Mongolia. Mongolian Sign Language is widely spoken in areas where Mongolian diaspora have immigrated. Such locations include California, Houston, and Charleston.
A school for the deaf was established in Mongolia in 1964 by the occupying Soviet Union. This resulted in many similarities between MSL and Russian Sign Language for a time, but the two languages have since developed to be separate and distinct.
Linda Ball, a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, is believed to have created the first dictionary of MSL in 1995. In 2007, another MSL dictionary with 3,000 entries was published by Mongolia's Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science with assistance from UNESCO.
