View source for Mexican Sign Language

{{Short description|Language of deaf community in Mexico}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=March 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Mexican Sign Language (LSM)
|nativename=''Lengua de Señas Mexicana (LSM)''
|states=[[Mexico]]
|region=Cities
|speakers=130,000
|date=2010 projection
|ref=e18
|familycolor=sign
|fam1=[[French Sign Language family|French Sign]]
|iso3=mfs
|glotto=mexi1237
|glottorefname=Mexican Sign Language
| map = Francosign Languages of North America.svg
| mapcaption = Map of the North American [[Francosign languages|Francosign]] languages, featuring Mexican Sign Language (labelled as "LSM")
}}
[[File:Red de museos para la atencion a personas con discapacidad.webm|thumb|Video to promote better access to museums for disabled people with Mexican sign language]]
'''Mexican Sign Language''' ({{Langx|es|Lengua de señas mexicana}}, '''LSM'''; also previously known by several other names) is the predominant language of the [[Deaf culture|Deaf community]] in [[Mexico]]. LSM is a complete and organized visual language, which is expressed with the hands, face, and body, with its own distinct history, community, and culture.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Cruz-Aldrete|first=Miroslava|date=2010-12-31|title=Gramática de la Lengua de Señas Mexicana (LSM)|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sll.13.2.10cru|journal=Sign Language & Linguistics|volume=13|issue=2|pages=241–252|doi=10.1075/sll.13.2.10cru|issn=1387-9316|url-access=subscription}}</ref> There are several dialects based on regional variation and LSM may be learned as a [[second language]] by hearing and Deaf signers. LSM is closely related to [[French Sign Language]] (LSF) and [[American Sign Language]] (ASL), although it is [[Mutual intelligibility|mutually unintelligible]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=QUINTO-POZOS|first=DAVID|date=2008-03-13|title=Sign language contact and interference: ASL and LSM|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0047404508080251|journal=Language in Society|volume=37|issue=2|doi=10.1017/s0047404508080251|s2cid=146522117 |issn=0047-4045|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

LSM originated in the mid-19th century following the establishment of the first school for the Deaf in Mexico City, Escuela Nacional de Sordomudos (ENS), in 1869.<ref name=":0"/> Deaf students at the school were instructed by educators using [[Old French Sign Language]], but also brought with them their own [[home sign]]s and signing systems, which led to the formation of LSM.<ref name=":0"/>

The number of native LSM signers is estimated to be between 49,000 and 195,000 people.<ref name=":0" /> LSM is classified as vulnerable.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Campbell|first1=Lyle|last2=Lee|first2=Nala Huiying|last3=Okura|first3=Eve|last4=Simpson|first4=Sean|last5=Ueki|first5=Kaori|date=2022-01-01|title=Mexican Sign Language|url=https://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/6996|access-date=2022-01-01|website=The Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ElCat)}}</ref>

==Geographic distribution and variation==
Core signing populations are found in [[Mexico City]], [[Guadalajara, Jalisco|Guadalajara]] and [[Monterrey]], with a number of smaller cities containing signing communities. There is also a growing number of LSM signers in the [[United States]], particularly in areas along the [[Mexico–United States border]] and in [[Washington, D.C.]], due to educational and economic opportunities.<ref name=":1" /> Some members of the Deaf Latino community in the United States also use LSM.

Some regional variation is found (80–90% lexical similarity across the country according to Faurot et al. 2001) and there is [[Variation (linguistics)|lexical variation]] based on age and gender in the [[numeral system]].<ref name=":0" />

=={{anchor|Signed Spanish}}Relationship of LSM to Spanish==
{{Unreferenced section|date=March 2025}}[[File:Red de museos para la atencion a personas con discapacidad.webm|thumb|Public service announcement with Mexican Sign Language interpretation]]
LSM is quite distinct from [[Spanish language|Spanish]], with completely different verb inflections, different discourse structure and preferences for [[word order]], and little use of the verb [[Copula (linguistics)#English|to be]]. However, there is extensive use of [[initialised signs]] with one study finding 37% of a 100-word list are initialised, compared to 14% for American Sign Language (Faurot et al. 2001). The same authors suggest that the Deaf community's comprehension of the Spanish language is very low.

The term "[[Signed Spanish]]" refers to signing that uses LSM signs ([[lexicon]]) in a Spanish word order, with some representations of Spanish morphology. There is a group of suffixes that signed Spanish uses in a way similar to that of [[signed English]], e.g. signed symbols for -dor and -ción (for nouns). Articles and pronouns are fingerspelled. Signed Spanish (or [[contact sign|Pidgin Signed Spanish]]) is often used by interpreters and during public reading or song-leading. Signed Spanish is also used by some hard of hearing and late deafened people.

==Relationship to other sign languages==
{{Unreferenced section|date=March 2025}}
LSM is widely believed by the Deaf community to have derived from [[Old French Sign Language]] (OFSL), which combined with pre-existing local sign languages and [[home sign]] systems when Deaf schools were first established in 1869. However, it is mutually unintelligible with American Sign Language, which emerged from OFSL 50 years earlier in the US, although the [[American manual alphabet]] is almost identical to the Mexican one. [[Spanish Sign Language]] used in Spain is different from Mexican Sign Language, though LSM may have been influenced by it.

==Status==
In 2005, Mexican Sign Language was officially declared a national language in Mexico, along with Spanish and indigenous languages, to be used in the national education system for the Deaf.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2005-06-10 |title=México: Ley General de 2005 de las Personas con Discapacidad |url=https://www.refworld.org/legal/legislation/natlegbod/2005/es/74713 |access-date=2025-06-30 |website=Refworld |language=en}}</ref> Before 2005, the major educational philosophy in the country focused on [[oralism]] (speech and lipreading) and with few schools that conducted classes in LSM.<ref>[https://mexico.sil.org/resources/archives/9069 The identity of Mexican sign as a language] p.4</ref>

A five-minute signed segment of a nightly television news program was broadcast in [[Signed Spanish]] in the mid-1980s, then again in the early 1990s, discontinued in 1992, and resumed as a 2-minute summary of headlines in 1997.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

==See also==
*[[Mayan sign languages]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* {{Citation|first1=Karla|last1=Faurot|first2=Dianne|last2=Dellinger|first3=Andy|last3=Eatough|first4=Steve|last4=Parkhurst|orig-year=1992|year=2001|title=The identity of Mexican sign as a language|url=https://mexico.sil.org/resources/archives/9069|postscript= © 1999 Summer Institute of Linguistics.}}
* {{Citation|last=Bickford|first=J. Albert|year=1991|title=Lexical variation in Mexican Sign Language|journal=Sign Language Studies|issue=72|pages=72:241–276|jstor=26204555}}
* {{Citation|last=Smith-Stark|first=Thomas C.|year=1986|title=La lengua manual Mexicana|journal=Unpublished Paper|place=Colegio de Mexico}}{{better source needed|date=March 2021}}
* {{Citation|title=Ley Federal para las Personas con Discapacidad.|postscript= Section III. Article 23.}}{{full citation needed|date=March 2021}}
* {{Citation|title=Ley General para la Inclusión de las Personas con Discapacidad.|postscript= Article 14.|url=https://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/LGIPD.pdf}}

==External links==
{{Incubator|mfs}}
{{Commons category}}
* [https://mexico.sil.org/language_culture/signed-languages SIL page on LSM]
* [https://aulex.org/lsm/ Diccionario de LSM (Spanish)]
* [https://www.wikisigns.org/list/es/lsm WikiSigns.org] - Diccionario collaborativo de LSM

{{Languages of Mexico}}
{{sign language navigation}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Languages of Mexico]]
[[Category:French Sign Language family]]
[[Category:Sign languages of Mexico]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]