Origins The origins of Dutch Sign Language (NGT) are traceable to
Old French Sign Language (VLSF), a term for the sign language that the community of about 200 deaf
Parisians used amongst themselves in the mid-18th century. The abbot
Charles-Michel de l'Épée wanted to give them religious education, and thus learnt their language, after which he made some adjustments of it himself. Around 1760, he opened a school for the deaf in Paris, the predecessor of the current
Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris. Educators from all over Europe came to this and later French schools for the deaf in order to adopt l'Épée's teaching method, and introduce it in their own countries. Therefore, this Old French Sign Language as modified by l'Épée spread across Europe, North America and other continents and became the basis of most modern sign languages, including Dutch Sign Language. The
Walloon preacher , born in
Blegny, studied in
Franeker, and preached in the
Walloon church of
Groningen since 1777. In 1790, he founded the , the first Dutch school for the deaf, after the example of l'Épée, who he had visited in France.
Dialect formation in early schools for the deaf move when making sounds. Before the standardisation of the sign language several regional variants were used in the Netherlands and the use of signs was discouraged in order to stimulate deaf people to acquire self-reliance. In the 1900–1980 period, the use of signs was prohibited in education as a consequence of the
Milan Conference of 1880. Instead, the
oralist method (also called the 'German method') was practiced: deaf people were instructed to learn to speak by imitating hearing people by
lip reading, feeling how they used their
larynx to make sounds that they were then tasked to imitate. Nevertheless, deaf people continued to use signs amongst themselves, leading to the rise of five dialects within and around the five schools for the deaf Groningen,
Rotterdam,
Amsterdam,
Voorburg and
Sint-Michielsgestel.
Standardisation As of 1995, more and more schools for the deaf in The Netherlands teach
Signed Dutch (
Nederlands met Gebaren). This uses the grammar of Dutch rather than NGT.
Recognition In September 2019,
D66,
PvdA and
CU proposed a bill of law initiative for
official recognition of NGT. Since 13 October 2020 has been officially recognised. == Education ==