Editing Languages of Europe (section)

===Sign languages===
{{Main|List of sign languages#Europe}}

Several dozen manual languages exist across Europe, with the most widespread sign language family being the [[French Sign Language family|Francosign languages]], with its languages found in countries from [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberia]] to the [[Balkans]] and the [[Baltics]]. Accurate historical information of sign and tactile languages is difficult to come by, with folk histories noting the existence signing communities across Europe hundreds of years ago. [[British Sign Language|British Sign Language (BSL)]] and [[French Sign Language|French Sign Language (LSF)]] are probably the oldest confirmed, continuously used sign languages. Alongside [[German Sign Language|German Sign Language (DGS)]] according to [[Ethnologue]], these three have the most numbers of signers, though very few institutions take appropriate statistics on contemporary signing populations, making legitimate data hard to find.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Notably, few European sign languages have overt connections with the local majority/oral languages, aside from standard [[language contact]] and [[borrowing (linguistics)|borrowing]], meaning grammatically the sign languages and the oral languages of Europe are quite distinct from one another. Due to (visual/aural) modality differences, most sign languages are named for the larger ethnic nation in which they are spoken, plus the words "sign language", rendering what is spoken across much of [[France]], [[Wallonia]] and [[Romandy]] as [[French Sign Language]] or [[French Sign Language|LSF]] for: '''''l'''angue des '''s'''ignes '''f'''rançaise''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=La Langue des signes française (LSF) {{!}} Fondation pour l'audition |url=https://www.fondationpourlaudition.org/la-langue-des-signes-francaise-569 |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=www.fondationpourlaudition.org}}</ref>

Recognition of non-oral languages varies widely from region to region.<ref>{{Cite book|doi=10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1417|chapter=Language Policy for Sign Languages|title=The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics|year=2014|last1=Reagan|first1=Timothy|pages=1–6|isbn=9781405194730}}</ref> Some countries afford legal recognition, even to official on a state level, whereas others continue to be actively suppressed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Murray |first1=Joseph J. |title=Linguistic Human Rights Discourse in Deaf Community Activism |journal=Sign Language Studies |date=2015 |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=379–410 |pmid=26190995 |url= |doi=10.1353/sls.2015.0012 |jstor=26190995 |pmc=4490244 }}</ref>

Though "there is a widespread belief—among both Deaf people and sign language linguists—that there ''are'' sign language families,"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Reagan |first=Timothy |date=2021 |title=Historical Linguistics and the Case for Sign Language Families |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/799807 |journal=Sign Language Studies |language=en |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=427–454 |doi=10.1353/sls.2021.0006 |s2cid=236778280 |issn=1533-6263}}</ref> the actual relationship between sign languages is difficult to ascertain. Concepts and methods used in historical linguistics to describe language families for written and spoken languages are not easily mapped onto signed languages.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Power |first=Justin M. |date=2022 |title=Historical Linguistics of Sign Languages: Progress and Problems |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=13 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.818753 |pmid=35356353 |issn=1664-1078 |doi-access=free |pmc=8959496 }}</ref> Some of the current understandings of sign language relationships, however, provide some reasonable estimates about potential sign language families:

* [[French Sign Language family|Francosign]] languages, such as [[French Sign Language|LSF]], [[American Sign Language|ASL]], [[Dutch Sign Language]], [[Flemish Sign Language]], and [[Italian Sign Language]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Andrews |first=Bruce |title=The rich diversity of sign languages explained |url=https://news.csu.edu.au/opinion/the-rich-diversity-of-sign-languages-explained |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=news.csu.edu.au |language=en-AU}}</ref>
* [[BANZSL]] languages, including [[British Sign Language|British Sign Language (BSL)]], [[New Zealand Sign Language|New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL)]], [[Auslan|Australian Sign Language (Auslan)]], and [[Swedish Sign Language]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=BANZSL |url=https://www.signcommunity.org.uk/banzsl.html |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=www.signcommunity.org.uk}}</ref>
* Isolate languages, such as [[Albanian Sign Language]], [[Armenian Sign Language]], [[Caucasian Sign Language]], [[Spanish Sign Language|Spanish Sign Language (LSE)]], [[Turkish Sign Language|Turkish Sign Language (TİD)]], and perhaps [[Ghardaia Sign Language]].
* Many other sign languages, such as [[Irish Sign Language|Irish Sign Language (ISL)]], have unclear origins.<ref>{{Citation |chapter=Chapter 2. The Linguistic Setup of Sign Languages – The Case of Irish Sign Language (ISL) |date=2014-07-28 |pages=4–30 |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |language=de |doi=10.1515/9781614514978.4 |isbn=978-1-61451-497-8 |title=Mouth Actions in Sign Languages |doi-access=free }}</ref>