Korean Sign language
Korean Sign language is related to Japanese and Taiwanese sign languages, but at the same time it is distinct. It has been used since 1889 in court, at important public events, in social services programs and since 1908 its usage has been extended to elementary schools for deaf children. To spread the knowledge of the code, there are special programs to teach sign language to the parents of deaf children and also many sign language classes for hearing people.Korean Sign Language has a large number of signs that include a hand shape morpheme functioning as a marker for male or female gender. The extensive system includes a number of sub-systems such as transitive verbs of various sub-categories and kinship terms. Five different hand shapes participate in the paradigms, each with its own function and distribution. The morphology of these signs is explored in some detail, and it can be shown that, although the system is unusual for a sign language, it nevertheless conforms to many typological generalizations that have already been made on the basis of spoken languages.





