Almost 5000 signs in online dictionary
Ahlam (5th from right) and Ala’ (5th from left), together with representatives of the HCD
On Thursday 31 October, the online dictionary for Jordanian Sign Language was officially launched in the Jordanian capital Amman. It contains almost 5,000 signs. Example sentences are also available for some of them. Last summer, no less than 400 teachers from 13 deaf schools in Jordan were trained in using the tool.
Ahlam’s team added all of the signs and a team from the Jordanian Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (HCD) supplied about 2000 signs for use in (higher) deaf education. The High Council’s project has been completed, because the financial support from the Korean organisation KOICA has ended. Ahlam will continue adding signs, because this is financed by The Carpenter’s Son foundation.
The Jordanian Sign Language is the first Arabic language in SooSL, the tool that hosts the signs. SooSL is developed by SIL International and especially for Jordan the interface has been made available in Arabic.
Last summer, Ahlam, together with other representatives, gave several courses on how to use the online dictionary
We are very happy with the help of Dutch sign language linguist Bernadet van der Louw. With her in-depth knowledge of Jordanian Sign Language, she is an important link in the quality assurance of the signs in the online sign language dictionary. She is also our local representative, as she regularly travels to Jordan for translation work.
In the coming months, Ahlam and Bernadet will work together to add even more signs, so that the dictionary can be used even better by students, deaf people, but also by Jordanian Sign Language interpreters. The dictionary is freely accessible for everyone.
Check out the sign for ‘deaf school in Salt’ in the online dictionary!
The Jordanian Sign Language is the first Arabic language in SooSL, the tool that hosts the signs.