5. Sign language dictionaries and linguistic research

The linguistic research of sign language began in the 1960s in the United States, and in Finland in the 1980s. The research challenged old perceptions and showed sign languages as independent and comparable to spoken languages. Thus, there was no universal sign language. It was also understood that the signed speech was not an independent language, but a mixture of the spoken and sign language.

In 1982, Department of General Linguistics in the University of Helsinki launched a sign language research project. The preliminary goal was to find out the structure of the Finnish Sign Language but omit the actual grammar due to limited resources. The first research reports appeared in the second half of the 1980s. Since the late 1990s, research has increased and several books and studies on Finnish Sign Language have been published.

In 1988, the Finnish Association of the Deaf started a novel dictionary project targeted both for native Finnish Sign Language users as well as language students. For the Deaf, the new dictionary was a general description of their mother tongue. Compiling material also included constant research on both the grammar and signs of the Finnish Sign Language. In the spirit of the excellent Hirn dictionaries, the aim was again in describing sign language as a linguistic system equal to spoken languages.

The Comprehensive Dictionary of the Finnish Sign Language (Suomalaisen viittomakielen perussanakirja) was first published as a book in 1998. It contains 1,219 entries divided into chapters according to handshapes. Each entry contains a sign, related explanations, Finnish translations, parallel forms, information on reproducing the sign, and style values. The total amount of signs is roughly 3,000 since one entry, in order to save space, may include various signs resembling each other.

In the dictionary, each sign is further illustrated with signed reference sentences with Finnish translations. The dictionary made use of modern technology, e.g. still photos representing the signs have been captured from video. This way signs appear authentic and natural.

The dictionary is bilingual, from Finnish Sign Language into Finnish. Entries are arranged based on four basic sign structures: handshape, 1-/2-handedness, location and movement. At the end of the book there is an index in Finnish.

A sequel called “Numeroita ja lukumäärien ilmaisuja” ("Expressing numbers and quantities") was published in 2002 and it contained 174 entries. It included a dvd showing how to make each sign. With the publication of the Online Dictionary “Suvi” in 2003, the various signed example sentences were also now available online for public. The online dictionary also enabled diverse search functions.

The research and dictionary work contributed also to recognition of the Finland-Swedish Sign Language; instead of one national sign language, there were actually two of them, the Finnish and Finland-Swedish Sign Language. Evidently, these two sign languages had diverged from each other already at an early stage.

From the Hirn dictionaries until the turn of the millennium, dictionary work focused on the Finnish Sign Language. The first Finland-Swedish Sign Language dictionary was published only in 2002. The survey and documentation project on the Finland-Swedish Sign Language started in 1998 resulting with a small-scale Finland-Swedish Sign Language dictionary "Se vårt språk!" ("See our language") in 2002. The dictionary included a dvd. The trilingual dictionary translates from Finland-Swedish Sign Language to Swedish and Finnish, and it contains 38 entries. In 2015, the Finland-Swedish Sign Language got its own site on the Suvi Online Dictionary.