A Grammar of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT)

In 1982-1990, the first national dictionary project KOMVA (Kommunicatieve Vaardigheden, Communicative Competences) was carried out, a collaboration of the Department of Linguistics of the University of Amsterdam and the Nederlandse Stichting voor het Dove en Slechthorende Kind (NSDSK, Dutch Foundation for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Child). This project yielded 15,000 signs, collected from 100 signers, and a phonetic notation system for the documentation of these signs. It became clear that there was regional variation, which originated around the different deaf schools (Schermer 2003). In this same period, Dovenschap (the national Dutch deaf association that advocates the rights of deaf people in the Netherlands) lobbied for recognition of NGT as an official language, and a committee was created to investigate the possibilities. Following the report of this committee (Committee Recognition NGT 1997), the government demanded the standardization of part of the lexicon and the (basic) grammar of NGT, and the design of a curriculum for teaching NGT as a second language (and Deaf culture) (Schermer 2012). Since the idea of standardization met with opposition from linguists and the deaf community, it was decided that only signs that were new and/or used at deaf schools would be standardized, i.e., a lexicon of about five thousand signs. This was the beginning of the STABOL (Standardization of Basic Lexcion) project, which was carried out between 1999 and 2011. The project group responsible for this task developed a set of guidelines, which can be found in Schermer (2003). The project resulted in a standardized lexicon of 5,000 signs, documented in teaching materials and dictionaries. As for standardizing the grammar, researchers at the Department of Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam conducted pioneering studies on the grammar of NGT, and produced a CD-ROM with basic descriptions of aspects of its grammar (Bos 2002, see also SOCIO-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 4). Additionally, a sign language curriculum was developed by the dedicated steering committee (Sprong Vooruit, Jump Forward) (Schermer 2012). Schermer (2012) aptly points out that, during this time, “the first changes in status planning have come about from the bottom up: The change with respect to the use of signing in deaf education was effectively forced by the influx of signing children who communicated and performed much better than the children that were taught orally, supported by research and researchers” (2012: 470). Unfortunately, as described in SOCIO-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 2.4, the period of bilingual deaf education did not last long, and when the STABOL project was finished, the government still did not recognize NGT as an official language (Cokart et al. 2019).

                Founded in 1996, and recognized officially as the lexicographic institute for NGT in 2004, the Nederlands Gebarencentrum (Dutch Sign Centre) is the expertise center for information, translations and advice in and on NGT. The director, Trude Schermer, was also involved in the aforementioned KOMVA and STABOL projects. Furthermore, the Dutch Sign Centre is responsible for documenting the lexicon and regional variation, and for spreading new lexicon related to special subjects for which no signs are available yet (e.g. legal jargon). Additionally, they conduct research on selected grammatical phenomena of NGT.