German Sign Language and
Communication of the Deaf
Photo: UHH/Denstorf
13 January 2022, by Pamela Sundhausen
Photo: IDGS
As part of the master's seminar "Applied sign language linguistics with a focus on sociolinguistics", led by Sarah Bauer, the online lecture by Adelina Worseck entitled "Youth language- What linguistic patterns and features can be found in German Sign Language among young people?" took place on 11 January 2022. In this, the Deaf student reports on her observations of youth language in DGS. An introduction to the topic of youth language was followed by examples from German spoken and signed language. It was discussed why youth language exists and current signs were shown, a review of youth language in the 70s and 80s was given, and a proposal for categorising signs in youth language was presented. In the question and discussion session that followed, reflections were then made on regional variants and the significance of mouth patterns and mouth gestures for youth language was discussed. It was a very interesting lecture on a topic that has hardly been researched so far.