Sign Indigenous Languages in Mato Grosso: news from a deaf teacher
Keywords: Sign Languages; Indigenous peoples; Mato Grosso.
My research is based on the studies of Shirley Vilhalva (2009) and her mapping of what
she calls emerging sign languages in indigenous communities in the state of Mato
Grosso do Sul. Vilhalva (2009) proved the existence of indigenous deaf people in these
communities and recorded signs used by them within indigenous villages. Considering
the diversity of indigenous peoples distributed throughout the state of Mato Grosso, we
also assume the existence of deaf indigenous peoples and possible indications of sign
languages used by these populations. This is what motivated us to continue these studies
initiated by Vilhalva there in MS and to verify the situation of deaf indigenous peoples
here in MT. The data collected suggest the existence of other sign languages, besides
the pounds, used by indigenous populations in Mato Grosso and that lack better
descriptions and documentation, since all the languages minorized in Mato Grosso are
at risk of extinction.