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Italian Sign Language

Italian Sign Language (LIS), known in Italian as Lingua dei Segni Italiana, is a natural visual-gestural language primarily used by the Deaf community in Italy, featuring independent phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic systems that do not directly mirror those of spoken Italian.^[1]^[2] LIS emerged from historical signing practices within Deaf residential institutions and local communities, with systematic linguistic analysis beginning in the 1980s, revealing its topic-comment structure and non-iconic lexical derivations.^[2] Approximately 60,000 Deaf individuals in Italy employ LIS as their primary means of communication, though regional variations persist due to Italy's historical linguistic diversity.^[3] The language gained official recognition from the Italian Republic on May 19, 2021, via parliamentary decree, affirming its status and promoting its use in education and public services alongside tactile variants for Deafblind users.^[4]^[5] Despite this milestone, LIS instruction remains limited in formal schooling, with research emphasizing its grammatical autonomy—such as flexible constituent ordering and classifier-based morphology—to counter earlier oralist suppression in Deaf education.^[6]^[3]

Linguistic Classification and Features

Language Family and Origins

Italian Sign Language (LIS, Lingua dei Segni Italiana) constitutes an independent visual-gestural language developed within Italy's deaf communities, unrelated phylogenetically to spoken Indo-European languages such as Italian. Phylogenetic analyses of sign languages, employing computational methods on lexical datasets from 19 global varieties, position LIS among European sign language clades, where relatedness correlates with historical diffusion via deaf education networks rather than mere geography or spoken language substrates.^[7] These relations highlight influences from French Sign Language (LSF) through 18th-century pedagogical transmissions, though endogenous community evolution predominates.^[8] The origins of LIS trace to pre-institutional gestural systems among isolated deaf individuals and families across Italian regions, predating recorded history, with no verifiable continuity from ancient Roman gestural references. Formal documentation emerges with the 1784 founding of Italy's first deaf school in Rome by Abbot Tommaso Silvestri (1744–1789), who adapted signes méthodiques—systematized signs paired with spoken words—from Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée's French model, introducing exogenous elements into local practices.^[8] Subsequent schools in Turin (1802) and Milan reinforced regional dialects through segregated instruction, fostering lexical divergence; for instance, the Trieste variant incorporated substrates from Austrian Sign Language under Habsburg administration until 1920.^[8] The 1880 International Congress on Education of the Deaf in Milan, hosted in Italy, endorsed oralism—prioritizing lip-reading and speech over signing—which marginalized LIS in institutional settings for decades, yet community transmission preserved its core structure outside classrooms.^[8] Linguistic classification as a full-fledged language, distinct from pantomime or spoken derivatives, solidified in the 1980s through empirical studies by Virginia Volterra, whose 1987 work formalized its nomenclature and grammar.^[8] No unified standard exists today, with sociolinguistic variation persisting across dialects, underscoring LIS's decentralized genesis.^[8]

Phonological and Morphological Structure

The phonological structure of Italian Sign Language (LIS) is composed of manual and non-manual parameters that constitute the minimal contrastive units analogous to phonemes in spoken languages. The core manual parameters are hand configuration (handshape), place of articulation (location), movement, and palm orientation, with non-manual features such as facial expressions, head position, and eye gaze serving phonological roles, particularly in marking boundaries or interrogatives.^[8]^[9] Handshapes in LIS contrast based on selected fingers (extended or bent), finger configurations (crossing or spreading), thumb positions (opposed or adducted), and overall hand orientation relative to the signing space, enabling phonemic distinctions in lexical items.^[9] Locations are primarily articulated in perioral, facial, or contralateral spaces, or in neutral central space, with constraints preventing certain combinations that would violate perceptual salience.^[10] A foundational phonological constraint in LIS stipulates that all signs in their citation form incorporate at least one movement component, distinguishing them from static holds and ensuring dynamic visibility for perception.^[8] Movements encompass path trajectories (linear or arc-like displacements), hand-internal changes (finger wiggling or aperture adjustments), and orientation shifts, with syllables defined as individual movement segments—either primary path movements or secondary handshape/orientation alterations.^[10] Phonological processes such as assimilation occur, where adjacent signs influence each other's handshape, location, movement, or orientation, as in weakening or deletion under rapid signing conditions, reflecting efficiency in visual-gestural production.^[10] Morphologically, LIS exhibits a system dominated by simultaneous rather than sequential affixation, particularly in verbal domains, where inflectional categories like spatial agreement, aspect, and tense are encoded concurrently through modifications to sign parameters.^[8] Verbs inflect for agreement by directing movement toward or from loci in signing space representing arguments, conveying subject-object relations without linear affixes; aspectual distinctions, such as iterative or continuative, arise via internal movement repetition or modulation.^[11] Nominal morphology includes number marking through reduplication (for plurals) or spatial distribution (for collective nouns), with some nouns displaying inflectional properties that interact with verbal agreement, such as locative specifications.^[12] Classifier constructions further exemplify morphological complexity, employing specific handshapes to represent entity shapes or handling manners in predicate-like depictions of motion or location, integrating phonological form with semantic spatial reference.^[13] Derivational processes often involve compounding or parameter modification, yielding nouns from verbs or vice versa, though less linearly than in spoken Italian.^[14]

Syntax and Lexicon

The lexicon of Italian Sign Language (LIS) consists of signs formed through combinations of phonological parameters, including approximately 42 handshapes, 15 locations of articulation, 19 orientations, and 38 movement types, with non-manual features such as facial expressions serving phonemic roles to distinguish minimal pairs like negation from readiness.^[8] Lexical items exhibit regional and dialectal variation influenced by historical school-based standardization, such as differing signs for concepts like "shoes," alongside processes of compounding (e.g., HEAD^POUND for headache) and morphological incorporation.^[8] Borrowings from Italian occur via initialized signs or the international manual alphabet, particularly for technical or abstract terms, while native signs often retain iconicity but evolve through arbitrary conventionalization.^[8] ^[15] LIS syntax employs a preferred Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) order, as in examples like "Gianni coffee order," though flexible permutations such as SVO or OSV are grammatical when marked by non-manual signals like raised eyebrows for topicalization or focus.^[8] Verbs demonstrate agreement through spatial directionality, directing movement toward or from loci assigned to referents in signing space, and utilize classifier handshapes to depict motion events or handling of objects, integrating lexical and depictive functions.^[15] Negation typically follows the verb with manual signs like NOT or NOTHING, accompanied by headshakes, while wh-questions place interrogative signs in sentence-final position with furrowed eyebrows.^[8] Relative clauses often adopt correlative structures using a pronoun like PE to link the head noun to the clause, optionally with raised eyebrows, as in "[boy call PE] leave done."^[8] Non-manual markers, including facial expressions and body shifts, play a crucial role in scoping negation, questions, and topical elements, contributing to syntactic and prosodic structure.^[15]

Historical Development

Pre-19th Century Origins

The pre-19th century history of Italian Sign Language (LIS) reflects the natural emergence of manual communication within isolated deaf communities across Italy, where hereditary deafness in families and villages fostered rudimentary signing systems, though systematic documentation was absent due to the dominance of spoken language records and lack of a written form for signs.^[16] These indigenous practices likely incorporated iconic gestures drawn from Italy's longstanding tradition of expressive hand movements in everyday communication, which date back to ancient Roman times and continued as a cultural feature, potentially providing a gestural substrate for early LIS variants.^[17] Parallel to this, monastic sign systems developed in Italian religious orders from at least the 12th century, as observed by Cardinal Jacques de Vitry during his visits to monasteries, where monks under vows of silence used hand signs for practical needs like meals and labor coordination; these were lexical lists rather than full grammatical languages and served hearing individuals, with no direct evidenced transmission to deaf signing.^[16] Theoretical foundations for deaf education appeared in the 16th century, when Italian physician Girolamo Cardano (1501–1576) argued in his writings around 1550 that congenitally deaf persons possessed rational capacity equivalent to hearing individuals and could be taught language through visual methods, such as reading lips, writing, or manual signals, challenging prevailing views of deafness as intellectual deficiency.^[16] Cardano's ideas, disseminated in Europe, emphasized causal links between sensory deprivation and communication barriers but did not detail a sign system, focusing instead on enabling speech and literacy for elite deaf children to secure inheritance rights under Roman law precedents requiring verbal testament.^[17] Institutional precursors emerged in the late 18th century with Abbot Tommaso Silvestri (1744–1789), who established Italy's first public school for the deaf, the Istituto dei Sordomuti, in Rome in 1784, funded by papal authorities and initially serving about 20 pupils.^[18] Trained briefly by Charles-Michel de l'Épée in Paris, Silvestri adapted French methodical sign approaches, structuring pedagogy in progressive phases: first, leveraging pupils' existing natural signs for basic comprehension and interaction; second, introducing written Italian via methodical signs representing spoken words; and third, attempting oral speech production.^[19] This marked the earliest recorded integration of signing into Italian deaf instruction, bridging indigenous practices with systematic methods and laying groundwork for LIS consolidation, though regional dialects persisted without standardization.^[16] Silvestri's emphasis on signs as a causal tool for cognitive access contrasted with later oralist shifts, prioritizing empirical outcomes in pupil literacy over ideological speech mandates.^[19]

19th and 20th Century Standardization and Education

The establishment of formal deaf education in Italy during the early 19th century involved the creation of institutions that incorporated manual methods, including gestures and emerging sign systems influenced by European predecessors. The first school for the deaf opened in Rome in 1784 under Abbot Tommaso Silvestri, who drew from the methodical sign approaches of Abbé de l'Épée after brief training in Paris, emphasizing visual communication to teach language to deaf pupils.^[20] Similarly, in 1828, priest Tommaso Pendola founded the Real Tuscan Institute for Deaf-Mutes in Siena, financed by Leopold II of Tuscany, where he developed pedagogical techniques blending oral instruction with manual elements; Pendola documented the origins of the Italian manual alphabet around this period and published treatises on deafness, including founding the journal L'Educazione dei Sordomuti in 1872 to advance educator discourse.^[21] These efforts reflected a pre-unified Italy's decentralized approach, with regional schools like the Institute of the Deaf in Turin (established early 19th century under Savoy patronage) fostering local sign variants amid limited national coordination.^[22] The Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf, convened in Milan from September 6 to 11, 1880, marked a pivotal shift toward oralism in Italian deaf education, declaring spoken language instruction superior to manual methods and resolving to exclude sign language from classrooms. Hosted in Italy and dominated by hearing educators favoring lip-reading and speech therapy, the conference's resolutions prompted Italian institutions to prioritize oralist curricula, sidelining sign-based teaching despite prior successes with visual methods in schools like Pendola's.^[23] This policy, aligned with nationalist unification goals post-1861 that emphasized spoken Italian uniformity, suppressed overt sign use in formal settings, leading to the dismissal of manualist practices and a focus on auditory-verbal training ill-suited to many profoundly deaf students.^[20] Throughout the 20th century, Italian deaf education adhered to strict oralist methodologies in residential schools, where sign language persisted underground through peer interactions and family transmissions rather than institutional support, resulting in regional lexical variations without centralized standardization.^[2] Efforts to codify Italian Sign Language (LIS) remained minimal until late-century technological influences, as oralism's dominance—evident in state-funded institutes—prioritized assimilation over linguistic preservation, with deaf communities maintaining LIS vitality informally despite educational marginalization.^[24] This era's policies empirically correlated with lower literacy rates among deaf Italians compared to sign-supported models elsewhere, underscoring causal limitations of oral-only approaches for non-hearing learners.^[19]

Post-1980s Linguistic Recognition and Recent Milestones

In the early 1980s, linguistic research on Italian Sign Language (LIS) intensified, applying structural analyses to delineate its phonological parameters—including handshape, location, movement, and palm orientation—thereby affirming its status as a full natural language independent of spoken Italian.^[24] This work, initiated around 1981, shifted perceptions from viewing LIS as mere gesture to recognizing its systematic grammar and syntax, influencing deaf community practices and documentation efforts through 2013.^[25] Advocacy for official state recognition gained momentum in subsequent decades, with proposals emphasizing LIS's linguistic validity without equating it to Italy's historical minority languages. A 2012 legislative bill sought to codify this status but stalled, highlighting ongoing debates over policy implementation amid limited empirical data on societal integration outcomes.^[26] The breakthrough occurred on May 19, 2021, when Article 34-ter of Decreto-Legge 73/2021 (Sostegni) was enacted, stipulating that the Republic "recognizes, promotes, and safeguards" LIS and tactile Italian Sign Language (LIST) as vital communication tools for deaf individuals.^[27] This measure, approved unanimously by Parliament after prolonged deaf community protests, enabled targeted funding for education, interpretation services, and research, though critics noted its lack of enforceable quotas or minority language protections.^[28] Post-2021 milestones encompass technological integrations, including a 2024 multimodal dataset (MultiMedaLIS) for LIS recognition in medical contexts, facilitating AI-driven translation systems with reported accuracy improvements via fused visual and kinematic data.^[29] Concurrently, prototypes for text-to-LIS generation emerged, enabling digital avatars to produce contextually accurate signs, as demonstrated in preliminary models trained on annotated corpora.^[30] These developments, grounded in corpus-based linguistics rather than advocacy alone, underscore LIS's adaptability to computational frameworks while addressing empirical gaps in real-time usability metrics.^[3]

Official Recognition and Policy Debates

Italian Sign Language (LIS) received official legislative recognition on May 19, 2021, through Article 34-ter of Law 69/2021, which designates it as the natural language of the Italian deaf community, mandates its promotion, protection, and facilitation of use in public administration, education, and cultural contexts.^[31] This measure, incorporated into a broader COVID-19 relief package, aligned Italy with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), ratified in 2009, by affirming sign languages as equivalent to spoken ones under international human rights standards. Prior frameworks, such as Law 104/1992, had provided indirect support by guaranteeing access to sign language interpreters for deaf individuals in education, employment, and public services as part of disability accommodations, but framed LIS within a medical-rehabilitative paradigm rather than linguistic autonomy.^[32] Advocacy for full recognition spanned decades, led by the Ente Nazionale Sordi (ENS), Italy's primary deaf association, which emphasized LIS as a cultural and identity marker distinct from Italian spoken language, countering historical oralist suppression rooted in the 1880 Milan Congress on deaf education.^[33] The World Federation of the Deaf endorsed ENS efforts in 2011, warning that failure to recognize LIS could lead to funding cuts for deaf services and violate CRPD obligations on linguistic rights.^[34] Despite earlier attempts, such as proposed bills in the 1990s and 2000s to include LIS under Law 482/1999 for historical minorities, delays persisted due to regional variations in sign use and debates over whether sign languages warranted parity with spoken minorities.^[26] Policy debates surrounding LIS recognition highlight tensions between cultural-linguistic and medical-disability models of deafness, with proponents arguing that official status enables bilingual education and equitable access, while skeptics cite implementation costs and the prevalence of Italian gestures potentially diminishing the need for formalized sign policy.^[35] Post-2021, contention focuses on CRPD Article 24 compliance, including mandates for sign language in curricula and interpreter certification; empirical gaps in training (fewer than 1,000 certified LIS interpreters nationwide as of 2021) and uneven regional adoption underscore enforcement challenges.^[6] Critics, including deaf advocates, note that without dedicated funding—estimated at €50-100 million annually for nationwide programs—recognition risks remaining symbolic, perpetuating literacy rates among deaf Italians below 20% in functional terms.^[36] These debates reflect broader causal factors, such as Italy's decentralized education system and historical prioritization of oralism, which empirical studies link to poorer language acquisition outcomes compared to sign-supported methods.^[37]

Usage in Italian Society and Regional Variations

Italian Sign Language (LIS) serves as the primary mode of communication for approximately 40,000 to 42,000 deaf individuals in Italy who use it as a first language, within a broader profoundly deaf population of around 70,000.^[38]^[2] Usage is concentrated within the deaf community, facilitated by organizations such as the Ente Nazionale Sordi (ENS), which has promoted cultural activities, education, and employment support since 1932.^[2] In public domains, LIS appears in televised news interpretations, court proceedings with interpreters, and religious translations like ongoing Bible projects, though national interpreter certification remains absent, limiting broader accessibility.^[38]^[2] Approximately 50% of deaf individuals acquire LIS through schooling, often alongside Italian in bilingual contexts, reflecting its role in community vitality despite preferences for spoken or written Italian in interactions with hearing people.^[38] LIS exhibits regional lexical variations without a standardized form, categorized broadly as northern, central, and southern dialects, with differences primarily in vocabulary rather than grammar or syntax.^[38]^[2] These variants arise from geographic isolation, historical influences from local deaf schools, and cultural factors; for instance, the sign for "shoes" differs between regions like Turin and institutions such as Milan's Giulio Tarra school, while Trieste's variant shows Austrian Sign Language substrate due to past border ties.^[2] Specific lexical examples include distinct signs for "papà" across regions, "luna" between Milan and Brescia, "sorella" in Turin, "bello" in Brescia, "tè" in Genoa, "grazie" in Rome, "cambiare" in Naples, "casa" in Palermo, and color terms like "nero" or "giallo" with local forms.^[39] Multiple deaf schools in Rome, for example, have produced institution-specific variants for signs like "bravo."^[39] Such differences pose minor challenges for interpreters unfamiliar with non-local signs, necessitating clarification, but do not impede overall mutual intelligibility among users.^[38]^[39]

Education and Language Acquisition

Historical and Current Methods in Deaf Education

The earliest formal deaf education in Italy began with the establishment of the first school for the deaf in Rome in 1784 by Abbot Tommaso Silvestri, who initially employed methodical signs derived from French models before shifting toward oral methods inspired by Johann Konrad Amman's articulation techniques.^[40] In 1802, Abbot Ottavio Giovan Battista Assarotti founded a sign-oriented institute in Genoa, emphasizing natural signs and fingerspelling, which influenced subsequent institutions until oralism gained traction.^[40] These manual approaches relied on gestural communication akin to precursors of Italian Sign Language (LIS), fostering basic literacy and social interaction among deaf pupils through visual means rather than spoken language alone.^[40] The Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf, held in Milan in 1880, marked a pivotal shift by declaring oral education superior to manual methods and resolving to prohibit sign language in classrooms, a decision driven by hearing educators' preference for speech integration over gestural systems.^[40] This oralist dominance, emphasizing lip-reading, articulation training, and exclusion of signs, persisted through the 20th century in Italian deaf schools, suppressing formal LIS use despite its informal persistence in deaf communities for peer communication.^[40] Oralism's implementation often yielded limited literacy rates, as it prioritized auditory-verbal skills ill-suited to profound deafness without technological aids, leading to documented delays in language acquisition compared to sign-based alternatives.^[41] Legislative reforms in the late 20th century began eroding strict oralism: Law 118 of 1971 promoted integration of deaf students into mainstream schools, though without mandatory sign support, while Law 104 of 1992 introduced communication assistants and deaf educators to facilitate bimodal approaches combining Italian with LIS or sign-supported variants.^[6] These changes enabled hybrid methods, such as Signed Italian (SI) or Sign-Supported Italian (SSI), where teaching assistants provide individualized LIS explanations alongside oral instruction.^[42] By 2021, Law 69 formally recognized LIS as Italy's minority sign language, mandating interpreters in public education settings and bolstering vocational training for LIS instructors through organizations like Ente Nazionale Sordi (ENS).^[6] Contemporary deaf education in Italy remains predominantly oralist or inclusive-oral, with auditory-verbal therapy (AVT) and cognitive oralism emphasizing spoken Italian and lip-reading, often supplemented by cochlear implants for early intervention.^[43] However, bilingual models integrating LIS as the primary language with written/spoken Italian have emerged in select programs, such as the Cossato experimental initiative, where deaf educators deliver content in LIS to enhance comprehension and cultural identity.^[6] Only a minority of public schools offer full bimodal bilingual curricula accessible to both deaf and hearing students, with private or specialized institutions like those affiliated with ENS providing LIS-focused training.^[44] Empirical studies indicate superior outcomes for LIS-inclusive methods: deaf children in bilingual environments demonstrate stronger lexical production, comprehension, and theory-of-mind development than those in oralist or TA-supported oral settings, with bimodal instruction yielding gains in cognitive flexibility independent of signing onset age or parental hearing status.^[42] ^[41] Despite these findings, implementation lags due to insufficient LIS-proficient educators and entrenched oralist traditions, resulting in variable access and persistent literacy challenges for many deaf pupils.^[6]

Empirical Outcomes and Pedagogical Controversies

Empirical studies on deaf education in Italy indicate that environments providing full access to Italian Sign Language (LIS) yield superior linguistic and cognitive outcomes compared to those relying on oral methods or limited sign support. For instance, deaf children aged 6–14 in bilingual programs combining LIS and written Italian demonstrated significantly higher performance in theory of mind (ToM) tasks, lexical comprehension, and lexical production than peers in mainstream settings supported only by teaching assistants (TAs) using partial signing.^[42] Hearing children in the same study fell between the two deaf groups, underscoring that consistent LIS exposure, rather than hearing status alone, drives these gains.^[42] Such findings align with broader evidence that LIS facilitates cognitive development, including enhanced understanding of academic subjects, by serving as a natural first language for prelingually deaf children.^[45] In contrast, historical oralist approaches, which suppressed sign language, correlated with persistent literacy challenges and delayed language acquisition among deaf students.^[46] Pedagogical controversies in Italian deaf education stem primarily from the lingering effects of the 1880 International Congress on Education of the Deaf in Milan, where delegates voted to ban sign language in favor of oralism, declaring it superior for integration into hearing society.^[47] This resolution, passed despite opposition from sign proponents, led to the dismissal of deaf teachers proficient in manual methods and a near-eradication of sign in European schools, including Italy, resulting in generations of deaf children experiencing educational isolation and suboptimal development.^[47]^[24] Contemporary debates persist over implementing bilingual LIS-Italian curricula versus mainstream oralist or TA-assisted models, exacerbated by insufficient teacher training in LIS—many specialized educators lack formal sign proficiency, hindering effective instruction.^[46] Proponents of full LIS immersion argue it addresses causal gaps in early language exposure, promoting literacy through visual-spatial mapping to written Italian, while critics, often from oralist traditions, prioritize spoken Italian for societal assimilation, though empirical data favors the former for core competencies like ToM.^[42]^[26] Regional variations and policy inconsistencies further complicate adoption, with divided societal views on whether specialized deaf schools or inclusive mainstreaming better serve outcomes.^[26]

Research, Documentation, and Applications

Key Linguistic Studies and Grammars

Virginia Volterra's foundational research in the 1970s and 1980s at the Italian National Research Council (CNR) established Italian Sign Language (LIS) as a distinct natural language with unique grammatical structures, including verb agreement and spatial syntax, through empirical analysis of Deaf signers' productions.^[2] Her 1984 collaborative study with colleagues documented LIS phonology and morphology, revealing classifier systems for depicting motion and location, distinct from spoken Italian.^[48] By 1987, Volterra's publication expanded on these findings, providing the first systematic linguistic description of LIS syntax and semantics, countering prior views of sign languages as mere gesture systems.^[2] Subsequent longitudinal research, spanning 1981 to 2013, tracked LIS evolution through video corpora of over 100 Deaf signers, identifying shifts in lexical borrowing from Italian and increased standardization due to educational exposure, while preserving core non-manual markers for questions and negation.^[24] This work, led by Volterra with Serena Corazza and Penny Boyes Braem, highlighted community-driven changes, such as regional dialect convergence in urban centers.^[25] A 1995 study on LIS noun morphology demonstrated inflectional properties influencing verb agreement, with nouns incorporating spatial loci for reference tracking.^[12] The most comprehensive grammar to date, A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS) (2020), edited by Chiara Branchini and Lara Mantovan under the EU-funded SIGN-HUB project, synthesizes decades of data into chapters on phonology (handshape and movement parameters), morphology (aspectual modulation via repetition), and syntax (topic-comment structures with topicalization via eyebrow raises).^[15] It draws on annotated corpora exceeding 50 hours of elicited and spontaneous signing, emphasizing empirical validation over theoretical speculation. Recent studies, such as a 2022 analysis of negation embodiment, apply multimodal frameworks to LIS, showing headshakes integrating with manual signs for semantic negation, supported by eye-tracking data from 20 native signers.^[49] These works prioritize peer-reviewed corpora over anecdotal reports, addressing gaps in earlier descriptive efforts.

Technological and NLP Developments

Efforts in technological developments for Italian Sign Language (LIS) have primarily focused on automatic recognition, generation, and bidirectional translation systems, leveraging deep learning and multimodal data to address the visual-spatial nature of sign languages. Key advancements include the creation of specialized datasets, such as the MultiMeDaLIS corpus, which pairs visual and radar sensor data for isolated LIS gestures, enabling improved machine learning models for gesture detection in controlled environments like medical consultations.^[50] Another dataset comprises static images of LIS fingerspelling for the Italian alphabet, facilitating initial training for alphabet recognition tasks.^[51] These resources have supported real-time recognition prototypes using convolutional neural networks and OpenCV for processing video inputs of LIS signs, achieving preliminary accuracies in isolated sign classification as demonstrated in 2021 experiments.^[52] In natural language processing (NLP), LIS-specific pipelines have emerged for translation between written or spoken Italian and LIS, incorporating modules for syntactic adaptation to LIS's non-linear grammar, such as topic-comment structures and classifier predicates. A notable architecture translates written Italian to animated LIS via rule-based and statistical NLP components, handling lexical mapping and spatial verb modifications, though early implementations were limited to basic sentences due to grammatical divergences.^[53] More recent bidirectional systems, like DEEP, integrate automatic speech recognition (ASR) for Italian-to-LIS translation and avatar-based signing, tailored for practical settings such as pharmacies and municipal offices; evaluations with native LIS users in 2025 reported 73.4% comprehensibility for LIS-to-Italian outputs and 97.2% clarity for reverse translations across tested sentences.^[54]^[55] Generation technologies have advanced toward digital humans and avatars fluent in LIS, with text-to-LIS models trained on multimodal datasets combining textual descriptions, gloss annotations, and video of native signers to produce coherent gesture sequences. A 2024 prototype employs large language models (LLMs) fine-tuned on LIS data for gesture planning, integrating spatial co-reference resolution to mimic natural signing fluency, though challenges persist in handling mouthing and non-manual features essential to LIS semantics.^[56] Surface electromyography (EMG) and inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors have been explored for alphabet recognition, achieving higher precision in wearable prototypes by capturing muscle and motion data, bypassing visual occlusions common in camera-based systems.^[57] Integration with platforms like InSegno uses AI for inclusive learning, overlaying LIS interpretations on educational content via recognition and generation, with deployment in 2025 emphasizing accessibility for deaf users.^[58] These developments, while promising, face hurdles in scaling to continuous signing and regional LIS variants, as empirical tests highlight lower generalization from isolated datasets to fluent discourse.^[3]

References

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### Summary of Italian Sign Language (LIS) Sections
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PART 2 Phonology · Chapter 1. Sublexical structure · 1.1. Active articulators · 1.1.1. Contrastive handshapes · 1.1.1.1. Selected fingers · 1.1.1.2. Finger ...
[10]
Chapter 3. Phonological processes - Edizioni Ca' Foscari
In sign linguistics, by syllable we intend a single movement, be it primary (or path) or secondary movement (handshape/orientation change) (PHONOLOGY 2.1.1).
[11]
PART 4 Morphology - SIGN-HUB
The third and the fourth chapters describe the two major inflectional processes, namely verbal inflection (agreement, tense, aspect, modality, and negation) and ...
[12]
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[13]
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The present chapter explores the morphological processes that LIS nouns can undergo to convey information of number and localisation/distribution.
[15]
A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS) - Edizioni Ca' Foscari
A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS) is a comprehensive presentation of the grammatical properties of LIS. It has been conceived as a tool for students, ...
[16]
Chapter 1. History - Edizioni Ca' Foscari
As for Italy, in 1784 the first school for the Deaf was founded by the Abbot Tommaso Silvestri (1744-1789) in Rome, financed by the lawyer Concistoriale ...Missing: origins | Show results with:origins
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[20]
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The Institute of the Deaf of Turin is an institution created at the beginning of the 19th century by the Savoy to care for and teach deaf children.
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La Lingua dei Segni Italiana riconosciuta dallo Stato - Storia dei Sordi
May 27, 2021 · La Repubblica riconosce, promuove e tutela la lingua dei segni italiana (LIS) e la lingua dei segni italiana tattile (LIST). Decreto-Legge 22 ...
[29]
[PDF] Multisource Approaches to Italian Sign Language (LIS) Recognition
Dec 4, 2024 · This paper explores advancements in Italian Sign Language (LIS) recognition using a multimodal dataset in the medical domain: the MultiMedaLIS ...
[30]
(PDF) Towards Italian Sign Language Generation for digital humans
Dec 25, 2024 · This paper introduces an early exploration of Text-to-LIS, a new model designed to generate contextually accurate Italian Sign Language (LIS) ...
[31]
Legal Recognition of Sign Languages | WFD Advocacy
Italy. 2021 – Italy officially recognised Italian Sign Language on May 19, 2021. Japan. 2025 – 1,741 local municipal councils have adopted the law recognising ...
[32]
Country information for Italy - Legislation and policy
May 4, 2021 · Law 104/1992 is the main framework for all disability issues. It: guarantees specific rights for people with disabilities and their families ...
[33]
[PDF] The Rights of deaf people and Sign language - Luiss
2 This article shows the limited level of legislative protection ensured to deaf and hearing-impaired persons in Italy and in France in comparative perspective.
[34]
WFD expressed its support for the recognition of the Italian sign ...
May 26, 2011 · WFD expressed its support for the recognition of the Italian sign language. WFD has sent a support letter to its Italian member, Ente Nazionale ...
[35]
[PDF] The `Language Issue' The struggle and path to the recognition of LIS
Dec 13, 2023 · According to this view, sign languages should be treated on a par with other languages and policy makers are expected to grant sign languages ...
[36]
The Italian Deaf Community at the Time of Coronavirus - PMC
Jan 14, 2021 · The present paper will explore the impacts of the recent pandemic crisis on the Italian Deaf community, as a linguistic minority.
[37]
Unveiling the Challenges in the Implementation of Article 24 CRPD ...
This article aims to reflect on the challenges surrounding the creation of an inclusionary educational system that goes beyond a mere integration in mainstream ...
[38]
[PDF] Sociolinguistic Survey Report of the Deaf Community of Italy
This report seeks to provide accurate, current information about the sociolinguistic situation of the Italian deaf community and Italian Sign Language, ...
[39]
Dialetti e varianti nelle lingue dei segni: un'analisi della variazione ...
Sep 23, 2024 · Questo breve intervento esplora la presenza di dialetti e varianti nella Lingua dei Segni Italiana (LIS), analizzando le cause di tali ...
[40]
[PDF] 1 History - Edizioni Ca' Foscari
Feb 17, 2021 · La lingua italiana dei segni: Historical Change in the Sign. Language of Deaf People in Italy [PhD dissertation]. New York: New York. University ...Missing: origins | Show results with:origins
[41]
evidence from deaf children in bilingual and oralist environments
Children receiving bimodal/bilingual instruction in LIS together with Sign-Supported and spoken Italian significantly outperformed children in oralist schools ...
[42]
Deaf Children Attending Different School Environments
In Italy, the great majority of deaf children attend mainstream public schools along with hearing children and instruction is provided according to three ...<|separator|>
[43]
Survey on language rehabilitation methods in deaf Italian children ...
Aug 14, 2025 · Currently used oral rehabilitation methods in Italy include AVT and Cognitive Oralism (CO). CO is an approach closely related to oral ...Missing: LIS | Show results with:LIS
[44]
Prospects for Bilingual and Bicultural Education for Both Deaf and ...
Apr 17, 2019 · One of these schools, the Tommaso Silvestri Primary School, located in Rome, Italy, is discussed in this chapter. In particular, the way in ...
[45]
The Italian Deaf Community at the Time of Coronavirus - Frontiers
Jan 13, 2021 · As reported by research, Sign languages usage can improve cognitive development as well as promote a deeper understanding of many school ...
[46]
[PDF] Deaf Education in Italy: Formulating Methods to Increase Literacy
This thesis sets out to examine the ways in which using an all sign language approach can help increase literacy among Deaf children in an enrichment setting in ...
[47]
Ban on Sign Language at the Milan Conference of 1880
At this conference, a declaration was made that oral education was better than manual (sign) education. As a result, sign language in schools for the Deaf was ...
[48]
[PDF] Slang terms in Italian Sign Language (LIS) - UNITesi
Sociolinguistics: a general overview ... Italian Sign Language: grammatical constraints and discourse structure. In C. Lucas. (ed.) Sign Language Research ...
[49]
On the Embodiment of Negation in Italian Sign Language - Frontiers
Aug 29, 2022 · In the present research we will apply the MRT framework for exploring negation in Italian sign language (LIS). The nature of negation in LIS has ...
[50]
1st Multimodal Italian Sign Language Recognition C | Kaggle
This competition is built around MultiMeDaLIS, a novel preliminary dataset that pairs visual and radar data to capture isolated Italian Sign Language gestures.
[51]
LIS-dataset - Kaggle
This dataset contains static pictures of the fingerspelling signs corresponding to the letters of the Italian Sign Language alphabet.
[52]
Real-time LIS recognition with Deep Learning and OpenCV - GitHub
This repo contains the code for training and evaluating the models used in the paper "Real-time Italian Sign Language Recognition with Deep Learning" (2021).
[53]
Deep Natural Language Processing for Italian Sign ... - SpringerLink
This paper presents the architecture of a translator from written Italian into Italian Sign Language. We describe the main features of the four modules of ...Missing: developments | Show results with:developments
[54]
[PDF] DEEP: an automatic bidirectional translator leveraging an ASR for ...
In this paper we introduce DEEP, a bidirectional. MT system between the Italian Sign Language. (LIS) and Italian, designed for two common use cases that can ...
[55]
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3663547.3759767
[56]
[PDF] Towards Italian Sign Language Generation for digital humans
Nov 27, 2024 · We present a robust solution for creating natural and coherent LIS gestures by combining textual and visual data. By advancing technology for ...
[57]
Italian sign language alphabet recognition from surface EMG and ...
This repository contains a notebook with experiments on the automatic recognition of Italian Sign Language with surface-EMG and IMU data, using a deep neural ...Data Description · Neural Network Architecture · Experiments
[58]
(PDF) InSegno: AI-enhanced Platform for Inclusive and Accessible ...
May 13, 2025 · La Lingua dei Segni Italiana (LIS) è stata riconosciuta ufficialmente in Italia con il Decreto Sostegni del 19.5.2021 (Art. 34 ter: Misure per ...