In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

• Basics of the South Sudanese Deaf Community and the Sign Language
• Eyasu Hailu (bio) and Sophia Mohammed (bio)

To date, there has not been any research conducted on the South Sudanese Deaf community and South Sudanese Sign Language (SSSL). This article presents an introductory note about both with information gained from personal observations of the authors and from online resources. It provides an insight for furthering extensive research on the newest nation's sign language and the Deaf community.

The South Sudanese Deaf Community

South Sudan is an East Central African nation (see figure 1) that seceded from North Sudan in 2011. According to the World Population Review, the population size of South Sudan is about 11.19 million. South Sudan is a newly established nation, and Christianity is the largest religion. There are about sixty-two ethnic groups. The official language of South Sudan is English.

As per the database on www.peoplegroups.org, the Deaf South Sudanese population totals about 215,000, with the majority living in the rural area. Juba is the capital city, where there are a relatively greater number of Deaf people than in other cities. [End Page 245]

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Map of South Sudan.

Data about the Deaf community in South Sudan is mostly available within the "disability" category. According to the Coalition of Organization of Persons with Disabilities (2016), there are two Deaf associations in South Sudan: the Equatoria States Association of the Deaf and Dumb (ESADD) and the South Sudan National Association of the Deaf. The report mentions that the highest level of education attained by its members is a secondary school education. Few Deaf people are university graduates with the opportunity they gained from abroad, such as in Kenya, Uganda, and North Sudan, before independence. Those who got access to education secured professional jobs at government offices and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). However, most of the Deaf people in the capital are engaged in physical labor, trade, and other private businesses, such as car washing and hair braiding.

Currently, the majority of South Sudanese Sign Language (SSSL) signers reside in the capital Juba, though their exact numbers are not known. One of the social gathering places is at the lone Deaf church [End Page 246] in the capital. The other meeting places for the Deaf community are in cafés along the shore of the White Nile.

SSSL Signers

Like most African sign languages, SSSL is an emerging sign language that is named after the formation of South Sudan in 2011. This probably labels it as the world's youngest sign language. Before 2011, it was called Sudanese Sign Language. The SSSL signers in Juba have frequent language contact with Kenyan and Ugandan signers. For crosscultural communication, they also use American Sign Language (ASL). ASL fingerspelling is used to teach and learn SSSL. This is reflected in the production of the national SSSL dictionary, published in 2016. Names of the months and days of the week show variations. Signers have said that some signs are from Kenya, some are from Uganda, and some others are from North Sudan. In fact, there are also indigenous signs observed in daily communications. More detailed analysis needs to be done to identify other areas of variations.

As can be seen in the figures, the names of months and days of the week are entirely different in the two dictionaries. Examples are in figures 2 and 3, compared with their corresponding figures 4 and 5. Similarly, figures 6 and 7 are entirely different from their corresponding

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monday (ESAD, 2010).

[End Page 247]

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tuesday (ESAD, 2010).

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monday (Light for the World, 2016).

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tuesday (Light for the World, 2016).

[End Page 248]

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january (ESAD, 2010).

figures 8 and 9. Signers use them interchangeably, where the choice of the signs might be dependent on the sociopolitical and linguistic factors that exist in the entire nation. Sociopolitically, South...

中文翻译：

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南苏丹聋人社区的基本知识和手语

代替摘要，这里是内容的简要摘录：

• 南苏丹聋人社区的基本知识和手语
• Eyasu Hailu（生物）和Sophia Mohammed（生物）

牛逼Ø日期，还没有对南苏丹聋人社区和南苏丹手语（单片段代换系）进行的任何研究。本文提供了有关从作者的个人观察和在线资源中获得的信息的介绍性注释。它为进一步研究最新国家的手语和聋人社区提供了见识。

南苏丹聋人社区

南苏丹是2011年从北苏丹脱离的东非中部非洲国家（见图1）。根据《世界人口评论》，南苏丹的人口规模约为1119万。南苏丹是一个新兴国家，基督教是最大的宗教。大约有62个种族。南苏丹的官方语言是英语。

根据www.peoplegroups.org上的数据库，南苏丹聋哑人口总计约215,000，其中大多数居住在农村地区。朱巴（Juba）是首都，聋人的数量比其他城市多。[结束页245]

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南苏丹地图。

有关南苏丹聋人社区的数据主要在“残疾”类别下提供。根据残疾人组织联盟（2016年），南苏丹有两个聋人协会：赤道国家聋哑人协会（ESADD）和南苏丹聋人全国协会。报告提到，其成员获得的最高教育水平是中学教育。失聪的人很少是大学毕业生，他们在独立之前就从国外（例如在肯尼亚，乌干达和北苏丹）获得了机会。那些获得教育的人可以在政府办公室和非政府组织（NGOs）中找到专业工作。但是，首都的大多数聋人都从事体力劳动，贸易和其他私营企业，

目前，大多数南苏丹手语（SSSL）签名者居住在首都朱巴，尽管其确切数字尚不清楚。社交聚会场所之一是首都的孤独的聋人教堂[End Page 246]。聋人社区的其他聚会场所在怀特尼罗河沿岸的咖啡馆中。

SSSL签名者

与大多数非洲手语一样，SSSL是一种新兴的手语，以2011年南苏丹的成立而得名。这很可能将其标记为世界上最年轻的手语。在2011年之前，它被称为苏丹手语。朱巴（Juba）的SSSL签署人经常与肯尼亚和乌干达签署人保持语言联系。为了进行跨文化交流，他们还使用美国手语（ASL）。ASL手指拼写用于教授和学习SSSL。这反映在2016年出版的国家SSSL词典的制作中。星期几和几日的名称显示出变化。签名者说，一些标志来自肯尼亚，一些标志来自乌干达，还有一些标志来自北苏丹。实际上，在日常交流中也观察到土著迹象。

从图中可以看出，两个词典中月份和星期几的名称完全不同。与图4和5相比，图2和图3中的示例。

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星期一（ESAD，2010年）。

[结束页247]

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周二（ESAD，2010）。

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星期一（世界之光，2016年）。

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周二（世界之光，2016年）。

[结束第248页]

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一月（ESAD，2010年）。

图8和图9。签名者可以互换使用它们，其中符号的选择可能取决于整个国家中存在的社会政治和语言因素。从政治上讲，南方...