The Malagasy Sign Language (Malagasy: Tenin'ny Tanana Malagasy, abbreviated TTN) is a sign language used for communication among hearing impaired people in Madagascar. An estimated 110,000 to 170,000 people (or 1% of the population of Madagascar) are deaf. Malagasy Sign Language is similar to Norwegian Sign Language because the first deaf school in Madagascar was founded in 1960 by the Malagasy Lutheran Church with the assistance of a number of Norwegians, including Norwegian teachers.[1] That said, a large number of signs in Malagasy Sign seem to be completely unrelated to their Norwegian Sign counterparts.[1]
Seven deaf schools in Madagascar are sponsored by Evangelical Lutherans.[2]
^a Sign-language names reflect the region of origin. Natural sign languages are not related to the spoken language used in the same region. For example, French Sign Language originated in France, but is not related to French. Conversely, ASL and BSL both originated in English-speaking countries but are not related to each other; ASL however is related to French Sign Language.
^b Denotes the number (if known) of languages within the family. No further information is given on these languages.