Greek Sign Language

The Greek Legal Language is recognized as the first language of children and of heavy students by Law 2817/2000, "Deaf with" K "are people with reduced hearing capacity who are knowledgeable of the Greek language and have adopted the culture of the Deaf who are members of their community. Since 2000, according to the aforementioned law, as well as 3699/2008, knowledge of the Greek Sign Language is a mandatory qualification for the recruitment of young professionals in the education of deaf students. By Law 4488/2017 (Article 65 (2)). The Greek legal language is recognized as equivalent to the Greek language. In addition, the law stipulates that the state is taking measures to promote it and to cover all the communication needs of the deaf and hearing impaired citizens.

It is a language that can be analyzed and studied individually. The peculiarity of the sign is that it is visual and not horizontal. It is not expressed, namely by the voice such as the spoken but by the movement and the form of the hands, the expression of the person, the movements of the body. It has its own grammatical and editorial rules that greatly differentiate the spoken word. The use of sign is a basic prerequisite for the integration of any person into the community of Holes, for inclusion in which the degree of acoustic loss does not matter, but the knowledge of language and the respect of the culture of the Apostles.

The Greek Sign Language is not international, as it is wrongly believed. Each country develops its own sign language with different basic meanings and a different alphabet. There are common features and many differences at a morphological level. Nevertheless, the Deaf of different states can communicate comfortably through the International Sign, which is essentially a code that serves the simple daily communication needs. As is the case with the spoken languages, dialects exist in each country. Linguistic investigations in various sign languages have shown that each sign language has a specific structure and responds to universal universals of human languages. Although there is no official record, users of the Greek sign language in Greece are estimated at 40,600, having a rapid upward trend due to the great interest in learning the language by listeners. The continuous increase in its distribution is due to its official proclamation, but also to the broadcasting of news and broadcasts by Greek television through interpretation, as well as meetings of the Hellenic Parliament, which are shown by the TV station of Parliament --Television Prisma-- which belonged to the broadcaster of ERT, was the first television channel with interpretation and subtitles on much of its TV program.

It should be stressed that Greek Sign Language is used in Greece, but it is not a representation of the spoken Greek language, such as the written language, and can, like any other language, give any expression of the Greek spoken language, including slang. The usefulness of the sign language to facilitate the communication of the deaf is also stressed by Socrates in his dialogue with Ermogenis in Plato's work "Kratilios". Socrates states specifically: "If we did not have a voice or a tongue, and yet we would like to express ourselves among us, would we not, as the deers torture, express ourselves with the hands and the head and the other body?

The educational material that exists in the Greek Sign Language is limited. Since 2010 there has been a continuous increase in the production of accessible educational material in electronic and printed form for deaf students. The educational and linguistic material developed mainly by public research bodies concerns the teaching of the ENG as the first language, the ENT lexicon, the publication of printed material in the ENG as well as the literary texts in the. This material is available free of charge through the Digital Signature Repository in the Greek Sign Language, which provides the ability to find meaning in all videos for educational and research purposes.

• The Lucky Documentary by Lucia Rikaki "The Words of Silence" in ERT for the Greek sign language.
• Lambropoulou , B. (1997-1999). 1st training package: Society and the Deaf. Community and Deaf Culture.
• Lambropoulou, B. (1997-1999). Education and deaf child. 3rd educational training package, teacher training. deaf and hearing impaired.
• The History of the Deaf
• Department of Education and Training of the Pedagogical Institute
• Digital History Store in the Greek Sign Language

• Curbetis B., Markakis, E. & Steinhauer, G. (1999). The Greek Sign Language and its Teaching in Deaf Schools. Pedagogical Institute, Athens.
• Kourbetis V., & Hatzopoulou M. (2010). I Can Also With My Eyes: Educational Approaches and Practices for Deaf Students . Kastaniotis, Athens

• Hatzopoulou, Marianna. 2008. Acquisition of reference to self and others in Greek Sign Language: From pointing gesture to pronominal pointing signs. Doctoral dissertation, Stockholm University. Online access

• WikiSigns.org - Wiki GSL dictionary