Russian Sign Language

Speakers
120,528 (Russia)
Area
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Moldova, Estonia, Israel, Germany, USA
Language family
French Sign
EGIDS status
vigorous

Brief Information

Signers of RSL live in all subjects of the Russian Federation and in a number of former USSR countries (Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Moldova). A small number of RSL signers—emigrants or children of emigrants from Russia—also live in Germany, the USA and Israel.

In case of sign languages, people with congenital hearing defects and those who lost their hearing completely or partially at an early age can be considered an ethnic group, i. e. a community of people sharing a certain language, culture and self-consciousness and on these grounds opposing themselves to surrounding groups. 

Information about the number of RSL signers in Russia differs significantly in different sources. According to the 2010 All-Russian Population Census (the first census that took RSL into account), the number is 120,528 people. The Ethnologue website reports that there are around 144,000 RSL signers (the number estimate there is based on the fact that on average people with congenital deafness amount to about 0.1% of the total population), and according to All-Russian Society of the Deaf, the population of RSL signers in Russia is more than 300 thousand people (see Problemy gluhih [Problems of the Deaf]… (2014)).

There is no information about the number of RSL signers outside the Russian Federation. According to the estimates of the Ethnologue website, the total number of RSL signers in the world is about 148,700 people.

RSL has numerous mutually intelligible local variants.

The term for RSL in RSL is sign sign (sign glosses are traditionally indicated by small capitals; for example, see performance of the sign here).

The official term in spoken Russian is русский жестовый язык ‘Russian Sign Language’; apart from that, the informal term жесты ‘signs’ is used by many RSL signers when they speak Russian).
 

Genealogy

According to a widespread point of view, RSL belongs to the French Sign Language family, which also includes American, Flemish, Quebec, Irish, Brazilian sign languages and the northern dialect of Dutch Sign Language [Zeshan 2013]. However, the term ‘language family’ is quite conventional with respect to sign languages because the comparative historical method as it was developed for the study of sound languages is not very applicable to sign languages (for example, no counterpart of regular phonological correspondences has yet been found in sign languages). Therefore, by ‘language family’ and ‘cognation’ we usually mean historical relations between some national sign languages, and the question of whether these relations can be considered genetic in the same sense as when we talk about spoken languages remains open.

The history of many sign languages is connected to creation of special educational institutions for the deaf. A deaf education system was often imported from another country, and along with it the sign language used in teaching the deaf could also be imported to a varying extent. French Sign Language (LSF) was the sign language that influenced the emergence and development of other national sign languages greatly, especially in Europe and North America [Woll et al. 2004: 29]. It also played a role in the development of RSL, at least in its vocabulary formation. RSL as a relatively standardized, generally accepted system of communication for a certain group of signers began to form at the beginning of the XIX century when specialized educational institutions for the deaf started emerging in Russia. A French mimic method of teaching the deaf developed by one of the founders of surdopedagogy—Charles-Michel de L'Épée—was the basis of education there. The main principle of the method is using a sign language as the main means of communication and education. The first teachers were trained in France.

Not all researchers agree that RSL belongs to the French Sign Language family. For example, in J. Bickford’s opinion, the statements about the genetic relationship between RSL and French Sign Language cannot be considered proven since there is no unambiguous evidence that the first teachers of the deaf invited to Russia from France spoke French Sign Language, neither is it confirmed by lexicostatistic data [Bickford 2005: 13-14].
 

Distribution

RSL is spoken in the territories of all subjects of the Russian Federation. The main centers of its functioning are specialized educational institutions for people with hearing impairments (such centers are available in almost every major city), as well as regional branches of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf, sports clubs, theater studios, etc.

RSL is also spoken in a number of former Soviet republics: Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Moldova, Estonia. A small number of RSL signers live in the United States, Germany and Israel—they are Russian immigrants or children of immigrants of recent decades.

Language contacts and multilingualism

The vast majority of RSL signers are bilingual. Besides RSL, they have some fluency in a surrounding sound language in its oral and/or written forms.

The number of hearing RSL signers is relatively small but there is no accurate data on this account. They are mainly hearing children of deaf parents (often abbreviated as CODA—Child of Deaf Adult) whose first native language is the sign language, teachers working with the deaf, translators and researchers of RSL.

Language functioning

  • Legal status
  • Writing system
  • Language standardization
  • Domains of language usage

RSL has had official status in the Russian Federation since 2012. According to the amendment to Article 14 of the Federal Law ‘On Social Protection of the Disabled in the Russian Federation’ №181-FL of 24.11.1995, it is acknowledged as ‘the language of communication in case of hearing and (or) speech disorders, including the domains of oral use of the state language of the Russian Federation’.

RSL has no official status outside Russia.

RSL has no writing system. RSL signers use the written form of a surrounding sound language.

RSL does not have a literary norm. Signers of different local RSL variants have no problems understanding each other.

Dynamics of language usage

According to signers of RSL themselves, the level of sign language proficiency among young people is noticeably higher compared to the older generation. 

In the case of RSL, the language situation has been changing rapidly in recent decades. The reason for this is both the official status of the language and the occurring changes in the attitude of signers to their language as a full-fledged communication system, which are characteristic primarily for the younger generation. Another reason for the changes of the language situation are the linguistic studies of RSL that have been actively developing in recent decades and that also contribute to the view of signers themselves as a full-fledged language and in the more active usage of RSL in education. However, first of all, the reason for the changes is the immeasurably increased opportunities and volume of communication in sign language due to the development of modern means of communication, the Internet and social networks. On the other hand, according to teachers working with the deaf, young deaf people have a lower level of written Russian language proficiency for the same reason.  

In the case of sign languages of an ethnic group, i.e. a community of people that are united by a certain language, culture and self-consciousness and on these grounds oppose themselves to surrounding groups, can be conditionally considered people with congenital hearing defects and those who have lost their hearing completely or partially at an early age. In the Russian Federation, the population size of the ethnic group remains approximately at the same level in different periods.

The number of people who consider RSL to be native remains approximately at the same level in different periods. 

The number of signers of RSL remains approximately at the same level in different periods. 

The transmission of RSL to children in a family persists. However, it should be kept in mind that in the case of sign languages of deaf communities, to which RSL belongs, the transmission of sign language in a family is the exception, not the norm. Among children with congenital deafness, less than 10% are born in families of deaf parents [Brentari 2010: 5] (and according to other estimates, even less than 5%, see [Mitchell, Karchmer 2004]). Therefore, the acquisition of sign language usually occurs not in the family, but in specialized kindergartens, schools, or deaf societies (clubs, church organizations, theater groups, etc.). 

The attitude to sign language differs among different generations of RSL signers. It is typical for the younger generation to treat it as a full-fledged communication system.  However, elderly signers of RSL, as a result of sign language teaching approaches that have been widespread for a long time in Russia, still often consider RSL as an “illiterate” version of sign language in comparison to the so-called “literate” – cued speech, which is the transmission of the spoken Russian language with the use of gestures.
 

Отношение к жестовому языку у разных поколений говорящих различается. Для молодого поколения свойственно отношение к нему как к полноценной системе коммуникации.  У пожилых носителей РЖЯ, как следствие распространенных долгое время в России сурдопедагогических подходов к обучению глухих, до сих пор часто встречается отношение к РЖЯ как к «неграмотному» варианту жестовой речи по сравнению с так называемым «грамотным» – калькирующей жестовой речью (КЖР), представляющей собой передачу при помощи жестов русского звукового языка.

Language structure

Phonetics

The smallest building units are the components (parameters) of the sign.

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Morphology

RSL is characterized by the widespread use of means of non-segmental morphology.

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Syntax

The basic word order in RSL primarily depends on the class of a sign that acts as a predicate.

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Vocabulary

The RSL vocabulary is heterogeneous in terms of etymology and structural properties. It includes a basic vocabulary, classifier constructions, and loanwords.

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Грамматика РЖЯ

Исследование языка

The first information on RSL dates back to the first half of the 19th century. In 1835, the book " Deaf-Mutes Considered Regarding Their Condition and Means of Education Most Suited to Their Nature" written by V. I. Fleury, the teacher, and later the director of the St. Petersburg Deaf-Mute School, was published [Fleury 1835]. The book examined some of the features of RSL, in particular, its similarity to French Sign Language, as well as provided descriptions to approximately 500 gestures. In 1872, a collection of prayers was published, compiled by the law teacher of the St. Petersburg Deaf-Mute School, Archpriest Alexander Bratolyubov [Bratolyubov 1872], which provided descriptions of more than 450 gestures and some features of the grammar of RSL.

In the early 20th century, as a result of the decisions of the so-called Milan Congress, the RSL was almost completely removed from the curricula of educational institutions for the deaf, it was not studied and was not recognized as a full-fledged language. However, after the October Revolution of 1917, interest in the sign language, based on the need to involve the deaf in the social and political life of the country, started to grow. The search began for the possibilities of using the sign language in teaching the deaf oral speech. In 1930, at the All-Russian Congress of the Deaf, L. S. Vygotsky criticized "pure oral method". For the better education of deaf children, in his view, it was necessary to use all speech types available to the deaf, including “mimic speech”, to the maximum. In the scientific literature, the studies on sign language teachers as well as studies on deaf child psychology started to appear, to some extent describing various linguistic aspects of RSL: its origin, development, morphology, syntax, gesture properties, etc.


The beginning of the next period in the history of RSL studies is related to the name of the outstanding sign language teacher G. L. Zaitseva. In her works, G. L. Zaitseva was the first to refer to RSL as to an independent full-fledged communication system, which is not inferior in its properties to the spoken language. G. L. Zaitseva’s studies, to some extent, served as an impetus for the further development of linguistic research on RSL. In 1992, a brief overview of RSL was published, written by a professional linguist – Lenore Grenoble [Grenoble 1988], who conducted field studies of RSL in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1988.
Since the beginning of the 2000s, a student of G. L. Zaitseva, A. A. Komarova, has been actively engaged in the study of RSL. A. A. Komarova, co-authored with T. P. Davidenko, a deaf signer of RSL, published a sketch on the linguistics of RSL [Davidenko, Komarova 2006]. Since the second half of the 2000s, professional linguists have been actively and systematically studying RSL. In 2004-2015, a number of linguistic studies on RSL were written by students of the Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) and the Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH), under the guidance of a professor A. A. Kibrik. In 2009 the first dissertation [Prozorova 2009] on the linguistic analysis of RSL was submitted.
Soon after, the Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU) became the second center for the study of RSL. A group of undergraduate and postgraduate students of NSTU, under the guidance of S. I. Burkova, created the first online RSL corpus, the first Russian-language textbook on the linguistics of sign languages [Burkova, Kimmelman 2019]. Studies on various linguistic aspects of RSL are also conducted in NSTU. In the last few years, the research of RSL has been actively conducted by students and postgraduates of the School of Linguistics of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE). Several RSL researchers also work in Norway, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Netherlands.
 

Language experts

Anna A. Komarova
(MSU, MSLU, Centre for Education of Deaf People and Sign Language named after G.L. Zaitseva)

Author of several dozens of publications on the life and culture of the deaf, on translation activities and RSL. Research advisor of a number of student papers on RSL. Member of the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters. Member of the Association of Russian Sign Language Interpreters.

Andrey A. Kibrik
(MSU, Institute of Linguistics (RAS))

Proponent of systematic research of RSL by professional linguists. Research advisor of a number of student papers and the first dissertation on RSL. Author and co-author of a number of articles on RSL and, in particular, its discursive structure.

Svetlana I. Burkova
(Novosibirsk State Technical University)

Autor and co-author of a number of articles on various linguistic aspects of RSL. Manager of the project "Corpus study of morphosyntax and vocabulary of the Russian sign language” (RFBR (Russian Foundation for Basic Research) grant No. 12-06-00231-a). Proponent and project manager of the RSL online corpus. The initiator of the creation and one of the authors of the first Russian-language textbook on the linguistics of sign languages. Research advisor of a number of student papers on RSL as well as a dissertation on the grammatical semantics of RSL.

Vadim I. Kimmelman
(University of Bergen, Norway)

Autor and co-author of a number of articles on various linguistic aspects of RSL. Author of a dissertation on the information structure in Russian Sign Language and Dutch Sign language. Member of the project "Corpus study of morphosyntax and vocabulary of the Russian sign language” (RFBR (Russian Foundation for Basic Research) grant No. 12-06-00231-a). Member of the project on the creation of the RSL online corpus. One of the co-authors of the first Russian-language textbook on the linguistics of sign languages. Research advisor of a number of student papers on RSL

Elizaveta V. Filimonova

Author of a number of articles on the morphology and grammatical semantics of RSL. Author of a dissertation on the means of expressing aspect in RSL. Member of the project "Corpus study of morphosyntax and vocabulary of the Russian sign language” (RFBR (Russian Foundation for Basic Research) grant No. 12-06-00231-a). Member of the project on the creation of the RSL online corpus. One of the co-authors of the first Russian-language textbook on the linguistics of sign languages.

Maria V. Kyuseva

Author of a number of articles on RSL vocabulary and a dissertation on the analysis of sign denoting qualities in RSL from typological perspective. One of the co-authors of the first Russian-language textbook on the linguistics of sign languages.

Anastasia A. Bauer
(Slavic Department of the University of Cologne, Germany)

Author of a number of studies on sign linguistics. Manager of the project “Corpus study of articulation and dactyl in RSL: description and significance for cross-modal language contact” (German Research Foundation BA 4311 / 1-1).

Research centres

The Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University

Linguistic studies of RSL

 
The Faculty of humanities, Novosibirsk State Technical University

Linguistic studies of RSL

 
The School of Linguistics, Faculty of humanities of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE)

Linguistic studies of RSL

 
The Faculty of English, Moscow State Linguistic University

Linguistic studies of RSL

 
Centre for Education of Deaf People and Sign Language named after G.L. Zaitseva (Moscow)

Linguistic studies of RSL

 

Core references

Grammatical descriptions: grammars, sketches

Grenoble L. An overview of Russian Sign Language // Sign Language Studies. 1992. Vol. 21/77. Pp. 321–338.

Davidenko, Komarova 2006a – Davidenko T. P., Komarova A. A. Kratkiy ocherk po lingvistike RZhYa [A brief sketch on the linguistics of RSL] // A. A. Komarova (sost.), Sovremennye aspekty zhestovogo yazyka. Moscow: All-Russian Society of the Deaf, 2006. Pp. 146–161.

Vvedenie v lingvistiku zhestovykh yazykov. Russkiy zhestovyy yazyk: uchebnik [Introduction to the linguistics of sign languages. Russian Sign Language: textbook] / S. I. Burkova, V. I. Kimmelman (ed.). Novosibirsk: Izd-vo NGTU [NSTU Publishing House], 2019.
 

Dictionaries

Geylman I. F. Spetsificheskie sredstva obshcheniya glukhikh (daktilologiya i mimika). Yazyk zhestov: Uchebnoe posobie (slovar') v 5 chastyakh [Specific means of communication of the deaf (dactylology and facial expressions). Sign language: A textbook (dictionary) in 5 parts]. Leningrad: LVTs All-Russian Society of the Deaf, 1975.

Zhesty: Slovar'-spravochnik [Gestures. A dictionary-reference book].  Moscow: «Zagrey», 1995. 

Fradkina R. N. Govoryashchie ruki. Tematicheskiy slovar’ zhestovogo yazyka [Talking hands. Thematic dictionary of the sign language of the Deaf in Russia]. Moscow: Moscow city organization All-Russian Society of the Deaf, 2001.

Bazoev V. Z., Gavrilova G. N., Egorova I. A., Ezhova V. V., Davidenko T. P., Chaushian N. A. Slovar’ russkogo zhestovogo yazyka [Dictionary of Russian Sign Language]. Moscow: “Flinta”, 2009.

Vataga S. Kratkiy slovar’ russkogo zhestovogo yazyka [Brief dictionary of Russian Sign Language]. Moscow: Infra-M, 2019. 
 
Slovar’ russkogo zhestovogo yazyka dlya detey “Raduga” [Dictionary of Russian Sign Language for children “Rainbow”] / author of the idea: G. Alkhimov; photographer K. Kolpakova; artist A. Galeeva. Volgograd: Print-Terra-Design, 2019. 
 

Selected papers on grammatical issues

Bauer A. Artikulyatsiya slov v russkom zhestovom yazyke (RZhYa) [Word Articulation in Russian Sign Language (RSL) // S. Kempgen, M. Wingender & L. Udolph (Hrsg.): Deutsche Beiträge zum 16. Internationalen Slavistenkongress, Belgrad 2018. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2018. Pp. 35–46.

Borodulina D. A. Sredstva vyrazheniya imperativa v russkom zhestovom yazyke [Means of expressing the imperative mood in Russian sign language] // Russkiy zhestovyy yazyk: Pervaya lingvisticheskaya konferentsiya: Sbornik statey / Pod red. O. V. Fedorovoy. Moscow: Buki Vedi, 2012. Pp. 14–49.

Burkova S. I. Uslovnye konstruktsii v russkom zhestovom yazyke [Conditional constructions in Russian sign language] // Russkiy zhestovyy yazyk: Pervaya lingvisticheskaya konferentsiya: Sbornik statey / Pod red. O. V. Fedorovoy. Moscow: Buki Vedi, 2012. Pp. 50–81.

Burkova S. I. Onlayn-korpus russkogo zhestovogo yazyka [The online Russian Sign Language Corpus] // Trudy mezhdunarodnoy konferentsii «Korpusnaya lingvistika – 2015». Saint Petersburg.: Saint Petersburg State University, 2015. Pp. 137–145.

Burkova S. I. Sposoby vyrazheniya imennoy mnozhestvennosti v russkom zhestovom yazyke [The ways of expressing nominal plurality in the Russian sign language] // Siberian Journal of Philology. 2015. № 2. Pp. 174–184.

Burkova S. I. Russkiy zhestovyy yazyk: Obshchie svedeniya [Russian sign language: general information]. [Electronic resource] / Korpus russkogo zhestovogo yazyka. Russkiy zhestovyy yazyk / S. I. Burkova, rukovoditel' proekta. Novosibirsk, 2012–2015. URL: http://rsl.nstu.ru/site/signlang. Zagl. s ekrana.

Burkova S. I., Varinova O. A. K voprosu o territorial'nom i sotsial'nom var'irovanii russkogo zhestovogo yazyka [On territorial and social variation in Russian Sign Language] // Russkiy 

zhestovyy yazyk: Pervaya lingvisticheskaya konferentsiya: Sbornik statey / Pod red. O. V. Fedorovoy. Moscow: Buki Vedi, 2012. Pp. 127–143.

Burkova S. I, Filimonova E. V. Sredstva vyrazheniya eksperientsial'nogo znacheniya v russkom zhestovom yazyke [Means of expressing experiential in Russian Sign language] // Vestnik NGTU: Seriya: Istoriya, filologiya. Vol. 13. Edition 2. Filologiya. Novosibirsk, 2014. Pp. 77–83.

Burkova S. I., Filimonova E.V. Reduplikatsiya v russkom zhestovom yazyke [Reduplication in Russian sign language] // Russkiy yazyk v nauchnom osveshchenii. Moscow, 2014. № 28 (2). Pp. 202–258.

Zaitseva G. L. Vyrazhenie prostranstvennykh otnosheniy v mimiko-zhestikulyatornoy rechi glukhikh: Avtoref. diss. kand. ped. nauk [Expression of spatial relations in the mimico-gesticulatory speech of the deaf: synopsis of the dissertation, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences]. Moscow: Russian Academy of Education USSR. Research Institute of defectology, 1969.

Zaitseva G. L. Daktilologiya. Zhestovaya rech' [Dactylology. Sign speech]. Moscow: Prosveshchenie, 1991. 

Zaitseva G. L. Infleksiya kak sredstvo smysloobrazovaniya v razgovornom zhestovom yazyke glukhikh [Inflection as a means of meaning-making in Sign languages] // Eksperimental'nye metody v psikholingvistike. Moscow, 1987.

Zaitseva G. L., Frumkina R. M. Psikholingvisticheskie aspekty izucheniya zhestovogo yazyka [Psycholinguistic aspects of Sign language learning] // Defektologiya. 1981. № 1.

Kibrik A. A. O vazhnosti lingvisticheskogo izucheniya russkogo zhestovogo yazyka [The importance of linguistic study of RSL] // Russkiy zhestovyy yazyk: Pervaya lingvisticheskaya konferentsiya: Sbornik statey / Pod red. O. V. Fedorovoy. Moscow: Buki Vedi, 2012. Pp. 5–13. 

Khristoforova E, Kimmelman V. Corpus-based investigation of quotation in Russian Sign Language // Computational Linguistics and Intellectual Technologies: Papers from the Annual International Conference “Dialogue 2018”. Vol. 17. Moscow: RSUH, 2018. Pp. 294–305.

Kibrik A., Prozorova E. Referential choice in signed and spoken languages // Proceedings of 6th Discourse Anaphora and Anaphor Resolution Colloquium. 2007. Pp. 41–46.

Kimmelman V. Parts of speech in Russian Sign Language: the role of iconicity and economy // Sign Language & Linguistics. 2009. Vol. 12(2). Pp. 161–186.

Kimmelman V. Word Order in Russian Sign Language // Sign Language Studies. 2012. Vol. 12(3). Pp. 414–445.  

Kimmelman V. Information Structure in Russian Sign Language and Sign Language of the Netherlands. PhD dissertation. University of Amsterdam, 2014.

Kimmelman V. Quantifiers in Russian Sign Language // E.L. Keenan & D. Paperno (eds.), Handbook of Quantifiers in Natural Languages. Vol. 2. 2017. Pp. 803–855.

Kimmelman V., Kyuseva M., Lomakina Y., Perova D. On the notion of metaphor in sign languages: some observations based on Russian Sign Language // Sign Language & Linguistics. 2017. Vol. 20(2).
 

Работы по социолингвистике

Sovremennye aspekty zhestovogo yazyka: Sbornik statey [Modern aspects of Sign language] / A. A. Komarova (sost.). Moscow, 2006. 

Lingvisticheskie prava glukhikh: gosudarstvennaya podderzhka izucheniya i primeneniya zhestovogo yazyka: materialy mezhdunarodnoy konferentsii [Linguistic Rights of the Deaf: State Support for the Study and Use of Sign Language: proceedings of the International conference] / A. A. Komarova, N. A. Chaushian (sost.). Moscow, 2008.

Komarova A.A., Palennyy V.A. Za zhestovyy yazyk! [For Sign Language]. Moscow, 2014. 

Bilingvizm. Rol' zhestovogo yazyka v yazykovom i kognitivnom razvitii detey s narushennym slukhom: sbornik statey [The role of Sign language in the cognitive and language development of children with impaired hearing: a collection of articles] / A. Mallabiu, Z. Boytsova (red.). Saint Petersburg.: Renome, 2017.

Dver' v bol'shoy mir: bilingvisticheskoe obuchenie glukhikh [The Door to the big world: bilingual education for the deaf]. Moscow: All-Russian Society of the Deaf, 2020.

Komarova A. A. Soobshchestvo glukhikh i zhestovyy yazyk [The deaf-community and Sign language]. Moscow: All-Russian Society of the Deaf, 2020.
 

Работы по этнологии

Bazoev V. Z., Palennyy V. A. Chelovek iz mira tishiny [A man from the world of silence]. Moscow: Akademkniga, 2002.

Resources

Corpora and text collections

Russian Sign Language Corpus
http://rsl.nstu.ru

●    Russian Sign Language Corpus was created at the Novosibirsk State Technical University in the course of the project "Corpus study of morphosyntax and vocabulary of the Russian sign language” (RFBR (Russian Foundation for Basic Research) grant No. 12-06-00231-a).
●    The corpus includes more than 180 video texts (and about 85,000 words):
●    spontaneous speech (monologues and dialogues); 
●    texts written on the basis of such materials as cartoon retellings and stories based on pictures;
●    materials obtained by elicitation.
●    Video texts were recorded from 40 RSL signers – 19 men and 21 women aged 18 to 63 years with varying degrees of hearing loss: deaf, hard of hearing people and CODA. Most of the informants currently live in Novosibirsk (in the past, some of them have lived for a long time in other regions of Siberia: The Tomsk, Kemerovo, and Sverdlovsk Regions, the Altai Territory, the Altai Republic, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Yakutia, Buryatia, Khakassia and North-Eastern Kazakhstan). The other part of the informants permanently resides in Moscow.
●    For all texts annotations are available, made in the ELAN software environment.
●    Annotations in the online version of the corpus are presented in 4 layers: 1, 2) translation into Russian / designations of the right and left hand manual gestures, 3) phrase translation into Russian, 4) additional notes and comments.
●    The corpus provides the following functions:
●    viewing annotated video (with the opportunity to change the speed of video playback, and repeat playback of the chosen fragment).);
●    viewing information about the informants (gender, age, degree of hearing loss, places of long-term residence, and conditions for learning Sign language);
●    sorting texts by metadata (type of text, place of recording, topic of discussion, year and month of recording, informant data);
●    search for lexemes and grammatical indicators by annotation in a separate file or group of files sorted by metadata on selected layers.

Other electronic resources

RSL Video Dictionary
https://www.spreadthesign.com…

RSL Video Dictionary on the “Spreadthesign” website. The information in the dictionary is searched "from word to gesture". Alphabetical and thematic search are available on the website. The dictionary contains a translation of more than 14,000 RSL words and expressions into Russian.

RSL Video Dictionary
http://www.surdoserver.ru

RSL Video Dictionary on the “Surdoserver” website. The information in the dictionary is searched "from word to gesture". Alphabetical and thematic search are available on the website.