A Grammar of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT)

The Dutch deaf community is a linguistic and cultural minority in the Netherlands. In this section, we address specific aspects of this culture in terms of values and traditions, cultural expressions through theater and poetry, storytelling, annual events, and through media. The last section provides an overview of deaf associations and describes their important role for the deaf community. Note that most of these sections are not exhaustive, but rather offer an overview of important highlights.

Cultural values and traditions

People who are not familiar with deaf culture often find it striking that deaf people attract each other’s attention by waving to one another or tapping each other’s arm. These habits are also very common in the Netherlands. The first question deaf people often ask each other, when they meet for the first time, is “Where did you go to school?”. The answer to this simple question is often sufficient to tell whether the interlocutor has had sign language education or oral education, and, in case of the first option, which variants of signs were used (Tijsseling 2014).

Theater and poetry

People regularly played amateur theatre at the associations for the deaf. One of the historical highlights was the performance of the play Marie Jeanne of de Vrouw uit de Volksklasse (Marie Jeanne or The Woman of the Lower Class), played by the deaf association Guyot in 1898 in a sold-out theatre (see Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2. Announcement in the Amsterdammer of the play Marie Jeanne, de Vrouw uit de Volksklasse, performed in sign language, March 15, 1898 (archive Groene Amsterdammer).

Furthermore, Wim Emmerik (1940-2015) is probably the best-known Dutch deaf poet. In 1993, he published the video Poëzie in Gebarentaal (Poetry in Sign Language) with various poems on all kinds of subjects and adopting a diversity of styles. He performed at Poetry International and other festivals around the world. In 2005, a DVD with video poems in NGT called Bewogen (Moved) came out, performed by him and Giselle Meyer, and including translations in Dutch and English. Some of Emmerik’s work, including all of the poems from Poëzie in Gebarentaal, are available on the website www.wimemmerik.nl. Videos of live performances and of the DVD Bewogen can also be found on YouTube, or on the website of The Language Archivefrom the Max Planck Institute Nijmegen. See Small (2017) for an overview of NGT performing arts, with a focus on the life and work of Wim Emmerik.

In 1988, Jean Couprie (1944- ) was the first deaf person to graduate as a drama teacher. His whole career has been devoted to developing theatre for the deaf, nationally and internationally. The Jean Couprie foundation continues in this spirit by organizing theatre camps for signing children and youngsters, and by stimulating young deaf and hard of hearing actors.

In the 1970s, key figures Jean Couprie and Wim Emmerik started their acting career as mime players, performing also internationally. In 1990, they founded the Handtheater (lit.: Hand theatre), together with John van Gelder, Mieke Julien, and Gert-Jan de Kleer (see Figure 1.3; Jean Couprie is displayed in Figure 1.3a). The main goal of the Handtheater was to provide both theater and cultural education in sign language. Unfortunately, in 2015, the organizing committee had to stop due to a lack of funding, but in their 25 years of existence, Handtheater not only produced about 50 performances but also organized acting classes and developed educational materials on deafness and sign language. Many performances were bilingual (NGT and Dutch), and all of their work is archived at www.handtheater.nl (in Dutch).

a. Poster ‘The stage manager’      b. Poster ‘The cloud that was in love’

Figure 1.3. Two posters from plays by Handtheater http://www.handtheater.nl/downloads/628).

Storytelling and the Sign Choir

The foundation Vi-taal, established by Ruud Janssen and Tony Bloem in 1985, focusses on developing cultural products in NGT, like short stories, translations of theater plays, bilingual (NGT and Dutch) children’s books, and informative stories on famous artists. Along with the foundation came the unique shop Gebarenwinkel (Sign Shop), which only sells sign language related products. The output of Vi-taal can be found online. Some of the older work, e.g. TV shows for national broadcasting in the 1980s and 1990s, is still available online.