6. The dictionary work and Deaf community

Although the sign language dictionary work has long traditions in Finland, only a small part of Finnish and Finland-Swedish Sign Languages has been described. In addition, the sign language lexicon grows and changes all the time, and there is an ever-growing need for dictionaries in e.g. communication and interpreting. With the lack of other teaching material, dictionaries also play an important role in language learning. The introduction of SignWiki Collective Online Dictionary in both the Finnish and Finland-Swedish Sign Languages (2013) gave also the ordinary language user a possibility to participate in dictionary making, and students and other enthusiasts have already produced a lot of content on the sites. The number of visitors on SignWiki has increased rapidly.

The dictionary work makes languages known and visible. A dictionary documents language and proves its existence. It supports the language use in different areas of life, strengthens the identity of the language community and contributes to the achievement of social and legal status. Sign languages are of interest to the majority, and dictionaries describe them in an easy-to-access way. When a sign language community begins to research its language, the work starts often with making of dictionaries.

Finnish and Finland-Swedish Sign Languages differ from each other significantly. Also individual language users differ depending on the family background and the age the language was first acquired. Whose language should dictionaries then describe? The Comprehensive Dictionary of Finnish Sign Language was made at a time in which it was essential to show the sign language as separate from the spoken one; e.g. when deciding on the Finnish translation of a signed example sentence, the variant which was most different to sign language in sentence structure, was usually chosen. However, in reality the majority language always affects the minority language; it is natural and need not be glossed over.

Traditionally, dictionaries were seen as a means to standardise the language and describe its proper use. The current view is that dictionaries should, on the contrary, describe the natural variation of the language. The practice is always somewhere in between these two extremes. Regardless of editorial principles, dictionaries can and will contribute to which forms of language will survive from one generation to another.