Ban Khor Sign Language
village sign language in Thailand
Ban Khor Sign Language (BKSL; Thai: ภาษามือบ้านค้อ) is a village sign language used by at least 400 people of a rice-farming community in the village of Ban Khor in a remote area of Isan (northeastern Thailand). Known locally as pasa kidd ('language of the mute'), it developed in the 1930s due to a high number of deaf people. Estimated number of users in 2009 was 16 deaf and approximately 400 hearing out of 2741 villagers. It is a language isolate, independent of the other sign languages of Thailand such as Old Bangkok Sign Language and the national Thai Sign Language.
Thai Sign Language is increasingly exerting an influence on BKSL. Younger Deaf attend distant residential Deaf schools where they learn Thai Sign Language. Even middle-aged hearing people are using Thai SL vocabulary mixed with BKSL. Attitudes favoring Thai SL over BKSL are beginning to be expressed.
Other local sign languages
Other village sign languages have been reported from the Ban Khor area, in the villages of Plaa Pag, Huay Hai and Na Sai. They have not been documented, so it is not known if they are dialects of BKSL or if they are distinct languages.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Ban Khor Sign Language” as village sign language in Thailand. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as village sign language in Thailand. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3441103. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2009.
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Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Ban Khor Sign Language primary sources, Ban Khor Sign Language archive and Khor research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ban Khor Sign Language” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.