Collection of recordings of various South Asian sign languages (SASLs)

Linguistic analysis of SASL lexica, sublexical features, grammatical structures, and usage

Creation, organization, and maintenance of a database of SASL signs and analyses

Showcase of linguistic diversity within and across SASLs: basic word comparison

Primary focus on Bangla Sign Language: dictionary

Our research team is based at the Reed College Lab of Linguistics (LoL) in Portland, Oregon, USA.

Primary contact: Prof. Sameer ud Dowla Khan (Linguistics)

Undergraduate student co-authors: Renata Akeed (Comparative Literature '28), Karina Bary (Linguistics, '27), Owen Fidler (Math/Physics '27), Jojo Hartman (Linguistics '25)

Undergraduate student research assistant: Reasat Prottoy (Math '29)

Presented our lexical comparison of the sign languages of Bangladesh and West Bengal (vs. mainstream Indian Sign Language) in a poster at Sign Language Contact, Variation, and Change at the University of Birmingham in August 2025.

Presented our grammatical sketch of Bangla Sign Language in an invited talk at (Formal) Approaches to South Asian Languages (FASAL-16) at the University of South Carolina in April 2026.

Currently working on a larger phonetic sketch of Bangla Sign Language and its place within the SASL region. Bangla SL dictionary linked here.