About the Project
Before you is a dictionary of sailing terms in Russian Sign Language. At the heart of the project is a system of signs developed by Grigory Shtyler and his team through their work with deaf sailors.
Grigory Shtyler is a sailor and educator, a medalist of Russian championships and junior championships in national and Olympic yacht classes, the winner of the Russian junior match-racing championship, and the author of a teaching method for blind and deaf sailors.
In the Articles section you will find introductory texts that explain the basics of sign language, Deaf community culture, inclusion, and methodological recommendations for coaches and adaptive physical activity specialists.
Before creating even a single sign, we studied everything that already existed: Russian Sign Language dictionaries, specialized publications in the sign languages of the countries leading the Deaf Sailing World Championship (Poland, France, England, Israel). We analysed ISSA, IYT, and RYA training programmes. We categorised terminology according to practical significance. Out of the entire body of maritime terminology, we first selected 21 terms: hull parts, deck hardware, and sails. After two years of training, the athletes had developed an understanding of the basic patterns and of yacht structure. Three years after the beginning of this work, the dictionary records 63 signs.
The main value of the project lies in the fact that the signs were created with the participation of native RSL users in the conditions of real training sessions and regattas. The signs for points of sail relative to the wind were borrowed from Polish Sign Language; the rest were created on the basis of iconicity.
A separate methodological decision was to invent signs that could be produced with one hand from the very beginning, so that a sign could still be interpreted unambiguously when the hands are occupied. We observed the signs in use, recorded how they changed in the living practice of native RSL users, returned to the storyboards, and reworked the frames. The terminology was presented at specialized academic conferences and tested in real on-water training.
The terms are grouped into thematic sections: hull parts, spars, standing and running rigging, sails, corners, knots, deck hardware, commands, roles, and points of sail. Each card contains an illustration of the sign, a short description of how it is performed, and a definition of the term.
The dictionary is published both in print and in a digital format with interactive navigation. It is intended for deaf athletes, RSL interpreters, coaches, and judges. It is a practical tool that can continue to be refined and developed together with the language community.