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Story: Linguistics

Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language

Video file

The first Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language is an online resource hosted by Victoria University of Wellington. Viewers can click on a sign and see a video of a person using it in an utterance. This is the video for 'house'. The man is signing the phrase: ‘The house is old and falling apart. It needs to be fixed up and painted’. 

Using this item

Online Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language

This item has been provided for private study purposes (such as school projects, family and local history research) and any published reproduction (print or electronic) may infringe copyright law. It is the responsibility of the user of any material to obtain clearance from the copyright holder.

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How to cite this page

Janet Holmes, Linguistics – Vocabulary studies and applied linguistics, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/43851/dictionary-of-new-zealand-sign-language (accessed 24 June 2026).

Story by Janet Holmes, published 16 December 2013.