Welcome to the Libras Corpus webpages!

The Libras corpus provides an openly accessible combination of data and metadata from Brazilian Sign Language (widely called ‘Libras’ in Brazil). This documentation is the first step in the promotion of this example of linguistic and cultural diversity that is our human heritage. It reveals the wonderful human capacity for the art of bricolage, that is, the art of creatively exploring the resources we use in specific circumstances to deal with the practical problems of everyday life in the best way.

More specifically, the Libras Corpus aims to

i)provide an open-access online comprehensive corpus of Libras, that is wide-ranging, empirically derived and theoretically and methodologically driven. The corpus is aimed at other Libras researchers, professionals who work with deaf people and those who may wish to use it for a range of purposes;

ii)provide guidelines for the formation of a Libras corpus in any future research, particularly with respect to recording, documentation and retrieval of data for linguistic analysis.

iii)demonstrate to the academic community the current technological alternatives for supporting consistent empirical research on Libras and

iv)create an important linguistic, historical and cultural record of the lives of Deaf people, promoting social inclusion in Brazil.

The area of sign language​​ studieshas grown significantly in the last decade, gaining prominence in both academic and social spheres. Despite this increased prominence, studies based on Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) still need to be more empirically based, partly due to the great challenges that researchers face in the collection and manipulation of sign language data. In the light of this, we present the Libras Corpus, which aims to provide a comprehensive documentation of Libras, with consistent and systematic recording procedures, documentation and recovery of data and metadata.

Thus, you will find here (i) a corpus of elicited and spontaneous examples of Libras involving video recordings and photos, to be used for research and other purposes, (ii) a set of guidelines for recording and archiving data and metadata, relating to the use of Libras, (iii) forms already populated with fields and standardized items to systematize the final results of the various projects associated with the Libras Corpus.