The eastern and western dialects are mutually intelligible for the most part, although they employ slightly different signed-alphabets, lexicons, and, to a lesser extent, grammatical forms.
In her still-unpublished 2015 doctoral dissertation Linguistic anthropologist Monica Rodríguez noted that there exists some competition between the two dialects.
The competition is based not only on loyalty to local variants, but also mutual suspicion that exogenous influences in other dialects are excessive.
For Deaf education, a number of schools, organizations, and service programs in Guatemala not only teach LENSEGUA, but use it their primary language for instruction.
Although no detailed study of the origins of LENSEGUA has been published, authors have generally assumed that it is an endogenous creole that emerged in the twentieth century, although they have not conclusively determined when or by what process.
[3] The higher numbers are based on estimates of the total population of Guatemalans with significant hearing loss, without acknowledging that there are multiple sign languages in the country.
Article 4 of Bill 5603 specifically stated: Guatemalan Sign Language, hereinafter "LENSEGUA", is recognized officially as the manner of communication of deaf and deaf-blind people that is characteristic and recognized in the Republic, composed of and assortment of gestures, forms, manual mimicry and bodily movements with its corresponding grammar.