|
 |
Which Sign Language? | ||
Tags: Sign Language | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| s0fist Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5050 days ago 260 posts - 445 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Sign Language, German, Spanish, French | Message 9 of 15 05 April 2012 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
Here's a few examples of what I mean. The sign for bedroom is composed of the sign for bed followed by the sign for room. The sign for kitchen is composed of the sign for cook followed by sign for room. The sign for student is sign study + sign person. The sign for patient is sign sick + sign person. Similarly, many many signs are compound signs made up of other 'radical' signs. Well I don't want to mislead anyone, SL is not spatial kanji. But words in SL have some internal structure much like in spoken languages and since they're visual, they remind me of kanji. So I guess, maybe it's RTK's approach to learning kanji that makes me think that SL can/should be approached same way, it's easier to recognize complex signs when you know their component parts or variations on themes and patterns that they follow. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Quinn Senior Member United States Joined 6327 days ago 134 posts - 186 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Italian, Spanish | Message 10 of 15 10 April 2012 at 4:20am | IP Logged | |||||
|
My father spent his career teaching English at Gallaudet College, a major liberal arts college for the deaf in Washington DC with an international student body. All courses are taught in ASL, so students who already know another form of sign language are required to master it and it's consequently the version most often used in deaf scholarship, at least in the English-speaking world.
For these reasons, ASL is the closet thing to a lingua franca for sign language. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| crafedog Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5822 days ago 166 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean, Tok Pisin, French | Message 11 of 15 10 April 2012 at 4:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
Even moreso than the International Sign Language? What kind of 'coverage' does ISL have compared to the ASL? Edited by crafedog on 10 April 2012 at 4:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| s0fist Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5050 days ago 260 posts - 445 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Sign Language, German, Spanish, French | Message 12 of 15 10 April 2012 at 10:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
I wouldn't call ASL a lingua franca, closest thing - possibly. ASL is larger by far than the ISL effort, which afai hear is mostly used at deaf conventions internationally. And of course ASL is nearly universal in the US/Canada, so anyone from the US would be wise to start with that. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Quinn Senior Member United States Joined 6327 days ago 134 posts - 186 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Italian, Spanish | Message 13 of 15 10 April 2012 at 11:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Sorry, but I can't really comment on ISL, as I haven't really been exposed to it. Also, I want to be clear that it wasn't my intention to disparage other forms of sign language. As with other languages, each form of sign language has it's own uses and adherents and discussions can quickly become political.
In America, Signed English is probably the other most common variant, but it is controversial. Signed English is an attempt to sign with the exact grammar one would use to construct English sentences. Deaf people tend to find this awkward, as it's quicker and more convenient to simplify the sentence structure in the normal flow of a conversation when one has to use one's hands and gestures to convey one's meaning. Moreover, the deaf people that I have known regard ASL as "their" language vs. Signed English, which is widely seen as a language that some hearing people have tried to impose on them. (The differences between "deaf grammar" and "proper English grammar" are a challenging issue from the standpoint of deaf education.) I believe there was some contentious debate at Gallaudet around the time that Signed English was developed in the seventies, but ASL won out, mainly due to the support of the deaf community. I don't presume to be an expert, but these are my observations based on my experience growing up around deaf folks. Hope this is of interest. Edited by Quinn on 11 April 2012 at 12:21am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| s0fist Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5050 days ago 260 posts - 445 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Sign Language, German, Spanish, French | Message 14 of 15 11 April 2012 at 1:02am | IP Logged | |||||
Pretty much the same situation with RSL and Signed Russian ("calque"). I can't comment how much of an issue it is, but that's the gist of it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Outasync Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3957 days ago 1 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, Sign Language Studies: Japanese, Welsh | Message 15 of 15 07 February 2014 at 8:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Rather disappointed in HTLAL to see them lumping all signed languages into one - I wanted
to list BSL and ASL, but I had to choose. My main SL is BSL, but I'm trying to get to grips with ASL, as there are more resources available in that language. Up-thread, someone asked about Australian Sign Language. It is related to BSL, and to New Zeeland SL, too. This language family is actually quite distinct within the scope of global signed languages, and is known as BANZSL (British, Australian, New Zeeland Sign Language). The three languages are not identical, but have far more in common with each other than they do with any other signed language. I find BSL and ASL to be much mutually unintelligible, with plenty of "false friends" to trap the unwary. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
