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Which Sign Language? | ||
Tags: Sign Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| ernestd Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4433 days ago 5 posts - 11 votes Speaks: Spanish, Catalan*, English | Message 1 of 15 03 April 2012 at 9:14am | IP Logged | ||
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I have seen some people have 'sign language' as one of the languages in their profile but they don't specify which
one. According to this Wikipedia article Indo-Pakistani, Chinese and American sign language are the ones with more native signers and seem to be a ton of other varieties http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sign_languages_by _numbe r_of_native_signers (with no spaces) For those who speak a sign language, which one did you choose? What made you choose a specific one vs. the rest? Is there a common part to all (or most of the) sign languages that one can learn? Edited by ernestd on 03 April 2012 at 9:18am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6376 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 2 of 15 03 April 2012 at 10:00am | IP Logged | ||
As I understand it, sign languages are classified into families, much like spoken languages. As such, the Swedish sign language is very similar to the Danish, the Finnish and the Portugese, and the American and French sign languages are very similar (because it was a Frenchman who started teaching Sign language in the US). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| PonyGirl Groupie United States Joined 4813 days ago 54 posts - 70 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 3 of 15 03 April 2012 at 3:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not proficient in ASL, but my sister is an interpreter. American and French SL are supposed to be extremely similar. Interestingly, British sign language is far different. Supposedly most African variations are mutually intelligible with ASL.
Does anyone know how Australian sign language fits in relation to ASL and BSL? I would imagine it would be based on BSL... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5175 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 4 of 15 03 April 2012 at 5:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would think in most cases, the choice is obvious as there is a local sign language wherever you are. In English Canada, it's ASL, in Québec, it's LSQ, etc.
If you want to learn a sign language from another area, fine, but you obviously won't find any native speakers unless you use Skype. Or any classes. Sign language is usually a very personal language, one whose purpose is to facilitate communication between individuals -- for written communication, the local language is used. So if you don't learn it to communicate with people, there is little point in it at all. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| s0fist Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4840 days ago 260 posts - 445 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Sign Language, German, Spanish, French | Message 5 of 15 03 April 2012 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Arekkusu is right, most people who know a sign language, choose based on where they are.
If you want to show support to your local deaf community, I suggest you learn their language ASL aka Amslang for the US, or at the very least the local sign alphabet. I know some Russian Sign Language, which isn't even listed in the page stats page the OP linked. I choose RSL for connecting with family and friends. RSL isn't very close to ASL, even though both hail to French Sign just a few centuries ago, though that is only my personal judgement and is very superficial as I don't really know a lick of ASL/FSL. In short, sign languages are not universal and they heavily depend on the local language and their evolutionary history (read the section on history of sign or ASL to see how they might compare). Like Ari said most current signs are much more standardized (compared to a couple centuries back) and classified into families. Moreover, sign was very personal until recent history and even now, I think families and communities have their own "baby" and "family" sign languages or creoles. Languages within families are not really comprehensible, but I've read (somewhat believable claims) that speakers tend to find common basic vocabulary faster than spoken language users of different languages within same family. There's some effort at a universal common sign language like Gestuno (aka International Sign) but that has as much bearing on local life as Esperanto in the spoken world (sorry to all Esperanto enthusiasts). Since most SLs are based on and exist within the context of a local spoken language most signs have manual alphabets and TV is often available in such calque speech (but also often in the full fledged local sign language). But if you ever decide to learn a sign language you'll find that most(?) are based on a kind of gesticular radical compounds or "kanji/hanzi" structure (at least that is my experience in RSL) that has a kind of beauty to it. I hope that answered some questions, there's more info to start on at wikipedia's Sign Language article wikipedia 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6376 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 6 of 15 04 April 2012 at 7:24am | IP Logged | ||
Rule number two* of HTLAL: Never say "If you don't do X there's no point in learning it". I've been considering learning ASL, not only as a good complement to my spoken languages (sign languages are an important part of human language that I'd like to understand better), but also to understand works of art like this. There's a lot of ASL stuff on YouTube and a learner could probably find more material to enjoy than for many small spoken languages. Hell, I'd almost want to learn Finnish sign language just to understand Finnish sign rapper Signmark. Of course, there's not just music. How about some ASL Storytelling? Here's a TV series and a movie. I have an easier time finding cultural material for ASL than for Guarani, a language spoken by some six to seven million people. *Rule number one is "Never say 'fluent'" Edited by Ari on 04 April 2012 at 7:26am 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| s0fist Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4840 days ago 260 posts - 445 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Sign Language, German, Spanish, French | Message 7 of 15 04 April 2012 at 8:33am | IP Logged | ||
Ari's post brought to mind a video of a song performed in Russian Sign Language that I saw a while ago and which I particularly liked -- both because I like the original song, which is a classic in Russia in its own right, and because I very much like the RSL performance. Here's a version of it on youtube with subtitles in English. The RSL performer is Алексей Знаменский (сурдоперевод), original music/singing by Виктор Цой и гр. Кино. The audio is in Russian, disregard Russian script it's just credits from the movie (Dust/Пыль). And you get a SU-33 spliced at the start and finish for good measure. If you watch it a couple of times you should be able to learn a good number of RSL gestures just from the song itself. Enjoy!:) Edited by s0fist on 04 April 2012 at 8:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4445 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 8 of 15 05 April 2012 at 9:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Indeed, there are a lot of varieties of sign languages in the world.
I know of Polish, American, British, Filipino... @ up: "kanji" structure? Interesting. Can you elaborate? I only know some basic signs in Polish sign language. BTW Polish SL is a joke. There's PJM (Polski Język Migowy = Polish SL) and SJM (System Językowo-Migany = Language Sign System). I think you can guess which one was created by the D/deaf and which one is artificial. And the people in Poland (non-deaf people, I mean) often don't know which language to use... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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