Re: CHAT: My new treasure
| From: | Adam Walker <dreamertwo@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, January 22, 2002, 13:14 |
|---|
>From: Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
>Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 13:24:42 +0100
>
>En réponse à Adam Walker <dreamertwo@...>:
>
> > That's odd. I'd heard that Lyon SL was a seperate language from LSF.
> >
>
>Probably a hoax. Our famous deaf actress Emmanuelle Laborit learned LSF in
>Lyon, and never had any problem having herself understood in Paris...
>
Hm. I *think* I got the idea form the Ethnologue. I could be wrong. They
could be wrong.
>But maybe you're referring to the "français signé", which, like Signed
>English,
>copies the spoken language down to its grammar. Well, this language is
>never
>used by French signers, how consider it slow and cumbersome. There is also
>the
>LPC (Langage Parlé Complet) which is used to facilitate lip-reading, by
>adding
>hand movements near the cheeks to disambiguate lip movements. It's as much
>a
>language as Braille would be the "Blind language". It's just a help to
>decipher
>lip French.
>
Ah. We have the same sort of thing in the US. Hardly anyone knows or uses
it. It's called the Rochester Method after Rochester, Massachusetts where
the only school that uses it is located.
> > Have you ever seen the American finger alphabet? If so could you tell
> > if it
> > was similar to the French?
> >
>
>The little I've seen ASL and American finger alphabet was on TV (and
>usually is
>too fast for me to recognise single positions). But American finger
>alphabet
>definitely looks like its French correspondent (that I remember a little
>for
>having representations of it on the first dictionary my parents bought for
>me).
I just found a site on the net at the University of Lyon (guess I was really
wrong!) comparing the finger alphabets of several SL's. The French and
American are VERY similar but there are some real differences. Our H is
your N. We have different X's. Minor differences is several letters
including F, Y and I. Italian is also very close to French, but again there
are some striking differences. But Swedish? Man! is it different!
>The hand movements look very much alike, but I don't know if they
>correspond to
>the same letters.
Mostly, yes.
Though since English speakers use the same alphabet as French
>speakers (with even less signs since they don't have diacritics, thus
>removing
>the need to create new signs in case of borrowing from French), it seems
>reasonable to me that Americans just borrowed the French finger alphabet.
>
And it looks like that's just what we did. I'm so glad Gaulladette decided
to follow a French model rather than a British one. One-handed spelling is
SO much easier.
>Oh! About the issue of naming in sign language. I know that signers of LSF
>refer to themselves (and to other people, even non-deaf) by names formed of
>one
>or two signs standing for an obvious physical or mental characteristics of
>the
>person, or a translation from the etymological meaning of their name in
>French.
>Famous people usually get a single character to name them, rather than
>being
>spelt. I was wondering if it's done the same way in other countries.
>
The same sort of thing happens in ASL. If you were especially tall your
sign name migh be TALL signed with a C-hand. If you were fat, you might be
FAT with a C-hand. I'm Adam so if I fit either of those discriptions I'd
get stuck with one of those with an A-hand. As is I'm A-hand at the right
temple. I had no chance of avoiding it. My Deaf friend who named me told
me there were three reasons -- I have glasses, Adam in the Bible is signed
there, and I'm smart. So at least two of the three were good reasons,
though I don't like bumpingmy glasses everytime I sign my name. Here in
Taiwan . . . well, it's weird. It's almost like names are superflous. You
meet some one and they start a conversation and never tell you ther name.
Afterward, you ask a mutual friend/acquaintance and they may or may not
know. But then you get "I was talking to the bald guy with the motorcycle,
you know him . . . " "I went to see the tall guy with big eyes . . ." "Did
you know the short girl who makes the stupid faces is sick?"
Adam
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