>From: Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
>Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
>To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
>Subject: Re: My new treasure
>Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 11:48:37 +0100
>
>En réponse à Adam Walker <dreamertwo@...>:
>
> >
> > I don't have my British Sign Language stuff with me here in Taiwan or
> > I'd
> > scoure it for BSL influences. One thing that surprise me is that HKSL
> > has a
> > finger alphabet (TSL doesn't). That in itself wasn't really shocking,
> > just
> > a bit of a surprise, but it did shock me to see that the HKSL finger
> > alphabet is NOT the BSL alphabet which is two-handed. THey use the
> > AMERICAN
> > alphabet! Exacly, letter-for-letter, the same. Does anyone know if
> > the
> > American fnger alphabet was borrowed from one of the French sign
> > languages?
>
>Well, IIRC French SL alphabet is single-handed (at least that's how it's
>represented in the drawings explaining how to use it). Seeing in the
>program
>they have on Dutch TV to learn sign language, they use the same one. It
>could
>be that Britain, as usual, wanted to do differently than France, and
>invented
>their own SL alphabet :)) (and made it two-handed to make sure that it will
>never be like the French one :)) ).
>
> > (For that matter how much does Parisian SL differ from Lyon SL?)
>
>Much less even than Parisian French and Lyon French. France is centralised
>when
>it comes to spoken language, but is even worse with sign language. All sign
>language school teach the same SL, since most of SL teachers come from the
>same
>school, which doesn't help to grow diversity :)) . Also, the fact that the
>number of sign language teachers is quite low (sign language has never been
>very much in favor in France. Many doctors, when discovering a child is
>deaf,
>still advise the parents never to have their children taught sign language,
>telling them that it will prevent them from learning anything about spoken
>language... and making in this way the life of those children awful,
>preventing
>them to have a normal social life) obliges people from many places in
>France to
>move to Paris to learn sign language, so basically FSL is quite monolithed.
>
>Christophe.
>
>
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
>
>Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.