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Re: Sign Language?

From:Peter Clark <peter-clark@...>
Date:Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 20:28
On Wednesday 15 January 2003 01:48 pm, wayne chevrier wrote:
> Peter nevesht: > >1. Determine what the predominant spoken language is. > > This is because, at least in this world, no sign language has > >developed apart > >from a spoken language. I am aware of Nicaraguan Sign Language, which > > sorta developed spontaneously, but even so, the students who developed it > > were at the school to learn lip-reading. I'd be interested to know how > > much Spanish was incorporated into it--anyone have any good links on its > > linguistic aspects? > > Actually, most sign languages are independent(except for some vocabulary > influence), the grammars are independent.
I should have been more clear; yes, the grammars are independent, but (aside from the instances that you mention below), vocabulary is influenced by the spoken language.
> Modern sign languages have finger spelling, but not Mayan, or the languages > on that archipelago that belongs to Colombia.
Really? How interesting--do you have more information? Links? I'm only familiar with ASL (and Russian sign language, although I've forgotten almost everything except for a few signs).
> >3. Decide on about 100-200 or so "primitives" > > By "primitives" I mean whatever the signed equivalent of > > "phoneme" would be.
> The term is chereme.
Ah. Good to know. Is that pronounced with a /tS/, /S/, or /k/? I analyze the -eme ending as something akin to morphEME or phonEME, but what does the stem mean? (Since -eme is French, would cher- then mean "dear? :) :Peter