Re: Sign Language?

On 1/14/03 6:18 PM, "Sarah Marie Parker-Allen" <lloannna@...>
wrote:

> I have a question for all of you (BTW thank you for your comments re: my
> languages, I still have to sort through all of them as I was working all
> weekend).  Have any of you tried to come up with a constructed sign
> language, either as an auxiliary to an established conlang (like Cued Speech
> or Signed Exact English [yes, I know that's just ASL plus some grammatical
> and structural signs]) or somewhat independent (like ASL) or even fully
> independent as its own separate language (like what ASL tries to be -- parts
> of it, I know, aren't easily translatable to ordinary English)?  If so, how
> would you record it (short of creating a series of short video clips, LOL)
> for teaching it to others?  It just occurred to me lately that while a
> Braille or other touch-based version of a foreign/new language is relatively
> easy (one of my Russian teachers was blind; she knew English Braille amnd
> Russian Braille, and OSU bought her a Braille version of the teacher's
> manual for our textbook), but creating a sign language would be painful.  I
> don't just mean coming up with finger alphabets, though that would be
> tricky, but actually developing signs for concepts or (like with Cued
> Speech) for sounds.
>
> In case you don't know what Cued Speech is (it's a bit hard to explain, and
> I only know about it thanks to my father's brother, whose son is deaf),
> here's a few links:
> http://www.cuedspeech.org/
> http://www.cuedspeech.com/
>
> I should probably point out that in the case of Cued Speech, you'd likely
> only actually have to come up with a few extra signs (at most); it's
> flexible enough that you can use it as is for almost all the Romance
> languages.  This is a basic card with the signs; though technically they say
> this is a tool for teaching only and isn't accepted within the Deaf
> community, I know at least three families that use it exclusively (including
> mine) for communication, and eschew ASL or Signed Exact English:
>
> http://members.aol.com/HilAct/ccard2.jpg
>
>
> **NOTE** I know that you can get books on ASL and other sign languages, but
> unless you intend to copy ASL signs, it seems to me that actually drawing in
> all the hand shapes and movements would be... very challenging to say the
> least.
>
>
> Sarah Marie Parker-Allen
> lloannna@surfside.net
> http://lloannna.blogspot.com
> http://www.geocities.com/lloannna.geo
>
> "There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even
> though the end may be dark."
> -- J.R.R. Tolkien
>
> ---
> [This E-mail scanned for viruses by SURFSIDE INTERNET]
>
Sarah,

The constructed language model I've been building, Glide, was, in the
fictional world of my novel The Maze Game from which it emerged, originally
gestural--a signed language--with no relationship to an original spoken
language, and no spoken form.  Glide moved from gestures, to being written
down as a set of glyphs built from the core movements of the gestures.  The
set of glyphs joined together in formations called mazes, upon which a game
was played.

I have been experimenting with writing Glide both as static two dimensional
signs and mazes and dynamic (morphing, moving) glyphs and mazes.  The
computer makes representation of dynamic writing systems possible, tying
back to the gestural possibilities of language.  I've also been
experimenting with dimensional increases in the glyphs, specifically moving
from the 2 dimensional inscription on a plane (characteristic of all human
writing systems to date) to 3 dimensional forms--first as extruded
architectures, then as moving "tunnels" that leave behind static 3
dimensional forms behind a moving edge of meaning.

Needless to say, interpretation of such forms is another ball of wax
entirely.  Sign language theorists (I'll post some references in the next
couple days) claim that signing is multidimensional--that communication
occurs on multiple channels simultaneously, and is not only not an
"impoverished" form of language made for the "disabled" but in fact contains
a rich new set of possibilities.

Glide material is at

http://www.academy.rpi.edu/glide

For a couple examples of 2D simulations of 3D Glide try the html files in
the index at

http://www.academy.rpi.edu/glide/liveglide

The Glide site is a bit long in the tooth.  There is much more material, and
I'm in the long process of restructuring the website and gathering and
organizing.  The novel will be out and listed on Amazon within the month,
Murphy willing.

Best,

Diana Slattery

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