MySL

Thu Sep 6 11:37:41 UTC 2007

Dear all,

First, as general information: Finland is officially a bilingual country 
with Finnish and Swedish as our national languages, and in addition to this 
our Constitution also recognizes the rights of people using Sami, Roma and 
Sign languages. 

And then, yes, in Finland we do have two sign languages: Finnish Sign 
Language – FinSL, and Finland-Swedish Sign Language – FinSSL (The English 
name we have been using is Finland-Swedish Sign Language and not Finnish 
Swedish Sign Language as mentioned in the Ethnologue). Both languages have 
a history over 100 years of use. FinSSL is an endangered language mainly 
due to the fact that there is no school for this linguistic minority any 
more, and the amount of language users is only a few hundred persons. For 
more information about FinSSL and its users see my paper in the GUP 
publication Van Herreweghe & Vermeerbergen (Eds.): “To the Lexicon and 
Beyond”, 2004.

SUOMENRUOTSALAINEN means Finland-Swedish and VIITTOMAKIELI means Sign 
Language, so they do not refer to the same thing.

The acronyms FinSL and FinSSL are used in English text, and as Tommi 
Jantunen correctly stated the acronym SVK is mainly used by (hearing) 
linguists in Finnish academic settings. Finland-Swedish Sign Language does 
not have any acronym in either Finnish or Swedish language, instead we use 
the whole name ‘finlandssvenskt teckenspråk’ or ‘suomenruotsalainen 
viittomakieli’ in the respective languages Swedish and Finnish. Even if the 
names are relatively long expressions, no need for an acronym has risen. I 
wonder if the use of acronyms in general also is language specific, some 
languages, as English, using them more than other languages?

I want to give one example from the Albanian context. When writing about 
Albanian Sign Language in English the acronym AlbSL is started to be used. 
The name of the language in Albanian is ‘Gjuha e Shenjave Shqipe’, and as 
an acronym GjShSh is difficult to pronounce, not transparent (at least 
outside Albania) and therfore does not make “our lives easier” (In Albanian 
G and Gj are different letters, as is the case also for D – Dh, L – Ll, N – 
Nj, S –Sh, etc.). In Albanian written context usually only ‘Gjuha e 
Shenjave’ ( “Sign Language”) is used, when referring to the own national 
sign language. 

The Albanian National Association of the Deaf is referred to as ANAD, both 
in AlbSL, Albanian spoken and written language as well as in English spoken 
and written text. Since AlbSL has got a strong tradition of fingerspelling, 
the fingerspelled a-n-a-d fits into the language quite well and is accepted 
and used by Deaf language users in parallel with the signed expression 
glossed as ASSOCIATION DEAF. This is a good example where the practical 
reason wins over linguistic purism: The Albanian acronym  ShKShNjND from 
the Albanian name of the organization ‘Shoqata Kombetare Shqiptare e 
Njerezve qe Nuk Degjojne’ is used very little in text, and for obvious 
reason never in spoken Albanian. The English acronym is used on the expense 
of expressions in the national languages Albanian and AlbSL, mainly of 
historical and practical reasons.

However I think the question “Who has got the right to be the name giver?” 
is one of the most important question in this whole discussion. And here I 
do not speak about internal language codes used in a system like the 
Ethnologue, since it is a totally different issue. But when we come to the 
name of a language it is crucial that non-native persons respect the 
language users it concerns. As a minority speaker of Swedish in Finland, I 
would feel offended if representatives from the majority (i.e. Finnish 
speakers) tried to advice me on topics concerning my native language 
Swedish in an English/International context. (But I can of course not 
affect how  Finnish speakers choose to name me or my language in Finnish. 
What I can do is to start to use their pejorative names for me in a 
positive sense..but that is an other story)

So, the topic of naming languages involves many language policy aspects (as 
seen, like English hegemony, hearing linguists versus Deaf native language 
users, etc.). It is good at least to try to be aware of them.

Karin Hoyer
Teckenspråksforskare /Viittomakielen tutkija /Sign Linguist
Teckenspråksenheten /Viittomakieliyksikkö /Sign Language Unit
Finlands Dövas Förbund rf /
Kuurojen Liitto ry /
The Finnish Association of the Deaf
P.O. Box 57, 00401 HELSINKI, FINLAND
karin.hoyer at kl-deaf.fi
karin.hoyer at helsinki.fi
Tel +358 9 5803463
GSM +358 50 3224065 

Lainaus GerardM <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com>:

> Hoi,
> According to Ethnologue there is a Finnish Sign Language (fse) and a
> separate Finnish Swedish Sign Language (fss). They are considered to be
> distinct and, the Finnish Swedish Sign Language is said to be associated
> with a school that has been closed. The text has SUOMENRUOTSALAINEN and
> VIITTOMAKIELI as the same. My question is it ?
> 
> It is fine to call a language whatever, it is not so obvious that you
> will
> be universally understood. I am one of the probably few people who know
> there are two sign languages associated with Finland .. who does not sign
> :)
> and is not Finnish. The codes that I posted are codes, not acronyms, and
> therefore do not have inherent meaning they are useful only because they
> allow language content to be uniquely identified.
> 
> In a previous post of mine this distinction between codes and acronyms
> was
> not clear at all. Sorry.
> 
> Thanks,
>      Gerard
> 
> http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=fse
> http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=fss
> 
> On 9/5/07, Tommi Jantunen <tommi.jantunen at campus.jyu.fi> wrote:
> >
> > Dear all,
> >
> > Just to make a few things straight regarding the discussion on
> > Finnish Sign Language.
> >
> > Finnish Deaf people typically refer to their language with the
> > compound-like sign (typically glossed as) VIITTOMAKIELI 'sign
> > language'; sometimes, depending both on the background of the signer
> > and his/her language variety, this sign may be preceded by the sign
> > SUOMI 'Finland' or the sign SUOMENRUOTSALAINEN 'Finland-Swedish'.
> > Fingerspelling or signs containing fingerspelling are typically not
> > used by Finnish sign language users as a way to refer to their
> language.
> >
> > Acronyms such as SVK (derived from the Finnish word [S]uomalainen [V]
> > iittoma[K]kieli 'Finnish Sign Language) or FinSL are used almost
> > exclusively in academic or "bureaucratic" settings, e.g. in articles
> > (SVK in Finnish texts and FinSL in English texts), as a way to refer
> > to the language by the means of writing. Also, it should be noted
> > that the acronym SVK is used only by a handfull of (mostly hearing)
> > linguists.
> >
> > You can watch the FinSL signs referred to above in Suvi, the On-line
> > Dictionary of FinSL. Direct links are:
> >
> > VIITTOMAKIELI
> > http://suvi.viittomat.net/Index.aspx?c=search;
> > 2&type=res&crt_fin=viittomakieli&id=966#start
> > SUOMI
> > http://suvi.viittomat.net/Index.aspx?c=search;
> > 2&type=res&crt_fin=Suomi&id=723#start
> > SUOMENRUOTSALAINEN
> > http://suvi.viittomat.net/Index.aspx?c=search;
> > 2&type=res&crt_fin=suomenruotsalainen&id=359#start
> >
> > Best wishes,
> >
> > Tommi Jantunen
> >
> > --
> > Tommi Jantunen
> > Lehtori / Lecturer
> > Suomalainen viittomakieli / Finnish Sign Language
> > Kielten laitos / Department of Languages
> > PL 35 (F) / P.O. Box 35 (F)
> > 40014 Jyväskylän yliopisto / FIN-40014 University of Jyväskylä
> > Puh. (014) 260 1435 / Tel. +358 14 260 1435
> > S-posti / E-mail: tommi.jantunen at campus.jyu.fi
> > www: http://users.jyu.fi/~tojantun
> >
> >
> > Shane Gilchrist O hEorpa kirjoitti 5.9.2007 kello 11.23:
> >
> > > Dear David,
> > >
> > > I have spoken to HO Koon-Wei who is a deaf sign linguist in Malaysia.
> > >
> > > She said that people in Malaysia use both acronyms - BIM or MySL.
> When
> > > speaking with people outside Malaysia, they try and use MySL (making
> > > it easier for you, maybe?) but in Malaysia, the Deaf community would
> > > use either BIM or MySL - both the same one language.
> > >
> > > I guess its the same with SVK - the Finns tells us that their
> language
> > > is called FinSL but they never use that term in Finland - only for
> the
> > > outsiders and many deafies outside Finland may find it disrespectful
> > > by calling it FinSL instead of SVK. Another example is TID (Turkish
> > > Sign Language) - I havent seen people saying TSL?
> > >
> > > Shane
> > >
> > > On 05/09/07, Hope Hurlbut <hope_hurlbut at sil.org> wrote:
> > >> Dear David and Shane,
> > >> I live in Malaysia, and had not heard of the change!  Maybe it is
> > >> has not
> > >> reached the Borneo side of the Malaysia yet.
> > >> Hope
> > >> ----- Original Message -----
> > >> From: "David McKee" <david.mckee at vuw.ac.nz>
> > >> To: "A list for linguists interested in signed languages"
> > >> <slling-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu>
> > >> Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 5:47 AM
> > >> Subject: Re: [SLLING-L] MySL
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>> Hi Shane,
> > >>>
> > >>> I was in Malaysia for a MySL seminar as a guest speaker at the
> > >>> invitation
> > >>> from Malaysia Federation of the Deaf two weeks ago.  The  change
> > >>> happens
> > >>> recently and maybe your sign linguist isn't aware of  this change
> > >>> - yet.
> > >>>
> > >>> David
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> On 5/09/2007, at 9:27 AM, Shane Gilchrist O hEorpa wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>> David,
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I spoke to a sign linguist in Malaysia a few weeks ago and she
> said
> > >>>> that its called BIM?
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Shane
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>
> > >>> _______________________________________________
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> > >>>
> > >>
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