SignWriting to HamNoSys?

[MARIA GALEA]

Hi everyone - first a v brief introduction - I have been using SignWriting
for data transcriptions for several years and have also used it as a
writing system to write long texts in Maltese Sign Language (for sign
language literature - not for research).

I'm working on my dissertation 'SignWriting: Towards an orthography for
LSM (Maltese Sign language)' with the Univ of Malta. I can't believe this
email list (SSLING) never came to attention before. Better (extremely)
late than never I guess.

Can I ask a few questions about the work on the SignWriting to HamNoSys
converter: what will be the use of this tool? I.e. WHY are you carrying
out this study? Why do you need an SW converter to HamNoSys? Are you
focussing on one sign language or several?

Gerard's argument is valid - but besides this, there are different rules
applied to SignWriting for different sign languages - although this is
still not researched (I hope to be filling this gap a little), with time
users of the SW writing system naturally adapt SignWriting.(In the same
way that the latin script "x" symbol nowadays represents a wide varied
list of sounds that is language dependant - and has moved away from the
original Latin sound). There is evidence that with the use of long-text
writing of SignWriting for a specific sign language, the system naturally
evolves beyond a simple phonetic transciption (i.e. a representation of
exact articulation) to a more abstract representation of language.  How do
you hope to deal with this reality, when this reality has not yet been
fully understood and researched?

Taking the analogy of say written English to I.P.A (International Phonetic
Alphabet)- I could imagine an IPA converter dealing with the English word
'although', because I imagine you could 'teach' your machine the pattern
of written English '-ough' : that represents the sound "ow". Most written
English patterns are known so you could teach them to your machine I
guess. But what about the SignWriting to HamNosys converter? How can you
include such patterns, if they haven't yet been investigated? And
furthermore how are you going to include all different patterns for all
different sign languages that are using SignWriting?

Look forward to your reply - and wish you all a lovely day.
Maria