[Slling-l] On the Philly 'accent' in ASL

[Albert Bickford]

The Minnesota dialect of ASL has a slightly different way of forming the 
P handshape (ring and little fingers extended next to the middle finger, 
not spread), which not only shows up in fingerspelling but also in 
initialized signs that use P.

--Albert

Albert Bickford
SIL International
   Linguistic Services Coordinator, Global Sign Languages Team
   Director, SIL-UND

Please use different email addresses for different topics:
   sign languages: linguistic_services_gslt at sil.org
   SIL-UND: director_silund at sil.org
   other: albert_bickford at sil.org

late May through early August:
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On 2015/12/04 3:14 PM, Adam Schembri wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3345846/Sign-language-accent
> -Linguists-discover-variation-signing-seen-Philadephia.html
>
> Just a head’s up about this: no surprises here, but the media reports
> about this are inaccurate.
>
> My understanding is that the researchers in Philadelphia are undertaking
> a study to see if there is evidence in their corpus of a distinctive
> Philadelphia ‘accent’ in American Sign Language (ASL) - they’ve not yet
> found one, but there are anecdotal reports of one. The evidence for the
> existence of regional ‘accents’ for sign languages such as ASL, Auslan 
> and British
> Sign Language is unclear. While there are clearly documented differences
> across the US and Australia in how particular signs are produced, I’ve 
> not yet seen any
> evidence yet that native signers can tell WHERE someone is from in the 
> US, Australia
> or the UK based on the way they produce specific phonological features of
> signs alone. We’ve plenty of evidence of regional dialect differences
> based on lexical differences, but not accent as such. On the other 
> hand, it is
> clear that second language learners produce ASL and BSL signs with an
> ‘accent’, and there is also work on Black and White ASL which shows some
> interesting sociophonetic differences between these varieties.
>
> The most accurate report I’ve seen thus far is here: 
> http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/penn-linguists-document-philadelphia-accent-american-sign-language
>
> Adam
>
> -- 
>
> Assoc. Prof. Adam Schembri, PhD https://latrobe.academia.edu/AdamSchembri
> Department of Languages & Linguistics  | La Trobe University | 
> Melbourne (Bundoora) | Victoria |  3086 |  Australia |Tel : +61 3 9479 
> 2887 | Twitter: @AdamCSchembri
>
> From: linguists interested in signed languages 
> <SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU 
> <mailto:SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>> on behalf of Barbara 
> Gerner De Garcia <barbara.gerner.de.garcia at GALLAUDET.EDU 
> <mailto:barbara.gerner.de.garcia at GALLAUDET.EDU>>
> Reply-To: linguists interested in signed languages 
> <SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU 
> <mailto:SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>>
> Date: Thursday, 3 December 2015 at 01:45
> To: "SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU 
> <mailto:SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>" 
> <SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU 
> <mailto:SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>>
> Subject: Re: Numerical Incorporation for Age signs in ASL
>
>     Indeed!
>
>     On Wed, Dec 2, 2015 at 9:25 AM, Boris Fridman Mintz <chido at mac.com
>     <mailto:chido at mac.com>> wrote:
>
>         Illuminating response. Isn´t it?
>
>         > On Dec 2, 2015, at 2:17 AM, Elton, Frances
>         <f.elton at UCL.AC.UK <mailto:f.elton at UCL.AC.UK>> wrote:
>         >
>         > Please don't take in research by hearing people, only take
>         in by Deaf people.
>         > Thanks
>         > Frances
>         >
>         > Frances Elton MA, DCAL, UCL
>         >
>         >
>         >> On 2 Dec 2015, at 08:27, Sarah Hafer <sarah.hafer at GMAIL.COM
>         <mailto:sarah.hafer at GMAIL.COM>> wrote:
>         >>
>         >> Hello,
>         >>
>         >> I understand that some publishings say the age signs in ASL
>         where the numbers are
>         >> blended with the OLD sign for ASL are part of the numerical
>         incorporation category. For
>         >> some reason, it just does not feel right to me that these
>         should be classified as numberical
>         >> incorporation. I want to say it is because of some kind of
>         phonological process such as
>         >> phonological reduction. Then i saw one website says these
>         AGE signs in ASL are rather
>         >> 'assimilation,' and that felt quite more right to me.
>         >>
>         >> I am wondering what are your take on this? Any scientific
>         publishing on how the AGE signs
>         >> in ASL are perhaps not numerical incorporation but rather
>         something else?
>         >>
>         >> Sarah
>         >>
>         >
>
>
>
>
>     -- 
>     Dr. Barbara Gerner de Garcia, Professor
>     Department of Education
>     Gallaudet University
>     800 Florida Ave NE
>     Washington, DC 20002-3695
>
>     Phone: 202-651-5207
>


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