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<div>FYI: Here's what I wrote in response to the query on
Linguist List.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Repeating Mark Mandel's advice: Don't reply to me either.
Steven Schaufele <fcosw5@mail.scu.edu.tw> is NOT a subscriber to
SLLING-L (yet).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div> NancyF</div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 08:28:13
-0800</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>To: <fcosw5@mail.scu.edu.tw><br>
From: Nancy Frishberg <nancyf@fishbird.com><br>
Subject: sign language lingua franca<br>
Cc:<br>
Bcc:<br>
X-Attachments:<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Steven,</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Preface: there is a Sign Language
Linguistics list from which you will probably get a lot of responses
(as soon as I or Mark Mandel cross-post the query), to which your
friend may wish to subscribe (via the usual listserv
incantations):</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>"For the discussion of linguistics
and signed
languages." <span
></span>
<SLLING-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>To the question: there is both an
international lingua franca and a lot of ad hoc pidgin
formation.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>GESTUNO is moderately codified for use in
deliberative bodies, such as the World Federation of the Deaf or the
international sports organizations among the leadership. This
form uses much borrowing from the European sign languages and some
from ASL (in the US). There are short courses for interpreters
who may need to work in these meetings, translating between a national
sign language and the international for the occasional presenter or
participant, and for hearing non-signers.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>However, when deaf people meet in
organized or informal encounters (international conferences, sports
events, tourism, immigration, etc.), they negotiate their
communication for these occasions. The fact that both parties
can count on the other to have some familiarity with the use of
physical signing space to inform the grammar, and conventionalized
ways of encoding reality goes a long way to help create impromptu and
effective pidgins. The successful negotiations are a wonder to
behold. The extremely unsuccessful are the stuff of law suits
(for which I've been an interpreter on occasion).</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>The distinction between sign languages
and mime has been a subject of discussion for the 30 years I've been
involved in sign language studies.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>There have been some experimental studies
of intelligibility of sign languages by signers who do not share one
another's languages (two articles, Battison & Jordan and Jordan &
Battison in Sign Language Studies 10 (1976), following on the 1976
World Federation meetings in Washington, D.C. plus other work
subsequently by other authors).</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Others have looked at this situation from
different angles. Ted Supalla from the University of Rochester
has worked on this problem.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Look to the International Bibliography of
Sign Language for further references</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite>http://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/bibweb/</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>At 5:03 PM +0000 12/6/01, LINGUIST List
wrote:
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 14:50:20
+0800</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>From: "fcosw5"
<fcosw5@mail.scu.edu.tw><br>
Subject: sign language lingua franca<br>
<br>
<br>
A student of mine has asked if there is any international lingua<br>
franca within the deaf community, as English currently serves
among<br>
the hearing? When deaf people from a variety of countries
encounter<br>
each other, is there some more-or-less agreed-upon language they
can<br>
use to communicate with each other?<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Steven</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
Steven Schaufele<br>
Asst. Prof. Linguistics,<br>
English Department, Soochow University</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Taipei 11118, Taiwan, ROC</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><tt>-- </tt></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Nancy Frishberg +1 650.556.1948
nancyf@fishbird.com</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>Nancy Frishberg +1 650.556.1948
nancyf@fishbird.com</div>
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