<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16525" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>In ASL, I've seen modification of at least
one sign for another country as it was incorporated in ASL. The sign for
Mexico in Mexican Sign Language (you can see a drawing at <A
href="http://www.sil.org/mexico/lenguajes-de-signos/00i-signed-languages.htm">http://www.sil.org/mexico/lenguajes-de-signos/00i-signed-languages.htm</A>)
consists of a V handshape, fingers pointing contralaterally, palm down, starting
above the bridge of the nose near the forehead, and moving forward in an arc
once, with some pronation during the arc. (The folk etymology is the shape
of the brim of a Mexican sombrero.) When used in ASL (happens fairly often
here in Arizona), it is often pronounced with two short movements rather than
one longer one. I'm not sure why this is--many name signs for people have
a double movement in them, but that is less common for names of places.
The change doesn't seem to be forced by the phonological system--as far as I
know there is no constraint in ASL that would forbid one single longer
movement.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>Albert</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=dparvaz@gmail.com href="mailto:dparvaz@gmail.com">Dan Parvaz</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=slling-l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu
href="mailto:slling-l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">A list for linguists
interested in signed languages</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> September 6, 2007 8:10 AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [SLLING-L] SL and other
codes</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>(Ducking) Alright, already! So it's not just an ASL thing.
That, at least, seems to have changed. It has resulted in proliferation of
various signs which are alleged to be the "real" sign for the country.
Examples which come to mind are CHINA (both the correct country sign and the
sign for "Beijing") and PARIS (the "Eiffel Tower" sign used in International
Gesture and the initialized sign used in LSF). <BR><BR>The other point is that
these signs are not yet full members of the lexicon. When that does happen,
though, the question is does the inclusion of hundreds of new signs from other
signed languages have any influence on the local SL phonology? Or are the
signs modified for native pronunciation? Or are phonoligal rules really not
that different across SLs? If so, what are *those* implications?
<BR><BR>-Dan.<BR><BR><BR>
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>_______________________________________________<BR>SLLING-L mailing
list<BR>SLLING-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu<BR>http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/slling-l<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>