A question

[Angus Grieve-Smith]

On Wed, 24 Jul 2002, Barbara O'Dea wrote:

> Here's my question: What can we learn from the fact that there was not a
> large response to SW at Deaf Way II (from a North American perspective,
> at any rate)?

        Good question, Barbara.  On a larger scale, it's one that's
puzzled me for years: Why is there so little interest in written sign
overall?

        There are a number of possible contributing factors.  The main one
I think is that it's only recently that sign languages have been thought
of as _languages._  It might just take a couple of generations for that to
sink in.  Another is that none of the writing systems are "finished": some
are incomplete, some are awkward, etc.  I can imagine that eventually
we'll see a new writing system appear from someplace unexpected, and be
adopted.  Those are my thoughts.  Anyone else?

--
                                        -Angus B. Grieve-Smith
                                        Linguistics Department
                                        University of New Mexico
                                        grvsmth at unm.edu
                                        grvsmth at panix.com