[sw-l] UK...Article in Deaf Magazine needs comments

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
April 28, 2005

Hi Cathy!
Your article is beautifully written, and please know how really happy I
am, and I can tell others are too...Thank you for this fine
article...!!

There is a misunderstanding in the paragraph below. As you know, I
invented DanceWriting first. But I was not seeking to write ASL at the
University of Copenhagen....I had never seen ASL in my life, nor was I
interested in ASL...I would not have know what ASL was, if you had
asked me at the time...

I was hired by the University of Copenhagen, by a group of sign
language researchers, to write the movements of Danish Sign Language
(DSL) and also the movements of hearing people...called
hearing-persons-gestures...and to write the difference in the movements
between the Danish Sign Language and the gestures that the hearing
people made...That was quite a research project!

I was a dancer who knew NO sign language whatsoever....Instead the
first signed language I wrote was Danish Sign Language. The second was
a sign language from a South Pacific Island, for another research
project in Denmark. And then I came home to the US and tried to apply
SignWriting to writing American Sign Language...So ASL was the third
Sign Language I wrote...

So how did I invent SignWriting since I knew no sign language myself in
1974?... I watched videotape of Danish Sign Language at the University
of Copenhagen and developed a way to write the movements, based on what
I saw on videotape...

So ASL has nothing to do with SignWriting's development until 1981 when
I hired our first Deaf staff members here in the US...and at that time
I learned how to sign and I enjoy signing in ASL as best as I can
(smile)...

My non-profit organization was founded in 1974, not 1981...So...below
your paragraph below...I have placed my suggestion for a possible
re-write...right below it...If you cannot use it, that is ok...I
understand...Thank you for your patience!!

And no matter what, your article is great...I hope you can send us a
copy when it is ready?...

Val ;-)


-------------------------

Cathy wrote:
> Inspired by DanceWriting, Valerie Sutton invented SignWriting while in
> the University of Copenhagen in autumn 1974. Rather than seeking to
> record ASL and its particular signs, what Valerie set out to do was to
> establish a system of generic symbols for recording movements. For
> this reason, she says it can be used to record any sign language, not
> just ASL. Just as the Roman alphabet is used to record a multitude of
> languages.
> While an American Sign Language user herself, what Valerie developed
> was a system for recording the movement in signed languages, not ASL
> specifically. By 1981, she had set up a non-profit organisation in the
> US to develop SignWriting. Native ASL users were taken on to work with
> in writing their own language… This can be seen to mark the true
> beginning of writing signed languages.
> The idea quickly spread to Denmark where schools started using it.
> Over twenty years later, SignWriting is used to write signed languages
> in over 30 countries. While it has spread to countries all around the
> world it appears to be concentrated around Europe, the US and South
> America.

Valerie's re-write...

Inspired by DanceWriting, Valerie Sutton invented SignWriting while
working on a research project located at the University of Copenhagen
in autumn 1974. Rather than seeking to record Danish Sign Language
(DSL) and its particular signs, what Valerie set out to do was to
establish a system of generic symbols for recording movements. For this
reason, she says it can be used to record any sign language, not just
Danish Sign Language (DSL). Just as the Roman alphabet is used to
record a multitude of languages.

Although Valerie knows how to sign in American signs now, at the time
of the SignWriting development in Denmark in 1974, Valerie knew no sign
language at all. What Valerie developed was a system for recording the
movements used in any signed language, not related to any one specific
language. In 1981, Sutton's non-profit organization in the US hired
Deaf people to read and write SignWriting in their native sign
language, American Sign Language (ASL). Native ASL users had a large
influence on the development of SignWriting by writing newspaper
articles in the movements of American Sign Language, in a newspaper
called the SignWriter Newspaper, which was published from 1981-1984.
This can be seen to mark the true beginning of writing signed
languages.