[sw-l] IMWA & Language-Specific Symbolsets

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
June 22, 2005

> Steve Slevinski wrote:
> If we keep using the SSS ID numbers to identify the symbols, we'll
> never have to close the IMWA.  While that idea may make Val groan,
> the flexibility it offers is worth it.

Hello Steve, Tomas and Everyone!
Just the opposite...I applaud the flexibility and need it and request
it, at least for the next decade. If writing full dance, sports, mime
and general gesture are to be programmed in the IMWA, as Stuart feels
is a good idea, then I must have the time to enter all those large
amounts of amazing details. So I need the flexibility.

I know this can cause problems for those who want complete stability.
There is one way to have BOTH worlds at the same time. Keep the
general IMWA flexible and open for me to add more symbols..... but
create language-specific symbolsets from the IMWA, for those signed
languages that have been written for a long time. Those language-
specific symbolsets would become rock solid and never change, even
though new symbols are added into the IMWA monthly...they woudl
remain stable.

That is stability for specific SignWriting of Sign Languages, coupled
with flexibility for the generic Movement Writing.

That was my idea behind this web page:

Language-Specific SymbolSets
http://www.movementwriting.org/symbolbank/symbolbank.html

The original SSS-US was my first attempt at this concept. I believe
that that SSS-US could be improved now, by using a Symbol-Frequency
test to find the specific symbols needed and then the revised SSS-US
could become our first test-language-specific symbolset...

By the way, the SSS means the Sequence of Sign-Symbols within the
confine of one criteria (symbolset)...so the SSS-US is the sequence
of Sign-Symbols used in sgn-US (American Sign Language).

So I hope this helps you all see my personal vision on all
this...That is why I suggested before, that once the SSS-US is
finalized, we could start Unicode just for the SSS-US first, and that
at least would give the world some Unicode for SignWriting, even
though it is not the entire IMWA in Unicode...

Val ;-)
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