In-Between Palm Facings...create your own

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
December 4, 2007

On Dec 4, 2007, at 6:39 AM, Honza wrote:
> sure it was helful, just one think, that we cannot use "heal  
> facing" because we need different hanshape.
> But I gues we will be able to do it in this way (you just  
> described) using small lines
> thanks Honza


Sure. All signed languages have in-between palm facings, which  
creates the 10 palm facings...

But we have found that it is not necessary to write the in-between  
except in some rare cases such as BOAT, a BOOK that is partially- 
open, a certain kind of ROOF top etc...and those are related to the  
Flat Hand, and can use the Heel of Hand...

When you add the dark lines to make a palm facing three-quarters  
dark, or three-quarters white, the detail is not always read by the  
reader anyway...because it seems, as far as we can tell, that the 6  
palm facings are enough to give the reader the information they need  
to read a document on a daily basis...

And this is not just in ASL or DSL (Danish Sign Language) but true  
for all signed languages...it is related to the human body, and how  
much detail the eye picks up while reading Sign Language Literature...

A signer who knows the signed language already, can read it  
properly...they just "assume the knowledge" that it means "in- 
between" because they know the sign already...

Just like when I moved to Denmark...I Iearned that when I read an "r"  
in the Danish language, the symbol "r" represented a different sound  
than when I read a word with the "r" in English...but no one changed  
the "r" symbol in the Roman Alphabet in daily writing...instead they  
assumed that the reader of Danish would know that the sound for "r"  
is different than the sound for "r" in another language like English...

Those kinds of assumptions happen everyday in everyday-writing and  
are necessary to keep the alphabet smaller...

So I hope you will write with 6 palm facings whenever possible...

If you want to show us some signs with photos or video clips, we can  
write them together if you wish -

Val ;-)



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