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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><FONT face=Verdana
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><FONT face=Verdana
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><FONT face=Verdana size=3>For these
questions there is a site <A href="http://www.ethnologue.com/"><FONT face=Arial
size=2>http://www.ethnologue.com/</FONT></A> where we can find many
informations about languages (spoken and signed) in the
world. </FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><FONT face=Verdana size=3>Just for
information there are more than 6000 languages in the world ant only about
300/400 of them have a written form. </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><FONT face=Verdana size=3>It's
important inform teachers who work with deaf children. </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><FONT face=Verdana size=3>Best
regards, </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><FONT face=Verdana size=3>Ivani
Fusellier-Souza </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><FONT face=Verdana
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><FONT face=Verdana
size=3>xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<BR>IVANI
FUSELLIER SOUZA<BR>Université de Paris 8 <BR>SAT- Sciences du Langage<BR>02, rue
de la Liberté, 93526 - Saint-Denis - CEDEX<BR>Adresse personnelle: 97, Bd Soult
- 75012 - Paris<BR>Tel: 01 43 41 38 51<BR>Portable: 06 61 53 70 66<BR>Mails: <A
href="mailto:ivani.fusellier@wanadoo.fr">ivani.fusellier@wanadoo.fr</A> et <A
href="mailto:ifuselli@hotmail.com">ifuselli@hotmail.com</A>Do you have
statistics that show how many world languages<BR>>> have no written
form? </FONT><BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><A
href="http://www.ethnologue.com/">http://www.ethnologue.com/</A></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=adaamen@OPTUSNET.COM.AU href="mailto:adaamen@OPTUSNET.COM.AU">Antony
Daamen</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=SW-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
href="mailto:SW-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA">SW-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, July 08, 2003 8:04
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> when is a language a
language?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
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<DIV>08/07/03</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Hi Polly,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>one point of Defence you could use, is the fact that Auslan
(Australian Sign Language) is recognised as a language. ASL is
older then Auslan, so that must also be a language!!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Antony<BR> </DIV>
<DIV id=IncrediOriginalMessage><I>-------Original
Message-------</I></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV id=receivestrings>
<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>From:</B></I> <A
href="mailto:SW-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA">SignWriting List</A></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>Date:</B></I> Tuesday, July
08, 2003 14:14:41</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>To:</B></I> <A
href="mailto:SW-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA">SW-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA</A></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>Subject:</B></I> Re: Looking
for an article for my students</DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>>> Hi,<BR>>> I am a hearing teacher who
teaches ASL at Kentwood High School in<BR>>> Washington
state. I am tired of defending the fact that ASL is a<BR>>>
language. Do you have statistics that show how many world
languages<BR>>> have no written
form? <BR><BR>Polly,<BR><BR>How about English? Oh, sure, today we
write English. But, was that always<BR>the case?<BR><BR>In medieval
times, most people were quite illiterate, so that never stopped<BR>any
of them from talking. Still, English back then was written from time
to<BR>time.<BR><BR>We know that at some point, English was written using
runes, a system<BR>imported from the Scandinavian countries in the 5th
century AD (according to<BR>my Encylopaedia Britannica.) That's around
the time that the Anglo-Saxons<BR>conquered England. But, very few
examples of written Old English (beyond<BR>family names) exist today. In
time, the writing system shifted over to the<BR>Latin alphabet, with
some modifications. While there seems to have been<BR>some level of
literature in Northumbria by the time of the Viking invasions<BR>in the
800's, it is not clear to me that there was much of anything in
terms<BR>of literature back in the fifth century. Therefore, you might
be looking at<BR>a couple of hundred years of language evolution (from
other languages, no<BR>less) before any "literature"
appeared.<BR><BR>The first writing in the phonetic coding sense, as I
understand it, was<BR>developed by the Sumerians to replace a pictorial
system. I think it fair<BR>to say, then, that the Sumerians were already
talking before they developed<BR>their orthographic system.<BR><BR>Then
there are all those neolithic cultures not only way back when,
but<BR>continuing to this present day. Do Amazonian rain forest tribes
have a<BR>written system?<BR><BR>Polly, any spoken language can be
represented by a phonetic coding system,<BR>regardless of whether or not
the actual speakers are familiar with the<BR>writing code. We can use
the Roman alphabet to capture most of Chinese,<BR>even if literate
Chinese use an entirely different system.<BR><BR>Is music a language?
Decidedly not, but it can be recorded through a<BR>notational system.
So, the fact that you can write it does not make it
a<BR>language.<BR><BR>And, the fact that a speaker is not able to write
his language does not mean<BR>that you can't write his
language.<BR><BR>Therefore, the ability of SignWriting to record ASL
does not demonstrate<BR>whether or not ASL is a language (as opposed to
some kind of less<BR>sophisticated communication system.) Rather, the
test is whether ASL is<BR>rule governed with the richness, complexity
and flexibility that<BR>characterizes other human languages (spoken or
signed.) On that score, the<BR>literature is extensive.<BR><BR>The
confusion, I think, comes from two sources: 1) Many hearing
educators<BR>foist a signed version of English on Deaf people, and
therefore, with some<BR>accuracy, argue that sign language is not a
distinct language. However, we<BR>ought not to confuse ASL with Signed
English. 2) Many "scholars" who should<BR>know better are too quick to
label communication systems (chimp signing,<BR>wolf howling, even
home-signs) as "languages". So, cut to the chase. Is<BR>ASL as rich and
diverse and rule-dominated as, say, English? Is it<BR>acceptable to use
a prepositional phrase, but somehow a mark of inferior<BR>thinking to
use a locative verb instead?<BR><BR>Back in the days when racial
prejudice affected Western society linguistic<BR>analysis, similar
questions were raised about certain creole languages. So,<BR>it's the
same old battle -- just the actors have changed.<BR><BR>-- James
Shepard-Kel <BR>. </TD></TR>
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