<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="2">Dear SWList members,<BR>
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Valery suggested that I should make use of the fact that I am having problems receiving messages from the list to try whether I can post to the list --- and to introduce myself to all of you. <BR>
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My name is Manfred Sailer. I am a 35 year old hearing linguist at the university of Tuebingen, Southern Germany (formal syntax and semantics, computational linguistics). I started learning German Sign Language (DGS) in October 2002 - just for fun and because I thought it would be good for a linguist to know a sign language. After looking around for writing systems for DGS a while, I decided that it would be worth the effort to learn SignWriting., because it looked like a system which is really actively used. … and there is so much great material which makes it easy to get started! Material about the system in general and, especially for DGS, Stefan Woehrmann's site. I was really amazed how easy it was to get the basics of the system and to carry on from that - thanks to Valery's fantastic course book and to Stefan's huge DGS dictionary for sw dos! <BR>
At the moment I am mainly using SignWriting to write down vocabulary I learn in my DGS classes. It's a lot of fun to learn this beautiful language and to be able to write it down! <BR>
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I have been on the SWList for quite a while by now (since November 03) and have followed the contributions with great interest. Since I am not working on sign languages, I don't have much to contribute myself, though. Still, I wanted to use the occasion to say that I am deeply impressed by all the work on SignWriting and by the supportive and cooperative community!<BR>
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Manfred.<BR>
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PS: isn't it funny: before I decided to become a linguist, I had been trained in classical ballet for more than 10 years (which also included a basic introduction to the Benesh dance notation system). So I can really appreciate all aspects of the Sutton writing systems!<BR>
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