<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">SignWriting List<DIV>August 18, 2005</DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Aug 16, 2005, at 11:01 PM, eyasu tamene wrote:<FONT face="comic sans ms" color="#bf00bf"><STRONG style="color: rgb(191, 0, 191); font-family: comic sans ms; font-weight: bold; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(191, 0, 191); font-family: comic sans ms; font-weight: bold; "></SPAN></STRONG></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="comic sans ms" color="#bf00bf"><STRONG style="color: rgb(191, 0, 191); font-family: comic sans ms; font-weight: bold; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(191, 0, 191); font-family: comic sans ms; font-weight: bold; ">Dearest Val, all</SPAN></STRONG></FONT></DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Geneva; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><P><FONT face="comic sans ms" color="#bf00bf"><STRONG style="color: rgb(191, 0, 191); font-family: comic sans ms; font-weight: bold; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(191, 0, 191); font-family: comic sans ms; font-weight: bold; ">I am curius to know new things I think that is way I became interested in SW. As to my knowledge Hearing impaired people are using the hearing ones. They don't have their own writing system. Haven't you every defended saying what if , if they continue using the existing writing system? What big challenge of the hearing impaired people was resolved as a result of Sign Writing? Weren't they comfortable, is it a question of equality....? I would be happy if Val of any one in the list become interested in Sign Writing to tell me why you became interested.</SPAN></STRONG></FONT></P></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><DIV>----------------------</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Hello Eyasu and Everyone!</DIV><DIV>Great to see all the answers you have received from other List members! From the moment I saw my first Danish Sign Language videotape at the University of Copenhagen in 1974, I believed that Danish Sign Language, and other Sign Languages, are languages that deserve to be preserved and written, as all languages deserve...Languages are preserved for future generations, if you read and write them. And for those who use the language daily, it gives another form of expression without changing their language...only enhancing it...But I was pretty much alone in that belief, back in 1974...including the Sign Language researchers I was working with...they were against writing it too..But years later, when I returned to Copenhagen, and by that time, SignWriting was being used...those same researchers told me in a public speech, that they were glad signed languages can now be written languages...so that was a good feeling for me...I am glad I didn't give up back then!</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>So it has been 30 years with controversy at times, but also a great feeling of joy and accomplishment too...the controversy is healthy...it means people are thinking about social change...it is a new way to think...that Sign Languages are written languages too...That places written Sign Language literature, on the same shelf with written English or Amharic literature or any spoken language literature...and that is a new idea for a lot of people...It shifts the power so that both Deaf and non-deaf cultures are equal on library shelves...</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Here are some pages to read...</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>History of SignWriting</DIV><DIV><A href="http://www.signwriting.org/library/history/">http://www.signwriting.org/library/history/</A></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Valerie Sutton homepage</DIV><DIV><A href="http://www.valeriesutton.org">http://www.valeriesutton.org</A>/</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Questions about SignWriting</DIV><DIV><A href="http://www.signwriting.org/about/questions/quest0003.html">http://www.signwriting.org/about/questions/quest0003.html</A></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></DIV><BR><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Geneva; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Geneva; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>Val ;-)</DIV><DIV><BR></DIV><DIV>Valerie Sutton</DIV><DIV><A href="mailto:Sutton@SignWriting.org">Sutton@SignWriting.org</A></DIV><DIV><BR></DIV><DIV>1. SignWritingSite</DIV><DIV><A href="http://www.SignWriting.org">http://www.SignWriting.org</A></DIV><DIV>Read & Write Sign Languages</DIV><DIV><BR></DIV><DIV>2. SignBankSite</DIV><DIV><A href="http://www.SignBank.org">http://www.SignBank.org</A></DIV><DIV>Sign Language Dictionaries</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>