Names of signed languages

[Daisuke Sasaki]

At 7:51 PM -0800 99.2.3, Adam Schembri wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> In a recent paper (I think by Susan Fischer at the most recent TISLR), I
> saw "NS" used as an abbreviation for Japanese Sign Language: does anyone
> know if that stands for "Nihon Shuwa", or "Nihongo Shuwa"?

NS, which has been used by Susan and Dr. Yutaka Osugi,
stands for "Nihon Shuwa."  (But, phonemically, syuwa might
be more accurate, and Dr. Osugi uses syuwa.)  The word
"nihon-go" literally means Japanese language, so this is not
correct at all, because, as we know, a sign language in an
area is completely different from a spoken language in the
same area.

At 0:00 AM -0800 99.2.5, Dan I. SLOBIN wrote:
> Sign Language of the Netherlands has been referred to in English
> publications as "SLN" for a very long time, and I'd recommend keeping it
> in that form, so as to facilitate access to publications on SLN.  If you
> decided to change to "NGT" (Nederlandse Gebarentaal), then you'd have to
> create an acronym for each sign language using the spoken/written
> language of the country in which it is used.  We don't refer to
> "Nederlands" in English, but to "Dutch"; I suggest that the practice of
> referring to foreign languages with an English designation be continued
> for publications in English.

When I first encountered NS, I couldn't understand what NS
stands for.  (You can say I am stupid :-p .)  I asked Susan
about it, and finally I could understand her intention.  But,
basically, I agree with Dr. Slobin.  Only the exception to
me is DGS, since it seems to me that DGS had been used
widely before GSL became popular.

In this field of research, SL and LS are so widely used, and,
by adding some letter before or after them, like BSL, LSQ,
LSF, and so on, we can almost guess which sign language is
discussed.  J might stand for Java or Jamaica or another
country/area, but we could guess that JSL may be sign
language used in one of the countries.

Cheers,


Daisuke

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Daisuke Sasaki    mailto:daisuke at mail.com    http://www.daisuke.com/
Doctoral Student of Linguistics, The University of Texas at Austin
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