Names of signed languages

[Victor Brown]

Hello All,

Sorry, I don't know about the Japanese acronyms. I have a friend I'll
contact and ask him. He's pretty good with email, so I should have an answer
in a day or two.

I too attended TISLR. As for the Netherlands, I noticed how consistent the
speakers were with the use of NGT; even when speaking English for a
presentation. Meaning that in the same sentence the speaker would say,
"...the Sign Language of the Netherlands....", then use the acronym, "....as
in NGT". I didn't ask about how it is used in their Sign.

If I recall, the Israeli presenter used ISL. But, we should find out if the
use was in an ENglish context or if it is a true romanized transcription of
Hebrew.

This follows Adams observation that more and more the local acronyms be
used; and that it lessens ambiguity by trying to use one language (English).

One other observation while I was at TISLR, and from my little experience
with Thai and Taiwan Sign, that the use of the acronym is a
"hearing/speaker" thing. Now, I haven't been exposed to say BSL, or LSF.
But, it seems to me that ASL is one of the few that actually use the
fingerspelled version of the acronym, A-S-L, to identify the language one
knows. (I heard the same kinds of comments from some of the European singers
at TISLR. Actually they were commenting on how much the Americans use
fingerspelling.)

In Thailand, fingerspelling is not very prevalent. When you "ask" about
language use or ability, more often than any thing else, the hands are
"waved" front-center, glossed as SIGN. When there is a potential for knowing
more than one Sign, say when a deaf foreigner is visiting, the country or
city name is used and SIGN is left out.

When I asked (a deaf person), "What is the name of what you communicate
with?" the answers were usually one or the other, but not together; SIGN, or
THAI.

This brings me to a question of my own on "naming".
I'll continue with Thai for a moment. And this applies to other places as
well if I've understood input correctly from those I've asked. In English we
say Sign and in ASL there is a sign, SIGN. And a sign, LANGUAGE. But in Thai
the hearing people call the language, phaa-sa mue, [language (of the) hands]
free translation into English as [manual language]. This is the newer name
from "the mutes language". Similarly in Mandarin Chinese usage in Taiwan,
"Sho Yu", [hand/manual language].

But, in Thai Sign, there isn't a sign for "language". This by the way is a
bit of evidence that it is not "part of" spoken Thai. As in ASL, the country
name sign is used, but in context it isn't the country, it is the "name" of
the language you speak. To be clear here, I am from AMERICA(noun-country)
and speak(hearing person), ENGLAND(noun-langauge name). But, a sign meaning
"language" is not in the signed sentence. In spoken Thai the word "paasa"
[language] is obligatory, "paasa thai", "paasa angkrit", but never "thai",
or "angkrit" [England/English].

Now, I'm going to make a few comments here purely to brainstorm. Solely a
few of my observations. I am not speaking here as an authority on Thai,
Spanish, English, etc. Theses are things I've noticed with the interaction
between 1) a nation's spoken language, 2) the nation's signed language(s),
and 3) our use of English on an international level.

In English and several other "European" languages the word, "sign", is
closely related to "symbol". They have similar roots. This could also be
true in some non-european languages, I don't know. But in spoken Thai, a
symbol is only that. There is no metaphor or related word to use like is
done in English, French, Spanish....

If we are going to use English to describe Thai and others, it would be more
accurate to say the Thai Sign (from the Deaf), and the acronym would me more
accurate as ST(follows signed order) or PMT(from spoken Thai). This is
similar to the Spanish, LSE. These are romanized transcriptions in the
original word order. (Thai has it's own script).

Now there is a bit of word order shifting. And this is a second thing. At
times, the acronym and the way we say it in English don't "line up". The
Netherlands for example. This is because the Noun Phrases are not the same
Adj-Noun vs Noun-Adj. So, I'm not so concerned that the acronym match the
way it is said, as in that we don't introduce an acronym for a country that
isn't used in that country.

Now, I realize that there are exceptions to the use of acronyms and the Noun
Phrase. NAD for example, or the UN acronyms are not shifted around in
different countries. This maintains a relation, builds unity and lessens
confusion internationally.

I'll leave it here and get back to you on Japanese.

Later,
Victor Brown
Phoenix, Arizona
USA