SLLING-L Digest - 5 Feb 1999 to 6 Feb 1999

[Cecelia Smith]

Just a bit of an observation here....

When I (a hearing person) say the words "Sign Language"  I say them as a
compound, as a single unit, much the same way that I say "White House"  -- it
really is not two words anymore.  It is simply the name of the language.  When
watching American Deaf people say they ASL, or if they say "SIGN-LANGUAGE" I
note that they are actually using a compound of the two signs.. not two
separate signs.

That is, in my opinion,  because the name of the language is American Sign
Language...  the fact that the word Language is part of the name is just an
aspect of this culture.

The word or sign for Language may not be part of the name for other languages.
In the example you gave, many hearing languages do not use the word for
language to describe what they are.. English being a prime example.   However,
if I just use the word English, out of context, then it is not clear if I am
talking about the language or the people.   Within the context of a sentence
"I speak English"  the role of the word English is made clear.  In the example
you gave of spoken Thai, where the term language is required, that is, to my
way of thinking, simply the rules of the culture/langauge  for how a language
is identified.

Now (on very shaky ground here)  I believe that there are some Native American
tribes whose name-word for what they speak, when translated into English, is
"Language"    If that is true, then there is some basis in the spoken language
realm for the use of the term that means language in the name for the
language.  (I am thinking of the Navaho, whose word for themselves  means The
People and doesn't sound anything at all like the English word Navaho).

Anyway.. that's just my two cents... hope it makes sense.

Cecelia Smith  (hearing)
Washington DC, USA


In a message dated 2/6/99 11:58:21 AM Eastern Standard Time,
LISTSERV at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA writes:

>
>  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].