written language as first language?

[Nancy Frishberg]

Michael,

I'm replying to the list - and copying Tom Field who is not a
subscriber to SLLING-L - to clarify this discussion.

I would not be surprised to find many people with CP or similar
disorders for whom Blissymbolics is their first (and primary)
symbolic expression.  Is it also their first (and primary) linguistic
input method?  Or are these hearing people who have been exposed to
spoken language extensively before finding an appropriate expressive
mode?

And do we believe that Blissymbolics is a language?

>The answer is YES: Blissymbolics is L1 to a great many non-speaking
>persons. These users typically have cerebral palsy and related disorders.
>
>Ar 10:11 -0400 2000-08-08, scríobh Mark Mandel:
>>>From LINGUIST List #11-1696
>>
>>**** Please reply to the poster, NOT to me. ****
>>
>>      ==============================
>>Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 12:56:54 -0400
>  >From: Thomas T. Field <tfield at umbc.edu>
>>Subject: The Possibility of L1 Being a Written Language
>>
>>
>>Does anyone know of an individual whose L1 [= first language]
>>might have been some
>>written form of language? It seems to me that there may have been
>>profoundly deaf people whose primary linguistic input was writing
>>(whose caregivers might have begun by creating an elaborate set of
>>flashcards, for example).
>>
>>Tom Field
>>
>>-
>>
>>***************
>>Thomas Field
>>Center for the Humanities
>>University of Maryland Baltimore County
>>Baltimore, MD 21250
>>
>>Tel. 410-455-6798     Fax. 410-455-1063
>
>
>Michael Everson  **  Everson Gunn Teoranta  **   http://www.egt.ie
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--
Nancy Frishberg  +1 650.654.1948  nancyf at fishbird.com